Carmen Liu’s first lingerie fashion show in London.CreditAna Cuba for The New York Times
On a recent Thursday in London, a group of models strutted down the catwalk to “Woman’s World,” by Cher, donning matching lacy thong and bra sets, which they tastefully accented with silky robes. They were all trans women, and the line, Carmen Liu Lingerie, was full of pieces designed with them in mind.
Carmen Liu, 27, created the brand. “You see all these amazing advertisements with lingerie images and lines, but none of it is actually for us,” she said, noting that trans women, like herself, have needs that traditional lingerie doesn’t take into consideration.
Dr. Richard Santucci, 53, a senior surgeon at Crane Surgical Services, a clinic based in San Francisco and Austin, Tex., that performs gender reassignment surgery, said that only a fraction of trans women undergo bottom surgery. According to the 2015 United States Transgender Survey, 12 percent of transgender women respondents had a vaginoplasty. That means there’s a market for a functional pair of underwear that should assist with the process of tucking the genitals.
Ms. Liu’s line features an array of panties, like her “You’re Too Cute” thong, which sells for about $29 and comes in 11 colors. Her bottoms are intended for pre-surgery transgender women or those who have opted to forgo a vaginoplasty, many of whom have previously relied on supplies like medical tape.
But Ms. Liu says her GI Collection, which she designed to be “just as sexy as cisgender lingerie,” is outfitted with triple-layer fabric: “strong, yet comfortable enough to hold everything in place.”
Before, Ms. Liu relied on a gaff, which is a thong-like fabric designed to hide the genitals and create a smooth line. She refers to this as “a ghastly product — it doesn’t look very sexy and is not made with lingerie fabric.”
Others, like Laiah St. Jerry, 26, who walked in her show, have resorted to making their own apparatuses by removing the top from a pair of tights and sliding a cut sock through the elastic. “It’s a lot of work and can be quite uncomfortable,” Ms. St. Jerry said.
Trans women have an easier time with bras, but Ms. Liu said finding matching lingerie can be next to impossible. “You can buy cisgender bras in the shop, but you’d have to buy something that didn’t match for your lower half. So when you take your clothes off, straight away you are reminded that you are different.”
Ms. Liu’s collection features matching panty and bra sets. Her Satin With Lace Cup Underwire Bra (about $39) supports women just starting hormone replacement therapy all the way through the growth of a C cup. The Full Satin Underwire Bra (about $39) caters to those with implants ranging from a C to DD. Both bras have been designed to fit the often wider bust of a transgender female.
Ms. Liu touts her line as “the world’s first transgender lingerie brand,” but there are other boutique sellers on the market offering undergarments friendly to trans and nonbinary people.
Underwear for All
Origami Customs, based in Montreal, has a line of compression gaffs custom-made from a double-lined power mesh in sizes XXS to 5XL. They range from $28 to $55 and take two to four weeks to make. The brand also formulates bras to any band/cup combination and creates bra inserts for all breast stages.
“No piece is designed for any one idea of what a body or gender should be,” said Rae Hill, 29, who founded the company in 2010. “Trans existence is not based on whether or not folks decide to choose any medical procedures or body alterations, and I celebrate the uniqueness of each person’s experience through the outfits I make them.”
Rebirth Garments makes a line of tucking undies, which the designer Sky Cubacub, 27, adorns with neon colors and geometric shapes. Her spandex and velour versions are lined with compression mesh.
The designer, who started her Etsy-based business in 2014, shuns black and red fabrics, allowing her wearers to experiment with bright tones and playful patterns as a means of challenging “heteronormative ideas of sexy.”
And Rose Rayos, 27 (known as “Miss Boogie”), a transgender woman in Brooklyn, is looking to redefine the gaff with breathable, softer and more flexible options that will pair comfortably with athleisure. “Most gaffs are traditionally made with swimwear material,” she said.
Rixt Luikenaar, 48, an ob-gyn and transgender health care specialist in Salt Lake City, recommends transgender female undergarments, like tucking panties, calling them “friendlier to the body” than D.I.Y. methods of folding back genitalia.
“Women who tuck often hold in their urine because they have to untape in order to urinate. This can lead to bladder infections,” Dr. Luikenaar said. “I like the idea of a pair of underwear that allows someone to tuck, slide on, and feel pretty in the process.”
For the Fellas
Trans men also have special undergarment needs, and companies are starting to catch on to that as well.
TomboyX, a gender-neutral apparel company, has been especially popular with transgender men who haven’t had bottom surgery, a procedure Dr. Santucci called “massive.” Of the transgender men respondents in the 2015 United States Transgender Survey, 2 percent underwent a metoidioplasty and 3 percent had a phalloplasty.
Ryan Cassata, 25, is a transgender man and singer-songwriter who, for the past three years, has been wearing and modeling TomboyX boxer briefs. “They are extremely soft and look masculine on my body,” he said.
Ian Harvie, 50, a transgender male stand-up comedian and actor in Los Angeles, buys Tommy Hilfiger briefs at T.J. Maxx. He said that discovering a pair to fit his frame took 10 years. “It was all about finding a cut I like,” he said.
In their everyday lives, many transgender men, like Mr. Harvie, get by with run-of-the-mill boxers or briefs. Some “pack” their genital area when going to places like the gym. This requires a special pair of underwear, typically outfitted with a pouch, into which the wearer can snugly insert a prosthetic.
“That’s the No. 1 concern, the packer not falling out,” said Buck Angel, 56, who is looking to create his own packing brief. Many people shop at places like RodeoH, a company initially known for its strap-on underwear harnesses, which the founders quickly learned were being used not only for sex, but also by female-to-male transgender people.
“The interior pockets on our harnesses stabilize and support soft packers (penis prosthetic) and STPs (stand to pee devices),” J. Weaver, the owner, 42, wrote in an email. RodeoH now sells packing-specific boxers and briefs on its online retail site, which start at $19.
In March, TomboyX introduced 6″ Fly Packing Boxer Briefs. Mr. Cassata is the face of the campaign and met with the brand to suggest his desired features. On the top of that list was all-day comfort. “A lot of the fabric of packing underwear has been really constricting and will hurt,” he said.
Some transitioning men purchase a binding garment to flatten their breast tissue and combat dysphoria.
All Is Fair in Love and Wear, which was founded through a Kickstarter campaign in 2016, looks to provide comfortable binding options. Christian Dominique, 23, the brand director, said many commercial binders mimic the feel of canvas.
“Imagine wearing a tight burlap sack around your chest that is impossible to put on and take off,” he said. His versions are made from swimsuit material with elastic “give” around sensitive areas like the neckline and armpits.
Mr. Dominique delivers frequent talks on binder safely and stresses against “binding for more than eight hours, while sleeping, or wearing sizes too small,” all of which can lead to detached ribs and lung fluid buildup.
Traditional but New
Kelly L. Reddy-Best, 34, an assistant professor of apparel, merchandising and design at Iowa State University who is compiling an oral history on queer fashion brands, said the idea behind pieces “that change the shape of the body” is not new. “People have been doing this for a long time, it’s just now we have brands emerging that are catering to a very niche market.”
Dr. Reddy-Best first began noticing trans-friendly undergarments around 2010 and credits growth in the market to the transgender rights movement. “As social issues arise around bathrooms and legislation, transgender needs are being brought up and different ideas are circulating,” she said.
Dr. Reddy-Best cited a 2017 U.C.L.A. study of 1,600 California households in which 27 percent of adolescents deemed themselves “gender-nonconforming.” “This gives gender equality and the things needed to make that happen more widespread attention,” she said.
Cora Harrington, 34, the author of “In Intimate Detail: How to Choose, Wear, and Love Lingerie,” said that products to meet transgender needs have always existed. “What’s changed is that it’s now easier than ever to reach your target customer through social media and online shopping, and it’s easier to source and purchase the fabrics needed for these garments.”
Knixteen, a teen period-panty company, recently enlisted Jazz Jennings, 18, who stars on the TLC reality show “I Am Jazz,” to design “The Jazz Bra.” Ms. Jennings’s brassiere is purple, to represent her family’s Trans-Kids Purple Rainbow Foundation, and features scalloping inspired by mermaids, which Ms. Jennings said are popular with gender-nonconforming youth, as “mermaids have no genitalia and are basically genderless.”
In 2015, Thinx created a line of “boy shorts” for people who menstruate. “It’s one of our top performers,” said Siobhan Lonergan, 47, the chief brand officer; 8 percent of its 2018 sales, with Sawyer DeVuyst, a transgender model, featured in its campaign. “We realized that not all people who menstruate identify as female,” Ms. Lonergan said.
Mainstream lingerie companies have yet to incorporate transgender lingerie into their catalogs. In 2018, Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer of Victoria’s Secret, was outspoken about not wanting to put a transgender model in the brand’s annual fashion show, implying they were not part of “a fantasy.” It was a setback for Carmen Carrera, 33, a model who has been campaigning to be the first transgender Victoria’s Secret angel.
Kimmay Caldwell, 34, an undergarment educator and expert bra fitter, thinks this will eventually shift. “As there becomes more of a demand from retailers that are becoming more open-minded and inclusive, you will see these products make their way into more shops,” she said.
Ms. Rayos said she is trying to persuade Lululemon to integrate her gaffs into their athletic garments.
For now, individuals like Ms. Liu must navigate a market whose challenges include the lack of disposable income available to consumers who have spent thousands of dollars for hormone replacement therapy, gender reassignment surgeries or facial reconstruction.
In 2018 Cy Lauz, 38, and Simone Tobias, 44, tried to start a brand called Chrysalis Lingerie for transgender women. The founders said there was strong interest in their Monarch Bra and Original T-String shaper panty prototypes, but they received only $1,014 of their $67,000 Kickstarter goal.
Ms. Lauz said pricing was largely to blame. “To make one of these undergarments runs really expensive, but then your general market can barely afford a luxury item, which is how this would have to be priced in terms of manufacturing.”
They hope to eventually make custom pieces by request. “That’s going to drive the cost up more, but that’s really the only way we can offer it,” Ms. Lauz said.
Ms. Carrera would love to see conventional brands embrace her community. Fifty thousand people have signed a petition for her to become the first transgender Victoria’s Secret model.
“I wish that I had a chance to audition, but I’m not going to stop working,” she said. “I hope they really think about their next marketing strategy, and I hope to be included.”
