What is Somi Apparel?
Somi Apparel is sustainable, multifunctional and modern underwear made for lounge, gym and swim. It’s underwear made for everywhere and everyone- thats right, they have styles for men too! Pack lighter, never forget your swimsuit again, and do way more with way less!
Disclaimer: This article contains an affiliate link. This means if you make a purchase, I may get a small percentage of the sale price (at no extra cost to you). As always, I only recommend brands that I love!
How it started…
Lana grew up in Westchester, NY, and spent her teenage years selling her handmade clothes and accessories online. She went on to Harvard for her undergrad degree and studied Social Anthropology with a minor in Computer Science.
After school, she stayed in Boston for several years, freelancing as a designer and also working at an e-commerce software company. It wasn’t long before she took the leap into full-time entrepreneurship afterward.
Lana met her co-founder Alysia in 2019. Alysia noticed customers were wearing her underwear designs as swimwear and Lana was immediately hooked on the multi purpose idea. Since she traveled a lot, Lana often found herself opting to wearing her underwear on the beach (instead of swimwear) and worried she looked like a total weirdo!
Lana had always loved multifunctional pieces and minimalist designs, so she jumped on the chance to work on products she had a natural passion for. The more she researched the fashion industry and thought about the concept, the more she felt compelled to work on the business. She relaunched the company during the start of the pandemic on Kickstarter with the multipurpose philosophy.
How Somi is made…
The products are made in partnership with a small, woman-owned business in China. Lana works directly with Sabrina, the owner, on getting each style ready for production. They use a proprietary fabric called “Sustainluxe” from a fabric mill experienced with creating recycled fabrics. The workers are paid fairly per piece and control their own output so they can create work-life balance.
The Ultimate Goal…
This journey taught Lana that entrepreneurship is incredibly hard. It’s a major balancing act and she has to “wear many hats” in order to make everything come together. Lana is most proud of Somi’s unique viewpoint on sustainability. She feels the improvements on product designs they’ve made, based on real customers feedback, is something that sets them apart from others brands out there too.
Lana believes that in the grand scheme of things, it’s the very production process of apparel, whether done sustainably or not, that’s the core issue. She find this fact incredibly empowering. Essentially, it puts the power back into the hands of the consumer.
The more we buy preowned and wear existing pieces more often, the less demand and waste is created. However, Lana fully recognizes you can’t (nor should you) buy used underwear. So, for her it made the most sense to focus on underwear as Somi’s main category.
Through Somi Apparel Lana and Alysia hope to create a broader view of sustainability, that goes beyond recycling and focuses more on reducing and reusing.
Shop the full collection at SomiApparel.com
Use code: ERIN for 10% off
and be sure to follow them on instagram @somiapparel
If you like sustainable clothing, you’ll love WVN Organic too!
Until next time,
Erin-Elizabeth
xoxo
