Susie TaaffeChief of Staff, RAMMP · Chief of Staff & Strategic Operator | AI-First | RAMMP | Building What Doesn’t Exist Yet

I created Skanties to tell myself that 'I was enough'

14 Jan 2026 · 3 min

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2:39

In this monologue, the founder of Scanties Anti‑Shapewear recounts how she invented the product in 2008 as a personal solution to chronic chafing and the negative self‑talk that accompanied it. After multiple pregnancies, she struggled to wear flowy dresses without discomfort, which triggered thoughts that her body was "not enough." She designed and privately wore a pair of underwear that eliminated elastic digging and chafing, but kept the invention to herself for years. Around six or seven years later, a friend’s curiosity about how she managed to wear skirts without pain made her realize that many others likely share the same body‑shaming narrative. This moment sparked the insight that the fashion industry had failed to provide garments that affirm rather than shame bodies, leading her to position Scanties as anti‑shapewear that tells wearers they are enough.

Chapters

So this is my business, Scanties Anti-Shapewear. That's it. And I created them probably— well, I created them myself in 2008 just for me because I was sick of feeling not enough in my clothes. Like, I wanted to wear the long flowy dresses that suited my body shape that I could buy from the shops, but I got chafed, so I couldn't wear them in comfort. And so I was being told that I wasn't enough, and so I created this pair of underwear like that, and I created them so that my body would stop giving me signals that I wasn't enough. Because if you get chafe, it hurts, and I can promise you, if you've got your legs going like this, or any other part of your body like digging in elastic, Undies that are riding up all the time, your dialogue in your head is definitely telling you that you are not enough. Like, you are not— your legs aren't the right shape, your stomach's not the right shape, you're just not enough, your body is not enough. So I was like, right, okay. And I didn't think anything of it. I just was like, I do not want to be told I'm not enough every time I walk somewhere in a dress or a skirt. So, I'm going to fix that problem. And I just created something. I knew the bits that I didn't like. I created a product and I just wore it. I didn't tell anyone about it. It was just mine for me. And it wasn't— it was like 6 or 7 years later, I think, when someone actually said to me, how can you wear skirts and dresses all the time? Because I did. Like, I— that is my style. I love it. And this is like through having 3 kids, 3 pregnancies, breasts, like all of the post-kids. And I would love the flowy dresses. It just made me feel like me. And they were like, but how do you wear that without getting chafe? And it was the first time in my life that I realized that maybe I wasn't the only person that had that, that had that thought pattern into my brain that I'm not enough. That my body is not enough. My body is failing me, which is making me feel like I'm not enough. I'm not thin enough, obviously, because I've got chafe. Like, I shouldn't have that. And it's like, no, that's actually not it. It's just the fashion industry had not created a product that would tell you you were enough.