The founders of Tailor and Circus are on a mission. And it revolves around underwear.
“It’s impossible to find underwear advertising that’s not hyper-sexual,” says Abishek Elango, who started the undergarment brand along with Gaurav Duraisamy and Vasanth Sampath in 2016. “Because of its sexualisation, underwear in general had become uncomfortable for a lot of people. It’s as though men have accepted innerwear to be rough and ill-fitting. Women, on the other hand have to bear with the way most brands tailor their underwear to suit an unachievable image. We needed a brand as comfortable as it was sexy.”
As an extension of this, Tailor and Circus was created as a brand that’s body positive with an ad campaign that ‘represents people of all shapes and sizes’. “Our idea is to portray all bodies to be sexy. It’s not a brand that’s meant just for people with a particular kind of body,” says Duraisamy.
For this, the company uses models who are regular people and offers sizes that go up to 4XL. “We wanted our models’ bodies to be represented but not exploited. We found our models after sending out a letter to find people who connected with the body positive movement. Our models own our campaign photographs and they dictate how we use their photos. They wanted to be shown as they are sans photoshop,” adds Elango.
Another factor that contributes to body positivity is that their fabric is infused with elastane, a material that adds elasticity so it “can take the shape of the body and give it full coverage.”
“The brand is gender neutral. Our prints are unisex and refrain from any kind of societal bias in terms of colour, without confining to a binary stereotype,” says Duraisamy. “Our prints have been designed based on what suits Indian skin tones best. They’re highly detailed and we’ve preferred a minimalist aesthetic that looks just as good on a man as it does on a woman.”
All in the details
And for comfort, he says the brand uses micromodal, a natural fabric, imported from Austria. “The fabric is three times as soft as cotton and is made from the extracts of the beech tree. It is also more breathable than cotton. Mircomodal is made from a process that leaves no carbon footprint and consumes less water to grow,” says Sampath.
This material is also sent through a second process to make the underwear anti-microbial. “It’s important that it doesn’t become a breeding ground for bacteria and fungus. Our fabric is sent through a process that ensures no bacteria can grow on it for a guaranteed period of 33 washes,” adds Duraisamy.
Direct to home
Micromodal is a material that is 30% more expensive than cotton and the manufacturing process costs three times more than the cost of mass manufactured cotton undergarments.
“Despite the overheads, we manage to keep our prices competitive because we sell directly to customers from our website. We don’t have any middlemen and as a result, we’re able to pass on our product with little margin,” adds Sampath.
(The products start at ₹350 and can be found at www.tailorandcircus.com )
