Behind the Scenes of Liberare New Line: Aurore

From Amateur Fashion Sketches to a Real Collection

Over a year ago, Liberare's team decided to make the leap to design our own collection. We had been selling other amazing brands like SlickChicks and Elba London and we love their pieces! But we wanted to take a stab at our own adaptive intimates to add to our collection.

CEO and founder Emma Butler had always loved to sketch fashion and was a huge Project Runway fan growing up. See some sketches below from when Emma was in highschool and college.

But how do you turn fashion doodles into an actual collection people want to buy?

The first and most important step was making sure whatever we designed was going to be super functional and work for our disabled customers. We had dozens of you all reach out to us with ideas about YOU want us to make. So we gathered all the suggestions from DMs, to emails, to comments about what you wanted us to make. We also talked to hundreds of disabled women about their dressing experience and how we can make it a little bit easier.

We outlined exactly what features we wanted our new collection to have. The most common thing we heard over and over again was making sure the bras and underwear were easy to get on and off. Traditional bras that fastened in the back with j-hooks were too hard to put on and traditional underwear required the painful motion of bending over.

Below you can see an example of an initial sketch of what we wanted to include.

After choosing what adaptive features we wanted for our products (more on our adaptive innovations in a later article!) we had to choose how many products we wanted. We decided on 2 bras, 2 underwear, and a sleepwear set. We wanted to offer at least two different types of bras and underwear with different adaptive qualities because we know what is adaptive and functional for one disabled body, might not be for another.

So now we knew we wanted to make a 6 piece adaptive intimates collection. But what type of aesthetic did we want our products to have? This is where moodboarding came in BIG time! Below you will find the moodboard Alyssa, our Chief Creative Officer, created. It took a whole lot of pinteresting to find the right vibe.

Next we had to choose the color and the lace. We originally wanted to do 10 or more shades of nude to fit a diverse range of skin tones along with some fun pop of colors! But after working with the factory, we decided to stick to 2 colors for this first round and then expand into more colors for the next round of production. We chose a light pink and black for our initial colors.

It turns out there are a MILLION different pinks that all look exactly alike! Because we all work remotely, for days our team Slack channel was filled with opinions about each different pink! Rose Quartz, Pink-a-Boo, Cherry Blossom, Festival Bloom, Pink Tulle… the list goes on!

Then it was time for mockups. Our team began to sew and test and remake and test some more to make sure the products were comfortable, functional, easy to get on and off, but also looked beautiful. We sent prototypes back and forth to each other across the world and messaged each other videos and images. (See Emma in her bathrobe below trying to show the team a prototype she made of a front opening bra, one of her own that she cut up).

After many many attempts to make sure our line would be filled with great adaptive products that made dressing easier for disabled women, we finally felt satisfied to send the manufacturer for professional samples and pattern making. We are now in the process of testing our products EVEN more! Our team at Liberare is made up of disabled and non-disabled women who have worked tirelessly on the product. But we wanted to share the products with more diverse disabilities and sizes to make sure that we created quality products.

Final step however, was choosing a name for our collection! Emma, who loves all things French, tried to find a French name for the collection. For a long time the line was just called “The New Line.” But eventually Emma and Anastasia stumbled upon Aurore, and decided to go with it!

We cannot wait to bring Aurore, our 6 piece adaptive intimate collection to you! We are so excited to share images with you too! If you want to learn more about our design process, the adaptive features on our garments, pre-orders, and discounts, sign up for our email newsletter below! Have any thoughts for our NEXT collection? Email emma.butler@liberare.co