The Loved One is a small lingerie company crafting vintage inspired undergarments for “both ladies and gentle-fellows,” and they’re using Kickstarter to help fund their ambitious hunt for locally made, high-quality fabrics. We recently chatted with the ladies behind the brand while sipping tea and pressing “repeat” on their sort-of hilarious, but mostly adorable project video (it features a whole lot of dancing around in underpants). 

You can check out our conversation below. Support the girls here. 

What drew you to making lingerie? What was particularly enticing/exciting about designing undergarments? (I feel like this question answers itself…)

Haha, in all honesty we were tired of buying used underwear! We have both spent a significant amount of time digging through other people’s grandma’s discarded under-things that this seems only a natural progression. Vintage lingerie is so much more fun and cheeky!

Where do you draw inspiration from? What type of girl do you envision wearing your pieces? 

Vintage girly mags, old Frederick’s of Hollywood catalogs, old films. I imagine a girl with sense of humor, a girl that puts on the panties for herself and a girl that cleans her apartment alone in said fancy panties would appreciate our collection!

You’re using all local sewers to create your pieces. What about this approach was compelling/important to you guys?

We want to support the local economy, there is better communication, we can keep a close eye on progress and there’s something rather romantic and old timey about popping down the street to visit with your sewers and discuss projects! 

Can you tell me a bit more about your vintage fabric finds? Where do you typically look and what are you looking for?  

We source our fabric from all sorts of places! From thrift shops, to garage sales to raghouses. When we plan a collection we focus on fabrics that we know we can get plenty of, for example last year we were focusing on patterned blouses so we started collecting 90s rayon skirts and cutting the blouses from them. For our lingerie we’re looking for silk garments, tulle from discarded prom/wedding attire and any bits of satin we can get our paws on. As far as favourite finds go? This is tricky because we’ve both been fortunate to find some truly outstanding garments in our hunts! I think anything that we find that’s pre-60s and in good condition is so special and exciting! 

How has your use of Kickstarter been so far? Any tips for other potential creators?

We’re really enjoying it! We feel super fortunate to have such a strong support group to help get us on our feet! As far as tips go? Swamp the internet with information and show plenty of gratitude to the people that take time to write about your project!