Designer tucks into the T-shirt market

MELBOURNE: Unlike fictional action hero Superman, Jessie Tucker does not like wearing her underwear outside of her clothing.
However, the same cannot be said for all of the Melbourne-based lingerie designer's customers.
With this mind, Tucker has broken with tradition for her third season and launched a limited edition range of T-shirts featuring her signature look of self-illustrated fabric designs.
The range will be released at the same time as her new 'Tales of a Wholesome Vamp' lingerie collection, which continues the adventure story started in Tucker's last range.
"I received a lot of feedback from my underwear customers that they wished they could wear my designs on the outside. While I have designed the camisoles so they can be worn as either outer or innerwear . . . the T-shirts make a clear jump into outerwear," Tucker said.
Selling at price points of between $94 and $99, her new 'Airmail' range is a series of letters (T-shirts) stamped and sent from exotic locations such as The Carnival, TroConstructed from 100 per cent cotton, the three designs are available in either long or short-sleeve varieties and each comes packaged in an airmail envelope.
The range, manufactured in Melbourne, will be available in sizes 6 to 16.
Boasting a broad target market, Tucker said her designs appealed to women from varied age groups who were both "adventurous and creative" with how they dressed.
The shapes of her garments were flattering to different body types so were not limited to teenagers, however the majority of her customers were under 40, she said.
Tucker, who originated from a background in fine art and costume design but launched her own label in 2004, said early interest had signalled her T-shirts would be well received by customers with nearly all lingerie stockists placing orders.
Admitting one of the problems with specialising in lingerie design is the fact that there is not much exposure at street level, Tucker said she also planned to add buying facilities to her website to cater for people unable to get to one of her stockists.
She said she had no plans for further diversification of her label outside of the new pieces.
"At this stage I plan to keep releasing new ranges of underwear and new T-shirt designs. I will only ever print 300 of any one design and then draw new illustrations."
The Airmail range will be available in stores from August.