Amelia, Ella & Holly. Founders - MERRI Intimates

MERRI Intimates is a female underwear brand that champions female intimate health and specialises in sexy, comfy, cotton knickers that help prevent UTIs and thrush. She Works has interviewed the founders ahead of their launch this month to understand a little bit more about the story behind the brand...

Tell us about your brand!

'Hello! Our names are Amelia, Ella and Holly and together we have founded the underwear brand MERRI Intimates.'

'Our pants are a little unusual as they were made specifically with female intimate health in mind. Gynaecologists and doctors recommend cotton underwear for optimum vaginal health and to help prevent UTIs and thrush. As three sufferers of these infections we wanted to create organic cotton underwear that’s sexy AND comfy AND good for your body, all at the same time. We were bored of only finding ‘granny style' cotton pants on the market and believe that no one should have to compromise on feeling amazing for the sake of their health.'

'We feel so strongly about the idea and brand that we are all working on other jobs at the same time as setting this business up - at least women are good at multitasking!

Ella did an art foundation year, then a degree in Furniture Design and originally thought of the idea for MERRI as she has always loved the combination of pretty things and functionality. She looks after the product design and manufacturing. Holly is a creative at an advertising agency by day and by night is our creative genius, doing everything from Insta, to our websites and emails! Amelia’s remit is all things finance, logistics and science. She studied Biomedical Sciences at uni and now works in corporate banking. So far it's been so great having a side project but the aim for all of us is to get to a point where we can work on this full time!'

Ella, what first compelled you to take the plunge and set this up?

'So I had my first UTI at the age of 16 and remember sitting in the school library hugging my stomach and a friend having to explain to me what a UTI was and why I was in so much pain. From then I had recurring infections and would often get thrush from the antibiotics I had to take to treat the UTI. Every time, I went through this cycle I would become more and more frustrated and spend hours googling what could help me other than drinking gallons of water. One thing that always popped up was that wearing cotton pants could help prevent infections because of their breathability. However, I could only ever find ugly and very big cotton pants that reminded me of ones I wore when I was 5.'

'Over the years this frustration has continued but I have discovered that many women share my annoyance and so I decided to start MERRI so that I didn’t have to complain anymore! I then got Amelia and Holly onboard as some of my oldest friends who I knew would be able to help me bring this to life!'

'MERRI’s mission is also to dispel existing and harmful taboos around UTIs and thrush, conditions which affect 1 in 3 women in the UK and can be completely debilitating. By creating a platform to discuss these infections openly we hope to normalise these very normal infections. The pants are important, but what is equally as important is getting people talking about this and removing the stigma associated with female intimate health!'

What is unique about your product?

'Our pants have an elongated 100% organic cotton gusset. Most women’s underwear has a cotton gusset but it is often extremely small and doesn’t offer full coverage of the vulva. I have been told by other designers that this is because with a short gusset the seam is hidden between your legs and that looks better in photos! This can cause unnecessary friction and discomfort (and above all is quite simply a ridiculous reason to prioritise aesthetics over comfort and health!).'

'Our pants have a gusset that comes all the way up to the waistband meaning that there is full coverage for all body shapes and the gusset seams are integrated seamlessly into the design. The removal of unnecessary seams reduces the areas that bacteria can colonise too.

At the moment we have started with 3 designs (a bikini brief, big pant and thong) but have so many more ideas and things we want to do - watch this space!'

What has been your biggest challenge?

'There are a lot of challenges when trying to set up a business - having enough time to do everything you want to do is definitely one of them. There are never enough hours in the day. Probably the biggest though is in terms of the route we have decided to take in terms of launching.'

'We are launching via Kickstarter in February. We chose crowdfunding for a number of reasons. We wanted to grow organically through a community of like minded women. We don’t want to give away any equity to big male venture capitalists. And thirdly, perhaps most importantly, we want our first run of product to act as a mass sample – checking in with all our customers and asking for feedback.'

'The challenges of being a female led start-up (focused on intimate women's problems!) are real though. We know for instance that out of every £1 of venture capital investment, all-female founder teams in the UK get less than 1p. Perhaps even more terrifying for us 86% of kickstarter users are male. All this means is that it’s really important for us to find and build our community before we launch in February. Our Instagram currently has just under 1000 organic followers who are engaged, helpful and encouraging. We've been genuinely blown away by the support we've received so far but need so many more mailing list sign ups to make our campaign a success!!!!'

What’s next for the business and how can readers of this interview support?

'So far in our journey the business has been making great progress. In June we were named the grand champion of the 'Big Idea' competition run by London Met Accelerator. The funding we won has enabled us to do multiple rounds of sampling for our product to create something which fulfils our purpose and fits all bodies.'

'Now that our product is nearly ready to go, we are focusing on the build-up to the launch of our Kickstarter as previously mentioned. The biggest help would be people following our journey on instagram (@merriintimates) and signing up to our mailing list (www.merriintimates.com) so that they get all the updates and can also support us when we launch our crowdfunder and get their hands on some of our fab knickers!'