ABBY SUGAR & SYLVIE LARDEUX
Designers and Owners, Play Out Apparel
Abby Sugar and Sylvie Lardeux plunged head-first into their business venture, Play Out Apparel, LLC, with the goal of learning on the job. Sugar, a freelance editor and personal trainer, and Lardeux, a native of Paris with a Ph.D. in neuroscience, didn´t know much about the fashion industry when they launched their underwear company in 2011. But they were driven by ″not being able to find the specific product on the market that fit what we wanted. For us, this was underwear,″ they say. After three years of reading up on the fashion business, and working with mentors in the industry, they released their first line of androgynous underthings in 2014. ″Even though we list our underwear for sale on our website as the men´s and women´s cuts, we consciously design everything to be gender-neutral,″ they explain. ″We have had people of all gender presentations and identifications wear both styles of underwear. The only difference is that the men´s style is slightly longer and has extra fabric in the front for that (ahem) extra equipment!″ In the future, Sugar and Lardeux are looking forward to collaborating with queer artists to provide additional new, exciting and changing custom prints to Play Out Apparel´s collection. Keep an eye out for their runway show at NY Lingerie Fashion Week in October.
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