Dear Kate, the leak-free underwear line formerly known as Sexy Period started by chemical engineer Julie Sygiel, has just launched a limited edition collection of “super undies” called The League of Ladies. Like bottoms-only Underoos for adult women, they feature the illustrated faces of four pioneering females from history and are designed to help us bring out our “inner superpowers.”
They say their League of Ladies was born from “dissatisfaction with the portrayal of female superheroes and disempowering slogans on contemporary underwear.” So how do you fix that? If you’re Dear Kate, you put cartoonish portraits of extraordinary women from history – Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo, and Harriet Tubman – on a collection of underwear.
As we all know ladies, empowerment has its price, so the set of four will run you $150 – $198 or $44 – $58 per pair (ouch!). Available in sizes XS – 3X, The League of Ladies collection includes:
SuperMarie (a.k.a. Marie Curie)
SuperAmelia (a.k.a. Amelia Earhart)
SuperFrida (a.k.a. Frida Kahlo)
SuperHarriet (a.k.a. Harriet Tubman)
To show off their latest collection, Dear Kate teamed up with a four inspirational, present day women who embody the spirit of The League of Ladies’ four historical heroines. Each of these “real-life superheroes” was selected to model in the campaign because “of what she does, not only how she looks.”
From left to right: SuperAmelia a.k.a. Roxanne Fequiere – founder and editor-in-chief of Golly Magazine; SuperHarriet a.k.a. Zoe Travis, actor and playwright involved in theater for social change; SuperFrida a.k.a Jackie Zebowksi, comedic star of the web series Rare Birds of Fashion, SuperMarie a.k.a. Kelly Carnes, Science Communicator.
We love the concept of a brand celebrating female pioneers from history alongside women making their own brand of history today… it actually doesn’t get any WYSKier than that. We also applaud Dear Kate’s use of everyday women – in all shapes and sizes – as models… what a refreshing change.
But as former kids who lived through the original Underoos era, this feels a little too juvenile to be truly empowering for adult women. We think Adweek’s Roo Ciambriello put it best when she said, “I highly respect and admire Amelia Earhart, but I don’t know if I want to see her face every time I pull off a pair of jeans.”