How I started in fashion: Stripe & Stare co-founder Katie Lopes

Stripe & Stare has carved out a distinctive position in the crowded lingerie market with a simple yet confident promise: the world’s most comfortable knickers.

What began as six years of dedicated research and development has since grown into a cult favourite, now stocked in retailers including Selfridges and Marks & Spencer.

The brand is built around Tencel Modal, a so-called “miracle fibre” derived from sustainably sourced beechwood. Exceptionally soft, breathable, and more environmentally considerate than conventional cotton, it sits at the core of Stripe & Stare’s identity.

In this interview with TheIndustry.fashion, co-founder Katie Lopes explains that she didn’t set out to work in fashion but “fell into it” after working in TV and spotting a gap in the UK market, which led her to open a London retail store in 2004.

She also discusses what she enjoys most about running Stripe & Stare, and reflects on what advice she would give her younger self at the start of her career.

Have you always had an interest in fashion? Why does it appeal to you and why did you want to work within it?

I actually fell into fashion. I’ve always loved it - the creativity, the expression, the way it can shift how you feel in a moment - but I never really saw myself as someone who would “work in fashion.” It felt like a world you had to be invited into. I grew up surrounded by the supermodels of the nineties, and fashion felt like another planet of glamour and otherworldliness.

I was working in TV production in Australia, and my sister and I noticed something interesting: there were incredible brands and products everywhere that simply weren’t available in the UK. That gap stuck with us. It sparked the idea of creating a space in London that brought together hard-to-find, standout brands - things you couldn’t easily get hold of back home. That idea eventually became the foundation for opening our own store, which we opened in 2004.

We knew retail was going to be tough, so from the start we were thinking about how to scale without opening more stores. Interestingly, we traded far better than we expected, which quickly shifted our focus. We became really focused on growing the retail business properly while building momentum. In 2008, all of this changed with the financial crash and we had to revisit our strategy.

Around the same time, as a consumer, I couldn’t find any underwear that was genuinely comfortable but still looked great for everyday wear. It felt like a huge gap in the market. So I started producing very small production runs and selling them in the store. I became an absolute knicker fanatic. I’d spend hours talking to real women about what they actually wanted from their underwear, feeding every new insight into each production run.

Over time, it became a real focus of mine. I was obsessed with finding the softest, cleanest and most breathable fibres I could, while also being as kind to the planet as possible.

What appealed to me wasn’t the industry itself, but the idea of creating something women genuinely live in. Not just something to look at, but something that becomes part of your everyday life. That felt far more interesting to me than traditional fashion.

Tell us about your first job in fashion. What drew you to the role? What was this experience like?

The retail store was really my first proper step into fashion. It came from spotting a gap in the market and wanting to challenge myself personally, rather than any long-held plan to work in the industry.

It was incredibly tough - retail is not easy - but I discovered a level of grit and resolve in myself I didn’t know I had. There’s nowhere to hide in it; you learn quickly what you’re capable of.

When I started my search for the perfect knicker, I realised I genuinely loved the problem-solving side of it. It didn’t feel like “starting a fashion brand” in the traditional sense. It felt like trying to fix something that should already have been better. That mindset drove everything.

The early days were very scrappy: lots of trial and error, figuring things out as we went, and absolutely no manufacturing experience. But it was also incredibly energising because it was so purpose-led. My background in TV as a researcher actually helped a lot - I was used to digging, finding answers, and piecing things together from nothing.

More than anything, it became a process of learning what you’re really made of. Starting a business isn’t for the faint-hearted, but I had a strong urge to push myself and see what I was capable of.

What were the most valuable skills or lessons you gained from that first experience?

Probably resilience and trusting yourself. At the beginning I did not have the self-confidence to believe in myself and my judgement - still something I have to work on every day!

When you’re building something from scratch, especially without a traditional fashion background, you’re constantly being told how things “should” be done. Learning when to listen - and when not to - is everything. There is no training or perfect background for founding a business, as on a daily basis you can be the marketer, head of sales, the FD, the head of ops, the HR department...

Also, understanding your customer deeply. Not in a surface-level, trend way, but really getting under the skin of what women need, how they feel, what’s missing. That’s been the most valuable thing we’ve built. Stripe & Stare was born from 10 years on the shop floor talking to real women and I am so proud that we were a community brand before that was even a thing.

What do you most enjoy about your current role?

Building a brand that genuinely connects with women. When I meet women now and they find out I am a founder of Stripe & Stare, I get so much love for the product and brand - it is truly incredible how genuinely women feel about it. I literally had a customer last week who started crying because, to quote her, “we had created a love story in her underwear drawer”. We talk a lot about comfort, but it’s really about confidence as well - creating pieces that support women through all the different versions of their day. I love that we can be both thoughtful and playful as a brand, and that we’re constantly evolving while staying very true to who we are. We also hope that when women wear us, they know they have a team behind them that has created something with so much love and thought - that we quite literally have their back(sides).

If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice at the very start of your career, what would it be - and why?

I didn’t wait until I felt ready - you probably never will. Just start, and figure it out as you go. But I sort of knew that. Women are inundated with the idea they need to be perfect - there is no such thing and I think it holds us back. Test, test, test as small as you can, fail fast and hard, and get back up. I spent a lot of time early on thinking I needed more experience or more certainty, asking cleverer-than-me people what to do, when actually the learning comes from doing. And trust yourself - you are more capable than you think you are.

What does the next chapter of your own career look like and how are you hoping to grow from here?

This next chapter is about scale, but in a considered way. Growing the business, building a brilliant team, and making sure we stay connected to what made Stripe & Stare special in the first place. I want to focus on fabric innovation and make the most of new, more clean, sustainable fibres that are evolving at the moment, while continuing to make women’s everyday lives a little easier and more comfortable. Personally, it’s about stepping into leadership more fully - making decisions with clarity and creating an environment where great ideas can come from anywhere.