Interview with Tanya Robertson, Founder at Online Lingerie Store: womanhood

Womanhood is an online lingerie retailer, specialising in female-founded brands. A one-stop shop for your underwear needs, womanhood offers a mixture of styles, sizes and designs to empower our community. All of our campaigns feature our customers, with images remaining unedited and not retouched.
 
 

 

How did you come up with the idea for womanhood?

 
Growing up, I felt like high street lingerie brands were not offering me what I wanted. From design, to sizing, to how brands portrayed women and the female body, everything needed a revamp in my opinion.

In my desperation to find brands that aligned with my values, I began to follow emerging designers that had small social followings – the one thing they all had in common was that they were female-founded. Bringing designers together from all corners of the earth, with one clear vision on supporting women in their lingerie journey (both physically and mentally) became the principal focus for womanhood.
 

How has the company evolved during the pandemic?

 
Our growth catapulted during the first lockdown. The business was around 7 months old when the pandemic struck, meaning we could be nimble to deal with the change we saw. We had to move our stock into a warehouse and fulfilment centre, to keep up with growing demand. It was an exciting time and our returning customer rate contributed greatly to our success. We repeatedly received feedback on how positive womanhood made our customers feel – both from comfort perspective but also emotionally by buying into a brand that matched their own ethos and ideals. By understanding how our repeat customers could boost our business, we shifted our approach
 

What advice would you give to other aspiring female entrepreneurs?

 
Starting a business (especially as a sole founder) can be really isolating and lonely. Build a network and support system around you to help keep you going when it gets tough. The start-up rollercoaster is real, and you’ll need people you can rely on to help you physically and emotionally.

Sharing the excitement, stresses, complications, celebrations are all part of the process and having a group around you that know the business and your potential really changes how you navigate the challenges ahead.
 

What can we hope to see from womanhood in the future?

 
Launching more female-founded brands, a greater emphasis on sustainable designs and growing our size range … plus more, but I can’t share just yet!