Female Disruptors: Katie Charrier of Jia Loungewear On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
“Stay centered on your ‘why’.” It’s easy in the chaos of entrepreneurship to get lost in every single detail and the struggles that come with everything from product manufacturing to accounting. Each time it seems too overwhelming and stressful to be worth it, it’s very helpful to step back and remind myself that my customers want and need my products, and I’m providing them so much more than just a piece of clothing. Giving a feeling of “home” and allowing women who share their home space to actually feel relaxed — I can say from personal experience — adds so much to quality of life. So that keeps it all worth it.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Katie Charrier. Originally an optometrist by trade, Katie ventured into apparel design and entrepreneurship in order to fill a market need for loungewear that provides coverage and comfort. As founder of Jia Loungewear, Katie strives to help women feel at home in their own body and environment.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Like many startup entrepreneurs, I stumbled upon the product development path because I was looking to solve my own problem. My education is totally unrelated — I’m actually an eye doctor, and was seeing patients full-time when I fell in love with my partner, who was a single father of three kids. When I moved in with the family and became a step-mom, my new home life came with the unexpected dilemma of finding “appropriate” loungewear. I had never had to worry about others seeing me braless in my cozy clothes before! (We can probably all relate to that awkward, crossed-arms pose we do when others see us in our pajamas).
I didn’t want to have to wear a bra for 100% of my waking hours. I searched the retail loungewear market high and low to find a loungewear top that could actually provide coverage and comfort, that I could wear confidently around the family, including tween-aged stepsons. I was very frustrated to find that nothing suitable existed. The only “braless” solutions I could find were elastic shelf-bra tops, which are often less comfortable than some bras and still don’t provide much coverage. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice on the comfort of having to wear an elastic shelf for pajamas — nor did I want to continue wearing a bulky sweatshirt every evening after my post-clinic shower. I knew there had to be a better way to construct a garment to provide cup coverage without elastic. So I pulled out the sewing machine, and Jia Loungewear was born! I started sharing my product with friends and family, and realized this product could help way more women than just stepmoms. Dorm and roommate life, in-laws and other house guests, traveling, and virtual work meetings were a few immediate applications that my close circle of ladies listed while begging for a top of their own.
I realized I would have to start as a complete novice in so many branches of this entrepreneurial path, but I knew it would be a challenge that I could learn from and enjoy. I have had to learn about apparel production and pattern making, sourcing and manufacturing, e-commerce and logistics, and of course branding and marketing. As with all entrepreneurship, it will always be a work in progress in so many ways.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
I’m definitely disrupting the way these products have universally, perennially been designed and fabricated for women. By construction, there was no product previously on the market that exists with the features of my current design. I know this, of course, because I looked for it first as a desperate consumer! Any previous “no-bra” products had always been designed with technical function — not comfort — in mind. For instance, the elastic band is technically the easiest way to keep a garment’s under-layer bra in place. But it’s not comfortable for loungewear! I started by questioning this age-old design. I wanted to keep both function and comfort at the center of my design choices.
Admittedly, it was difficult and took multiple iterations on the pattern design, but I ultimately created a pattern that functions well. Throughout the process, it was difficult to approach manufacturing partners with this idea, only to be faced with rejection and criticism that the design wouldn’t perform without the elastic. I can tell by the hesitancy to consider this “new” way of solving a familiar problem that I’m disrupting the way these products have been constructed — and I think that’s a great thing.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Most of my funny — or rather cringe-worthy and embarrassing — mistakes have been on social media. I am not very well-versed in these platforms, so early on when I was trying to do everything myself, I struggled with basic functions like re-posting a happy customer’s positive review video to the brand’s instagram story. I ended up making mistakes like re-posting it several times on accident in the process of trying to add a caption. It tagged my customer in every single copy of the multiple identical posts, and was an overall funny but embarrassing learning curve. Finally, my younger sister offered to take over the management of the social media accounts, which was a huge help. I still have to call and ask her embarrassing questions, such as, “what is a reel?”
I quickly learned that I won’t be the best expert on fine-tuned details of every branch of the business — and it’s not even advantageous of a founder’s time to try and do everything anyway. I learned that in any business, you could hire someone who would be way better at any particular task — whether it’s logo design or photography or bookkeeping or social media management — to keep a founder from scrambling to do every single thing. Because honestly, a founder is probably going to be less efficient and less effective at most of those tasks than an actual expert in that particular area, and it’s not a good use of time to try to learn every single skill.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
Because I received no formal training in business, I started this journey at home with a lot of self-guided education. For that reason, many of my most influential teachers and “mentors” are people, businesswomen specifically, who I’ve never actually met. For instance, it may sound like a stretch to call Sara Blakely my mentor, but after purchasing Masterclass with the sole intention of taking her course, I basically memorized it and developed what I would consider to be a significant mentee-type relationship with the content. I would revisit her recommendations and replay her advice over and over as I moved along each stage of my startup journey. I borrowed from her mindset and visualizations, I extrapolated my business growth plans with analogies to hers, and looked up to her for everything from leadership to manufacturing and pricing advice.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I do agree that the descriptor “disruptive” should be considered positive in today’s social and commercial climates. Disruption is good because it provides opportunities for new and improved ways of solving problems, and can introduce more diverse ways of thinking than the old mainstream norms.
However, the history of the apparel production industry does have examples of disruptions that have had negative effects we are still managing. For instance, the move toward industrialization and factory production was originally a good disruption for the industry: garments could be made by machines at much lower cost and higher efficiency than hand-sewn. However, the far-downstream result is that the “fast fashion” industry churns out such high quantities of low-quality clothing that a large percentage of it has to be literally thrown away or burned, which is clearly not an outcome that we celebrate. In this case, ironically, the new “disruptors” are brands who realign with more sustainable methods of production and consumption, to create garments that actually do withstand the test of time instead of being seen as disposable.
So I think that describes the best-intended essence of disruption: to continually reevaluate our methods and be willing to pivot and disrupt current methods in favor of solving problems in ways that align with our overall goals. To progress positively, disruption sometimes has to be an ongoing process.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
- “If you try to appeal to everyone, you won’t actually serve your ideal customer well.” I think this is good advice for any industry, and it has been shown that narrowing your focus, whether it is a product or service, and serving that specific niche very well is the best practice. For instance, in loungewear, I know that some women will want bust support or containment, and that is just not what my product offers. Instead of trying to create products that will appeal to every single woman — which is impossible — I provide something that is very effective at serving only women who want to feel completely braless when lounging and just have the appearance of coverage. I may have fewer customers, but they are being served much better.
- “Take imperfect action.” Many ambitious A-type personalities, such as myself, want to completely perfect something before putting it out into the world. I do still cringe at the thought of anyone seeing and judging my early prototypes or early efforts to promote my brand. However, if I waited until I thought something were “perfect” to release it, I would probably never release anything — and even if I did, I would probably, hopefully, continue growing anyway and would someday look back on it as amateur and imperfect later regardless. I’m still dedicated to doing my best, but I have to force myself to end that revision process and just move forward sometimes.
- “Stay centered on your ‘why’.” It’s easy in the chaos of entrepreneurship to get lost in every single detail and the struggles that come with everything from product manufacturing to accounting. Each time it seems too overwhelming and stressful to be worth it, it’s very helpful to step back and remind myself that my customers want and need my products, and I’m providing them so much more than just a piece of clothing. Giving a feeling of “home” and allowing women who share their home space to actually feel relaxed — I can say from personal experience — adds so much to quality of life. So that keeps it all worth it.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
In the short-term, I want to keep listening to my customers and providing more products that improve their lives, because it has been unexpectedly rewarding to provide a product that helps other women feel “at home” with comfort and confidence in their home environments. Ideally one day I will be able to invest in future female disruptors. Knowing what it has been like to start an entrepreneurial journey completely alone, I’d love to be able to provide investing and mentorship to the next generation of problem-solvers.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
I think the biggest challenges to overcome are the different assumptions made, in our society, about women versus men, as many of these assumptions place women at a disadvantage when they try to step up. One example would be companies and capital firms assuming that a woman would be too distracted by her family, or speculating if she may become pregnant, and using that as justification to pass over her for a promotion or for startup funding needed to execute her big ideas. We already know that women receive only 2–3% of venture capital funding, even in recent years. And while all disruptors face criticism and doubt before their ideas are validated, I think women are often taken even less seriously, especially in STEM fields or in business, where historically we were given very little voice or opportunity at all.
However, I do feel hopeful in this new era for female disruptors, thought-leaders, and entrepreneurs. I think that culturally we are starting to pay attention to data that show that companies with women in prominent leadership roles are actually statistically more profitable, and in the startup world there is evidence that women are more successful communicators and collaborators, which allows for more accelerated growth. In some senses, the simple act of women stepping up is a disruptor in itself — a great one.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
Absolutely, podcasts have been a huge part of my journey. As a female disruptor, I actually think that the deepest impact has come from the cumulative effect of having access to an entire chorus of female disruptor and leader podcasts. From The Goal Digger Podcast to Bossbabe to She Means Business or Being Boss to The Product Boss and Female Startup Club, I think the synergy of hearing similar messages echoed throughout multiple slightly different communities has had effects even greater than the individual advice offered by each separate podcast. Each of these female leaders separately provide strategies and examples, but as a group the podcasting experience really offered me the vision that it is possible to create one’s own destiny and follow a less common path.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I love this question because the thought process reminds us that we can keep the goal of “spreading good” at the forefront of “making it big.” In fact, one of my reasons for striving for success is to be able to have to the means to have enough influence to champion causes I find important.
Honestly — if the sky is the limit on influence — I would hope to come back to medicine one day and do something about the healthcare industry in America. After being a doctor for all these years and seeing the acute struggle of doctors and nurses at the mercy of profit-first policies of insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and even hospitals, I would love to be influential enough to reorganize these systems to center the needs of the patient and doctor first.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Lately, I’ve found this most relevant: “As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.” Especially as a disruptor creating something entirely new, things can seem a bit daunting when there is no pre-set, long-term path forward. Every next step for building a new product or business requires a next set of optional solutions that have to be attempted on a trial-and-error basis, and sometimes feeling error after error can be discouraging. But at each step, new skills and experience are learned, and the path opens up a few steps further and the next moves can be tried. At the beginning of the journey, there is no way to see the full, clear path; but after a while of moving along step-by-step, you can see the length of the journey much more clearly looking backward. Even for life in general, as we continually find ourselves faced with challenges we have not yet prepared for, we find our way with little individual steps until we realize we have made a path forward where we did not know one before.
How can our readers follow you online?
@jialoungewear on most social platforms, with most activity on instagram and Tik Tok. @jialoungewearofficial on Facebook, and of course, products available and blog at jialoungewear.com.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Katie Charrier of Jia Loungewear On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.