Real Girls Lingerie: Company Overview

I know from experience that finding comfy loungewear, nighties/nightgowns, sleepwear, and camis (basically, you name it) for busty women can be a difficult (if not impossible) task. I’m more of a wear-a-tshirt to bed kind of girl, but this is mostly due to lack of better options. So when I found out about new company Real Girls Lingerie, I was definitely intrigued!

Real Girls Lingerie offers a few sleepwear options for busty women – both a luxury silk chemise in several colors as well as casual, fun cami separates. The owner, Sarah, kindly agreed to answer a few questions and provided one of her Zinnia Camisole sets for review purposes.

Hi, Sarah! Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions! Can you just tell us briefly about Real Girls Lingerie?

Sarah: I started the company back in 2005 – it took much longer than expected to get a quality product and related website.  I’ve had different “versions” of the process since Dec 2010, but starting in April of this year, it has grown into something that I feel is a good representation of what we want to be.  The Real Girls products are made in USA and everything is self-financed (no debt, no investors).  Like all business owners I have big dreams for the company – I have products in development and plan to have our own lines of bras and swimwear.  I also want to do true cup sizing and add more sizing options (both smaller and venture into full figure sizing). But this takes money, and with the economy the way it is, I don’t feel comfortable taking on the debt this would require.

That’s very admirable, and your goals sound very exciting! Can you give us a little more insight into the difficulties you faced in regards to getting a quality product?

Sarah: Real Girls works outside the box.  We had challenges on both the manufacturing side and the development side.  In terms of development we wanted our “standard” size to be a Missys 8 with a natural D-cup and adjust the sizing from there.  Finding a model of this figure for sample sizing is difficult – one of the baffling things about fashion is that a size 8 is “too large”. This is also a non-traditional size for pattern makers and somewhat throws them for a loop too.  Ultimately we decided to create two base sizes simultaneously: a Missys 8 with a natural B-cup and a Missys size 8 with a natural D-cup.  This really helped the pattern developers.  And we were/are lucky to have two great women working with Real Girls who fit this sizing.

On the manufacturing side it was also a challenge.  There are some small production companies in Los Angeles that will help start-up clothing lines with everything from beginning development to final production.  This is where Real Girls began.  Due to our intricate patterns and difficulty finding appropriate models, it took about 6 months to get our initial samples.  This company works with small designers, many who are household names in other industries.  But they also run a in-house uniform business.  From these first samples, it was known their expertise is not in lingerie.  It’s the first time I have ever seen fine lingerie look like an auto-body uniform.  Through a lot of research, we were able to find an assortment of different vendors ranging from underwire suppliers to final production who understand what the “Made in the USA” label should mean, and were able to help Real Girls create a product that reflects this concept.

There were many tears along the way.  I don’t think I will ever forget the day I was crying (as in CRYING) over elastic.  “How can Target get soft elastic on their items and I can’t find it in the smaller quantities that Real Girls needs?!?”.   I had called all the vendors I was aware of and they needed Real Girls to purchase in amounts that Target was purchasing in. I’m located in the Los Angeles area.  Fashion has been around since LA was born, I said to myself “there must be someone that has it”.  I pulled out the old fashioned yellow pages telephone book and started driving around town.  These were hole-in-the-wall businesses who are not used to customers randomly knocking on their doors.  But that’s what I did, and I found exactly what we were looking for.

Wow, you’ve certainly come a long way and accomplished a lot! Can you tell readers any more about any future particular products you have in development at this time?
Sarah: Our next items will be additional pieces in the Peony Collection, our charmeuse silk lingerie collection.  We have an adorable short silk robe with some special embellishments that will match our existing silk chemises.  Another items I’m very excited about is a silk camisole and panty set.  The camisole with contain our signature built-in underwire with wide straps with ruching and the panties will be made of stretch silk.

That does sound exciting! Last question – I was noticing that in addition to the RealGirl brand items on the site, you also stock Claudette bras [in sizes 32-38 B-G]. It’s nice to see that you stock bras in a wider range of cups than is “usual”- what made you choose Claudette in particular?

Sarah: I had been looking for a bra company to add to the Real Girls collections for a while.  I wanted something that was unique, had a full range of sizing, and had the same philosophy about quality and fit as Real Girls does.  I also wanted to make sure there were every day bras available since this is something that is lacking in most full-busted bra collections.

I met the Claudette team at the first show they did, CurveLV – Summer 2011, and I quickly learned that the company had the “ingredients” I was looking for.  I also love that Lindsey, their sales manager, is also their model!!

Thanks so much to Sarah for taking the time to talk to me! I think it’s really interesting to get insight into how the small, bust-friendly companies are run and the different issues that they face. I really appreciate that Sarah is including a range outside of the “norm” (34-38 A-D) in the items she offers, and I know from speaking with her that she really has the best interests of customers at heart.

In addition to answering some questions, Sarah also offered to send one of her cami sets for review. Since I’m out of the size range currently offered by the company, Kendra from Art&Other agreed to give it a try. At about a 32F, Kendra is a little outside of the size range that Sarah indicates on the site, but based off of her measurements (39/33/39) and the size chart, Kendra was sent a Large/Large Cup top and Medium boyshorts.

Here’s what Kendra had to say about it:

“I’ve often had a hard time finding loungewear that I feel both comfortable and a little sexy in.  I’m not comfortable with no support at all, but usually those tanks with the built-in bras, while comfortable, just give me the uni-boob problem.

The founder of Real Girls, Sarah, seemed to hear me.  In her About Us section, she writes that her approach is to offer “designs that concentrate on bust support.”  The way the Zinnia Camisole looked on the models made me wonder, because it didn’t look to be as supportive as what I was looking for, but I definitely appreciated the honest representation of the product in the pictures.  Overall, I think the photos accurately depict how much support the cami gives.

When I received the package, it was wrapped so nicely in brown paper and had a sweet note from Sarah.  I chose Cocoa Blue and the print and colors were cute; it probably wasn’t something I would have picked out among other choices at a store, but I do have to say it was a nice change from the options I had seen at stores like Target or Kohl’s (where I usually shop for similar items).