New Zealand Founder Of Absorbent Lingerie Brand Wicks Intimates On Creating ‘The Product I’ve Always Wanted’

Lisa Taylor’s Wicks Intimates an ‘elevated’ take on period, postpartum and everyday wear.

The first time Lisa Taylor tried period underwear, it made her feel “horrible”, she says.

A New Zealander now based in Melbourne, Taylor was on maternity leave at the time and experiencing postpartum bleeding, which can last for up to eight weeks after giving birth.

“You need to manage that as well as a healing body, and this whole new world and whole new you,” Taylor says.

“I couldn’t quite face weeks and weeks and weeks of having a period that long, and all the waste – I just wanted to try something new, and so I tried period underwear for the first time.”

However, her experience was “not great”.

“They were ugly, they cut in, they made you feel horrible,” she recalls.

Now, she’s launched her own line of elastic-free absorbent lingerie, Wicks Intimates – something she needed in those early days and weeks after giving birth.

Originally from Auckland, Taylor worked in New Zealand media before moving to Australia to work in PR. The idea for Wicks Intimates came when she realised there were few, if any, options for absorbent undergarments that still felt like luxury wear.

“There’s such a clear gap for something that is elevated and a bit more sophisticated in that space,” she says.

“The period underwear industry is really just servicing younger bodies, and there’s a dearth of options for 30-plus women from postpartum onwards.

“Further than that, there are literally none that are designed for light bladder leaks.”

Commonly experienced by women during pregnancy and after giving birth, light bladder leaks occur when the pelvic floor muscles are weakened and can become more prevalent with age. They can be triggered by coughing, sneezing, laughing or physical activity, or caused by more serious medical conditions.

“It’s just so prolific and yet there is nothing servicing those women. So I wanted to design something that is more sophisticated, skewing older – not that younger people can’t wear them, they’re just a bit more of a sophisticated option,” she says.

As implied by the brand’s name, Taylor’s designs are moisture-wicking as well as antimicrobial and odour-resistant, while the term “intimates” is associated with lingerie rather than purely practical period underwear.

“What’s currently out there in terms of period underwear feels like it’s an extension of pads and tampons, so I wanted to create a brand that feels like it’s an extension of lingerie,” she says.

“It’s for women from all stages of life and it’s for women that just want something nicer.”

She’s created pieces with different levels of absorbency to suit a range of preferences and needs.

“To be honest, the look and feel between a high absorbency one and a moderately absorbent one is much of a muchness – they feel pretty much the same, they look pretty much the same, it’s just the function of it.”

The lowest absorbency range is the All Day Fresh range, designed for everyday wear.

“Even when you don’t need a waterproof layer, you just kind of want to stay fresh. Maybe you might be ovulating, maybe it’s a hot day, and so it’s just got one layer of absorbency, but they’re normal underwear.

“This is the product I’ve always wanted and surely I’m not the only one. My whole life, I feel like I’ve just been really annoyed with the lingerie industry,” she laughs.

“It’s just so uncomfortable and historically it’s really not been about the wearer, it’s been about the male gaze.

“And I just want to make something that is truly for us. It’s for the wearer, it’s comfortable. They look beautiful, so you feel nice.”

The products are made ethically in Sri Lanka from OEKO-TEX and GOTS certified fabrics, something that was an “important” part of the process for Taylor.

“I think that every business should be operating like this, and I don’t think that we deserve a medal. It just should be standard, this is how we operate.”

As for the designs themselves, Taylor says she’s drawn inspiration from her home country of Aotearoa, while her pattern-maker is fellow New Zealander Ella Sarjant.

“There’s a real New Zealand aesthetic... with Wicks there’s an understated elegance, and I feel like I’ve pulled that from the New Zealand ethos,” she says.

“Just the Kiwi way of being is going to inevitably inform my design and then that refined practicality of us Kiwis comes through.”

It’s early days for the brand, but Taylor says the feedback from customers so far has been “humbling”.

“It’s been really, really nice – everyone’s talking about the soft fabric, and the people 30-plus are saying, ‘Thank you for creating something that speaks to us’.”

What’s next for Wicks?

“Continuously evolving, slow, deliberate growth. I’d love to try out fabric innovations as well. Apparently, mushroom fabric is a thing – I’d love to try that. I don’t know if it’s absorbent,” she notes.

“There’s another Kiwi thing, the innovation. That’s us.”

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