The Instagram page for a new lingerie company features no snapshots of size-00 models in sexualized poses.
Instead, the pictures show lacy bralettes adorning the bodies of women of varying sizes (from petite to much curvier), ages (the owner’s 74-year-old grandmother models one) and demographics (tattoo wearers, mothers, sweatpants aficionados).
And their relationship status matters little, said Abigail Slone, 23, owner and founder of Willow Layne Lingerie, an online boutique she runs out of her parents’ home in Powell.
“I want to legitimize buying something pretty — something sexy — because you’re worth it,” Slone said. “You don’t need a partner to validate buying something pretty.
“A huge part of my brand is promoting mental health and body positivity.”
Currently, the website is stocked primarily with bralettes bought wholesale from other American designers — “They’re lingerie that are more like everyday wear,” Slone says — but she plans to introduce her own designs by March.
She wants to create her own looks, she said, to be more “ethically conscious” than wholesale purchasing allows. Although she acknowledged that the term gets thrown around a lot, she prefers the descriptor because it suits the high-quality fabrics she plans to use (they’re made in upstate New York from recycled bamboo leaves) and the fair wages paid to her manufacturer’s workers in San Francisco.
Perhaps more important, though: The concept works well with her hope to use the company as a social platform.
Slone, a former ballerina who dreamed of one day dancing with a major ballet company, has battled anorexia, orthorexia (an obsession with eating healthy) and anxiety.
“I’ve seen firsthand how it was normal for girls to be throwing up in the bathroom,” she said.
When a herniated disc at age 16 “shattered” her dream and compelled her to re-evaluate her career choice, Slone — who was home-schooled — opted to pursue a psychology degree at Ohio State University. While in college, she returned to ballet, participating in performances with Seven Dance Company in Lewis Center.
A second herniated disc in October 2016, however, sidelined her from ballet again — and more.
She had to turn down a job offer in Washington, D.C., as a researcher, she said, because she couldn’t sit for eight hours a day at a desk. In fact, she still struggles to sit longer than an hour at a time, despite having tried many treatments — even driving as far as Canada for medical relief — for a condition diagnosed as degenerative disc disorder.
“I basically have the back of a 70-year-old,” Slone said. “I had to move back home — because I couldn’t get a job — and have my parents take care of me. I got depressed. It was a rough summer.”
Seeing their only child so defeated wasn’t easy for Wayne and Rita Slone.
“She was in so much pain,” her mother said. “It was probably the darkest time physically that she’s gone through, and she was feeling so low. But a door kind of shut, and another one opened.”
In early August of this year, as she sat watching “The Office,” something clicked with Abigail.
The third-season episode “Women’s Appreciation Day” featured several of the female characters buying lingerie. Pam, the beloved secretary, mentioned that she doesn’t need lingerie, because she isn’t in a relationship.
“I was single at the time — I still am — and I thought it was so sad that she said that,” Slone said.
The entrepreneurial wheels in her head began turning.
Given the number of “businesses” that her daughter started as a child — It’s a Wrap gift-wrapping, for example, and Dream To Dance dance center — Rita Slone wasn’t surprised to hear about Willow Layne.
“She has ideas out the bazooka,” Rita Slone said. “She would go to bed with a notebook. She’s a visionary.”
The idea of lingerie didn’t surprise her parents, either, as Abigail Slone has always loved the backs of ballet leotards — the only part of the garment, she says, that shows personality.
Roughly three weeks later, Slone had established an LLC, created a business plan and launched the Willow Layne website and brand.
The brand, with its pretty but wearable products and their accessible nature, has already gained a following. The designs available fit bra sizes ranging from 34A to 40DDD.
When Krystell Hernandez — who models occasionally with the Columbus Editorial Society, a collaborative group of artists, models and photographers in the fashion industry — was asked to participate in a photo shoot for Willow Layne, she was surprised given her small upper body. (The Columbus Editorial Society often teams with area fashion companies on photo shoots.)
Slone assured Hernandez that her size didn’t matter.
The 26-year-old teacher living in Grandview Heights ended up buying four Willow Layne bralettes.
“They’re for everyone,
and they don’t promote
basic stereotypes,” Hernandez said. “It’s just about feeling beautiful and feeling comfortable in your own skin, which is key to this company and why I liked it so much.”
Johanna Viktoria, a mother of a 3-year-old son and wife living in Finland, said she can’t find pretty undergarments in her country that fit her larger size.
Willow Layne, which the 29-year-old discovered via Instagram, fills that void.
“I was pleasantly surprised by how well it fit,” Viktoria wrote in an email about the gray lace number she owns. “For me, it is more about feeling sexy as a woman. I am a mother, yes, but I am also a wife, a sister and a friend.
“When I feel comfortable and sexy in myself, I can be my best self in all my roles.”
Although Tiffany Esposito Mackey said she was heartbroken to learn that her former student had to give
up dance, she said the new business suits Slone well.
“I love her slogan of ’body positivity,” said Esposito Mackey, who taught Slone as a teenager at Columbus Youth Ballet Academy in Clintonville. “It’s something that is desperately needed in society.”
When the two ran into each other recently, Esposito Mackey lamented to her former pupil how she was unhappy with some recent weight gain related to medication she is taking. Her former student, she said, offered her some wisdom: “She told me I’m beautiful.”
The advice underscores what Slone is trying to do with her company.
“I think of sexiness as a level of confidence,” Slone said. “I want the pieces to be worn — not just taken off.”Read more at:http://www.marieprom.co.uk/mermaid-prom-dresses | http://www.marieprom.co.uk
Instead, the pictures show lacy bralettes adorning the bodies of women of varying sizes (from petite to much curvier), ages (the owner’s 74-year-old grandmother models one) and demographics (tattoo wearers, mothers, sweatpants aficionados).
And their relationship status matters little, said Abigail Slone, 23, owner and founder of Willow Layne Lingerie, an online boutique she runs out of her parents’ home in Powell.
“I want to legitimize buying something pretty — something sexy — because you’re worth it,” Slone said. “You don’t need a partner to validate buying something pretty.
“A huge part of my brand is promoting mental health and body positivity.”
Currently, the website is stocked primarily with bralettes bought wholesale from other American designers — “They’re lingerie that are more like everyday wear,” Slone says — but she plans to introduce her own designs by March.
She wants to create her own looks, she said, to be more “ethically conscious” than wholesale purchasing allows. Although she acknowledged that the term gets thrown around a lot, she prefers the descriptor because it suits the high-quality fabrics she plans to use (they’re made in upstate New York from recycled bamboo leaves) and the fair wages paid to her manufacturer’s workers in San Francisco.
Perhaps more important, though: The concept works well with her hope to use the company as a social platform.
Slone, a former ballerina who dreamed of one day dancing with a major ballet company, has battled anorexia, orthorexia (an obsession with eating healthy) and anxiety.
“I’ve seen firsthand how it was normal for girls to be throwing up in the bathroom,” she said.
When a herniated disc at age 16 “shattered” her dream and compelled her to re-evaluate her career choice, Slone — who was home-schooled — opted to pursue a psychology degree at Ohio State University. While in college, she returned to ballet, participating in performances with Seven Dance Company in Lewis Center.
A second herniated disc in October 2016, however, sidelined her from ballet again — and more.
She had to turn down a job offer in Washington, D.C., as a researcher, she said, because she couldn’t sit for eight hours a day at a desk. In fact, she still struggles to sit longer than an hour at a time, despite having tried many treatments — even driving as far as Canada for medical relief — for a condition diagnosed as degenerative disc disorder.
“I basically have the back of a 70-year-old,” Slone said. “I had to move back home — because I couldn’t get a job — and have my parents take care of me. I got depressed. It was a rough summer.”
Seeing their only child so defeated wasn’t easy for Wayne and Rita Slone.
“She was in so much pain,” her mother said. “It was probably the darkest time physically that she’s gone through, and she was feeling so low. But a door kind of shut, and another one opened.”
In early August of this year, as she sat watching “The Office,” something clicked with Abigail.
The third-season episode “Women’s Appreciation Day” featured several of the female characters buying lingerie. Pam, the beloved secretary, mentioned that she doesn’t need lingerie, because she isn’t in a relationship.
“I was single at the time — I still am — and I thought it was so sad that she said that,” Slone said.
The entrepreneurial wheels in her head began turning.
Given the number of “businesses” that her daughter started as a child — It’s a Wrap gift-wrapping, for example, and Dream To Dance dance center — Rita Slone wasn’t surprised to hear about Willow Layne.
“She has ideas out the bazooka,” Rita Slone said. “She would go to bed with a notebook. She’s a visionary.”
The idea of lingerie didn’t surprise her parents, either, as Abigail Slone has always loved the backs of ballet leotards — the only part of the garment, she says, that shows personality.
Roughly three weeks later, Slone had established an LLC, created a business plan and launched the Willow Layne website and brand.
The brand, with its pretty but wearable products and their accessible nature, has already gained a following. The designs available fit bra sizes ranging from 34A to 40DDD.
When Krystell Hernandez — who models occasionally with the Columbus Editorial Society, a collaborative group of artists, models and photographers in the fashion industry — was asked to participate in a photo shoot for Willow Layne, she was surprised given her small upper body. (The Columbus Editorial Society often teams with area fashion companies on photo shoots.)
Slone assured Hernandez that her size didn’t matter.
The 26-year-old teacher living in Grandview Heights ended up buying four Willow Layne bralettes.
“They’re for everyone,
and they don’t promote
basic stereotypes,” Hernandez said. “It’s just about feeling beautiful and feeling comfortable in your own skin, which is key to this company and why I liked it so much.”
Johanna Viktoria, a mother of a 3-year-old son and wife living in Finland, said she can’t find pretty undergarments in her country that fit her larger size.
Willow Layne, which the 29-year-old discovered via Instagram, fills that void.
“I was pleasantly surprised by how well it fit,” Viktoria wrote in an email about the gray lace number she owns. “For me, it is more about feeling sexy as a woman. I am a mother, yes, but I am also a wife, a sister and a friend.
“When I feel comfortable and sexy in myself, I can be my best self in all my roles.”
Although Tiffany Esposito Mackey said she was heartbroken to learn that her former student had to give
up dance, she said the new business suits Slone well.
“I love her slogan of ’body positivity,” said Esposito Mackey, who taught Slone as a teenager at Columbus Youth Ballet Academy in Clintonville. “It’s something that is desperately needed in society.”
When the two ran into each other recently, Esposito Mackey lamented to her former pupil how she was unhappy with some recent weight gain related to medication she is taking. Her former student, she said, offered her some wisdom: “She told me I’m beautiful.”
The advice underscores what Slone is trying to do with her company.
“I think of sexiness as a level of confidence,” Slone said. “I want the pieces to be worn — not just taken off.”Read more at:http://www.marieprom.co.uk/mermaid-prom-dresses | http://www.marieprom.co.uk
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