Chloe de Winter is on a mission to redefine lingerie – one boob at a time.
As the co-founder of Nala, she’s taken on the challenge of creating comfortable, stylish, and truly inclusive intimates – no wires, no compromises. What started as a personal frustration quickly turned into a booming business, with Nala redefining what support and style look like for all bodies. Now, after conquering Australia, she’s bringing the brand to New Zealand with a bold (and very on-brand) activation.
We caught up with Chloe to talk about the journey of building Nala, the challenges of designing game-changing bras, and how the brand is using activism and innovation to reshape the lingerie industry.
Hey Chloe de Winter! How’s Business?
Business is busy, exciting and humming. Behind the scenes we are designing new bras, with lots of sampling and sewing while our marketing team is constantly out filming the action. And now we are officially launching in NZ, pretty cool if you ask me.
Nala was born out of a personal frustration with the lack of comfy, cool, and affordable lingerie. At what moment did you realise this was more than just your problem – it was a gap in the market?
When Nala was just an idea, I conducted a survey on my personal instagram. It was an incredibly non-high-tech google form with a few simple questions including “what’s missing in your lingerie drawer?” and “if you could create one product, what would it be?” The results of this survey highlighted the gaping holes in the market and led to the creation of some of our best selling styles.
Designing a supportive wire-free bra and the “holy grail” of strapless bras is no small feat. What were some of the biggest challenges in perfecting these styles?
Designing and constructing bras is technical, way more technical than I ever imagined. So getting the fits right was hard and took a long time, about a year in total. We partnered with some of the best intimates designers in the world and together with them, we designed, sampled, adjusted, tested and repeated about 800 times until we were happy with the results. There’s a reason why there aren’t many brands that offer wirefree bralettes to 71 sizes like us, or a strapless that’s actually comfortable. It’s that hard.
Your campaigns have been bold, unconventional, and conversation-starting. What role do you think activism plays in the lingerie industry today?
I feel that activism has a role in every industry, but it depends on the founders’ appetite to get involved. When we started Nala, we built it on a set of strong values and we knew we’d strive to champion these with every decision we made in the business. An obvious one for the lingerie industry is body inclusivity, which is at the forefront for us. Personally, I’m a millennial that spent my teens swooning over the bodies of the Victoria’s Secret runway models. I guess it’s become my mission to change the way young people look at women’s bodies, to see the beauty in all our diversity. I hope the industry follows suit.
Nala’s commitment to inclusivity extends beyond sizing, with gender-neutral pieces designed specifically for the trans community. How did you approach this design process to ensure these products truly meet their needs?
We partnered with an incredible organisation called The Equality Project, whose mission is to create safe spaces for LGBTQI+ communities, organisations, advocates and allies. We then worked with two trans women who were able to assist with the entire design and testing process for our Everybody Collection. This included design discussions, sampling and feedback, and in the end we created some game-changing products, including our Everybody Tuck Brief and Everybody Tuck Gee.
You co-founded Nala with your husband, despite initially swearing off working together. What’s been the best (and most challenging) part of building a business as a couple?
The best part is working with the person you trust more than anyone in the world. Plus, it’s pretty fun to work alongside your husband/ best friend. But there are a lot of challenges for sure, including both carrying the same work stresses or finding it hard to switch off and not talk about work. I don’t regret any part of it though and would do it a hundred times over!
Sustainability is at the core of Nala, but you’ve made it clear it’s not just a marketing buzzword. How do you ensure real sustainability in your fabrics, production, and packaging?
We do our best on the sustainability front, but we aren’t perfect. At the end of the day, we know that we are creating high quality products that are made to last for years and years of boobie action! Our fabrics are either bio based or made from recycled offcuts, but they are so beautiful and soft to touch. Packaging is all recycled and when it comes to production, we work with incredible factories that uphold strict safe and ethical working conditions.
You’ve conquered Australia – now you’re setting your sights on New Zealand by launching into the ‘Nala Downunder’ activation in Auckland which happened last month. Can you share what inspired this event and why a bra swap felt like the perfect way to introduce Nala to New Zealand?
The activation was inspired by Bradrona, which feels soooo Nala! We know NZ will fall in love with Nala bras, so we just needed a way to get your titties into them. So we invited NZ women to leave their bras on a Bradrona inspired fence and we’ll switch it for a brand new Nala bra. Plus we donated all the bras to women in need (and matched the donation with new Nala bras too). Have you ever heard anything more perfect?!