Eleanor Howie is the passionate and well-informed lady behind the latest post-surgery brand, Valiant Lingerie. Drawing on her experiences with mastectomy surgery at the young age of 24 and the lack of beautiful lingerie for her new shape, it was not until she was planning her wedding in late 2019 that she decided enough was enough – Valiant Lingerie was born in 2020.
Is this your full-time role now? If so, what was your previous ‘life’?
My previous life was completely different! My journey with Valiant Lingerie very much arises out of my own lived experiences; I found that after I had a mastectomy in my early twenties, the clinical underwear that was available to me post-surgery had a huge impact on my body image and self-esteem.
After spending years wrestling with poor self-esteem, matters reached a head in late 2019. I was planning my wedding and I couldn’t find any attractive underwear to wear on my wedding day or take on honeymoon with me. I was distraught! So I decided to do something about it and I created Valiant Lingerie in early 2020.
It’s been a huge learning curve for me. Prior to starting my own business, I didn’t have any experience in the fashion industry or any kind of product development. After university, I went to law school and ultimately qualified as a lawyer. I spent years practising law before I realised I needed a change so I moved into academia. Quite different from running a lingerie business!
But I think my experiences in law and in academia have equipped me well to cope as an entrepreneur. I’ve certainly learned over the past year how much strength, resilience, tenacity and adaptability is necessary when starting out! I have genuinely never before undertaken anything so challenging but ultimately so rewarding. I feel so deeply and so passionately that the women I design for deserve something that makes them feel amazing. I was moved to tears when I received the first reviews from my customers!
Did you have any experience of lingerie design previously?
No, I didn’t have any experience of lingerie design before I started out. I’ve always been keenly interested in fashion but I swiftly realised I had a huge amount to learn! Fortunately, I found an amazing specialist lingerie development studio in London and I have been working closely with them since the very early days of Valiant. Not only are they extremely knowledgeable about lingerie design and the industry as a whole, but they very much understood the additional functional requirements needed in post-surgery lingerie.
What were the unique ‘problems’ in designing this type of intimate apparel?
When I started out creating the first collection, I started with two things in mind: function and aesthetics. From a function point of view, women who have had breast surgery for breast cancer (or preventative surgery like me), have specific requirements of their lingerie, for example:
- we often can’t wear underwire
- we need super soft fabrics and carefully placed seams to avoid irritating scars and sensitive and irradiated skin
- we may need a design that takes into account the risk of lymphoedema
- we may need pocketed cups, for example, for breast prosthesis (post-mastectomy) or padding (post lumpectomy)
- we may need a degree of stretch to the cups to accommodate any asymmetry
It was of the utmost importance that the designs were sensitive and accommodated each of the points above. But it was equally important that the designs looked amazing too; that they didn’t just look functional.
Give me a rough idea of your typical week?
Every week is so different at the moment! Last week I was a panellist for a talk on manufacturing lingerie in the UK, I spent some time working on public relations and social media, I reviewed some new samples (very exciting!) and did some ‘behind the scenes’ things for a big photoshoot collaboration. This week I’m (virtually) attending industry events, working on business admin and financial modelling, recruiting new team members and planning marketing campaigns for the next few months. I’ve quickly learnt that no two days are the same!
Your proudest moment to date? Any mistakes?
I think my proudest moments have been receiving my first reviews from customers. From the very beginning, Valiant Lingerie has been a labour of love so it was overwhelming receiving positive views from customers who were delighted with their new lingerie.
In terms of mistakes, I would say the biggest mistake I’ve made is possible being naïve about what launching a new lingerie brand would entail, how much I would need to learn and what an incredible process it is creating brand new products.
What are you hoping to achieve with your brand?
Sadly, the potential market for Valiant Lingerie is a very large one because breast cancer affects so many lives globally. In the future, I hope to be able to scale so that as many people as possible have access to lingerie that feels comfortable and makes them feel amazing post-surgery and treatment.
And finally, how do you switch off? What interests do you have (outside of the underwear world)?
Over the past year, I’ve been so grateful that I live in the countryside! I live in beautiful Norfolk so I’ve been enjoying spending time outdoors, walking and switching off. In more normal times, I love going to concerts and art galleries with my lovely husband.
All Valiant products are manufactured in London and made from high performance, super soft fabric (from ECONYL yarn) and eyelash lace. They have supportive, comfortable underbands with pocketed cups and adjustable multiway straps but without underwiring. See the host of testimonials on www.valiantlingerie.com or contact Eleanor on Eleanor@valiantlingerie.com.
