The ‘Ethical Skims’? Plant-Based Shapewear is Coming
Proclaim offered undies in inclusive shades of “nude” before Skims was a twinkle in Kim Kardashian’s eye.
“It really launched from the frustration of not being able to find a nude bra as a woman of color that matched my brown skin,” said Shobha Philips, who founded the Los Angeles brand in 2015 and debuted the first tank tops, biker briefs and slips two years later.
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But now it might be Philips who is muscling in on the reality star’s turf. Next week, Proclaim will launch shapewear—and not just any shapewear but plant-based shapewear, a concept that’s a first for foundational garments, if less so for the synthetics-shunning label, which keeps its use of petrochemicals, like elastane for stretch and staying power, to the barest possible minimum. Instead, Proclaim opts for earth-friendlier options like Tencel, organic cotton, hemp and cupro.
Shapewear was an obvious category expansion for Philips. The compression market has exploded in recent years thanks to the likes of Spanx, Yummie and, yes, Skims. According to market research firm The Brainy Insights, shapewear will grow from a $5.6 billion industry in 2022 to $10.3 billion by 2032. Nothing to sneeze—or squeeze—at.
“It’s this multi-billion-dollar category that is almost 100 percent made out of fossil fuel-based materials like nylon and polyester,” Philips said. “To me, it’s kind of wild that a garment that’s hugging so closely to women’s bodies is made out of materials that shed microplastics, they’re known to contain chemicals like [bisphenol-A] and [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances]. I feel like we deserve better. We deserve better garments and we deserve something that isn’t harmful to us or the environment.”
Proclaim’s inaugural offering, a $138 mid-thigh sculpting bodysuit in three nude hues, plus black, comprises two materials: Evo by Fulgar, a completely bio-based yarn derived from castor oil, and Creora, a 30 percent bio-based spandex made, in part, with corn. The latter is coming out in a version that’s 70 percent corn, something that Philips is particularly excited about. She wants to eventually move to a plastic-free formulation but so far it’s been a three-way battle between her desire, material availability and product durability.
“There’s always this dichotomy, when designing, about the longevity of the garment versus some of the 100 percent plant-based options,” Philips said. “For example, 100 percent cotton thread would pop in a second as opposed to some of the threads that have more stretch and give to them but do have a semi-synthetic component.”
So it’s not the best option for Mother Earth. But it is a better option, which is more than she can say for what’s currently available. And Proclaim will keep tweaking, Philips said, until it can improve no further.
“There’s no such thing as 100 percent sustainable, obviously, because there are so many dfferent resources and inputs and outputs, but my goal is always to move in that direction,” she said. “We’ll keep working with the innovation that’s available to us. I always want to make sure we’re not compromising on the quality of the garments that we’re creating.”
Philips is certainly no stranger to R&D. It took a year of prototyping at a solar-powered seamless factory just north of Porto in Portugal before the label hit on the perfect mix of compression, performance and comfort. In the beginning, however, she went in almost blind.
“I wasn’t 100 percent sure what the material was,” Philips said. “I just knew that I wanted it to be a more synthetic-free option than what’s on the market right now. So we tried a few different things. We tried a lot of different materials, including Tencel. Back and forth, we were making different iterations of these tubes and testing them out.”
Proclaim hadn’t worked with seamless technology before but Philips likes both its precision—everything, down to the most minute stitch, is keyed in on a computer program—and how it minimizes cutting waste.
Ethical production is important for the brand, she said. When it first began, Proclaim made everything in a family-owned factory in Los Angeles that pays workers above a minimum wage. It was only when the company broadened its assortment to include socks made from organic Pima cotton that it extended its supply chain to Peru. The factory, Philips said, partners with the farmers who grow the fiber, creating the type of “know your producer” connection that she’s keen on exploring further.
“I wanted to figure out how to make a product that addresses or even just shows that there’s a way to do something that doesn’t exploit or disproportionately affect communities of colors [while] creating this product that we really need,” she said. “So from the beginning, have always tried to focus on making things sustainably and ethically, which I know is an ambiguous phrase, but doing it in a way that honors these core beliefs that I have, in a way that I feel like we can move toward as an industry.”
The ethical-slash-sustainable Skims then?
“I think a lot of customers will make that comparison,” Philips said. “I guess I’m flattered by the comparison. I don’t know if I have an opinion on it. I just hope that we can bring our viewpoint of approaching this business from a customer mindset. I think our strength has been growing to meet the demands of our community.”
