who’s comfortable in her skin and having a good time. Whether the model is posing with a pair of googly eyes, sitting in front of her computer giving herself a manicure, or taking a nap with a bra as her sleep mask, a young girl can see herself in Harper Wilde. She can laugh with the model who’s using a bra slingshot and feel empowered to do the same. But Jane and Jenna are focused on empowering women in all aspects of Harper Wilde, not just through their promotional photos. Starting with their supply chain and ending with every last one of their customers, their “Lift Up the Ladies” initiative supports women in every way possible. “Customers are becoming more savvy and intentional about the brands they buy from— understanding who’s behind the brand and what the brands actually stands for,” says Jane. For Jane and Jenna, success isn’t solely about selling a “shit-ton of bras.” It’s about “something bigger than just selling bras every day. It’s about empowering the women in our lives—our friends, our family, our colleagues—who are these badass women who are wearing really shitty bras.” Fundamental to the company’s core values is the desire to not only physically support the current generation of women, but also to lift up the next generation of leading women as well. In partnership with The Girl Project, Glamour Magazine’s social impact initiative, Harper Wilde helps provide girls in over 100 different countries with access to education. In terms of supply chain, their factory helps its female workers become financially independent with their program Go Beyond. Jenna and Jane pride themselves on maintaining a com- pany that’s entirely values-driven— they know that only with an un- moving, core set of beliefs can their company be successful. They also know that being a strong, female-led company root- ed in the right set of values with a focus on women’s empowerment
means nothing if not every woman can benefit from it. “It breaks my heart every time I see a customer comment that we don’t serve them yet and they wish they could buy our bras. [So] one challenge that we’re starting to work through now is how we [can be] an inclusive brand, and really stand for that, when bra sizes have almost an exponential sizing chart because of all the permutations of brands and cups. It just goes on forever,” says Jane. From waking up at 5 a.m. for fittings and working a six-person company around the clock to meet the needs of their customers, making sure they create bras for everyone is a big challenge. “It’s a big, ambitious goal. But when we talk about being values-driven, it’s the right one.” Countless aspects and features need to be taken into account when designing bras for as many sizes as possible; sacrificing quality and fit just to get a bra out there quickly isn’t what Harper Wilde is about. “Some people think we’re just choosing not to make them and
all sizes takes time.
We’re living in a world where inclusivity has become the top priority, and movements around body confidence are stronger than ever. But the rise of #FreeTheNipple and the acceptance of bralessness might not be as inclusive as they seem. There are certain instances where women can get away with going braless, but there are certain body types that just can’t (and it’s not for lack of trying). “Some women are smaller-chested and have the luxury of not needing, out of true necessity, the support of a bra. But a lot of women really do need the support and it’s not even an option for them,” says Jane. Unfortunately, the people currently running the bra industry don’t have the capacity to truly understand this need, or a woman’s complex love-hate relationship with her bra—and that’s because they’re almost all men. “When I pitch our company to men, their eyes glaze over. When I explain, ‘There are front adjustable straps that become racerbacks that sit flat against your back,’ they’re like, ‘What?’ But, I get it. Why should they know how front-adjustable straps can change their life? They’ve never had to deal with that,” says Jane. But every woman has. Every woman can relate to the experience of contorting her body to adjust her straps, and a select few have even had the pleasure of pulling a muscle in the process. Many know the feeling of underwire cutting into their skin and a too-tight bra crushing their chest, which are two things most men can’t say they’ve endured. But even though top-tier male investors didn’t get it on a personal level, Jane and Jenna were determined to make them understand in any way they could. To get the fundraising they needed to take the brand from a business school dream to a viable company, the two had to put bra shopping in men’s terms: What if boxer shopping was the same as bra shopping? “We started to say, ‘Okay, well, what if you had to get yourself measured to fit exactly into your
It turns out the perfect foil to the stone-cold seriousness and hypersexuality of today’s bra advertisements is humor.
not to sell [bigger sizes]. But it’s just that it takes some time and some money. We’re a small company...this is a huge priority for us, we’re working on it right now and we’re trying to get it out [to our customers] as quickly as we can, but we want to make sure it’s done right,” says Jane. Changing an industry that has historically not catered to the needs of women of
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