Lisa Mullan and Natalia Martorell wanted to produce women’s underwear that was as comfortable as they were beautiful, so they partnered up to launch Uwila Warrior — the brand’s logo is an owl, which translates to “uwila” in German.
“We saw a void in the women’s underwear market. You could buy museum quality lingerie, but you couldn’t wear it during the day. And then you could buy shapewear, but when you got a glimpse of yourself in the mirror it’s not so cute,” Martorell said. “You could also wear a thong, but many of the laser cut and seamless options are very utilitarian. We wanted to create a line that was fun and had a sense of humor.”
The collection, which launched in November, consists of two silhouettes of underwear made from either silk or jersey. The underwear is wedgie-free and seamless, which the founders say prevents panty lines. They come in either bold colors with Italian lace trimming or neutral colors with kitschy statements including “Cranky Pants” and “Hot Mess.” The line retails from $42 to $65 and is sold on the Uwila Warrior e-commerce site.
Mullan and Martorell met while in college. Mullan worked in e-commerce while Martorell spent 15 years at Marc Jacobs helping grow the Marc by Marc brand, which shut down last year. Mullan created the idea and then brought on Martorell to lend her manufacturing know-how to the company. For now the focus is on underwear — they will launch bridal pieces for 2017 — but Mullan said the goal is to expand into other categories. They also want to keep the line direct to consumer.
“We are trying to build this business and create a relationship with our customer. We want to be her default source for her most personal purchases,” Mullan said. “Most women don’t wear 75 percent of their underwear. We are trying to simplify this for them.”