Peregrine Honig and Danielle Meister, the co-owners of Birdie's Panties in Kansas City, Mo., plan to open a second store catering specifically to transgender shoppers in 2015.
The store, to be called All Is Fair, will open in the Bauer Building on West 18th Street in the Crossroads Arts District.
Honig announced the plans on KCUR's Central Standard during a conversation about her work and her art.
"These are customers who deserve to be treated with respect," Honig says. "And they deserve to have garments that fit them properly. We've had this sort of quiet influx of transgender customers, and there are beautiful outer garments made for them, but there really are not a lot of first layers."
Kansas City garment designer Miranda Treas has worked for Birdie's since 2011. Honig says Treas has "a good handle on post-surgical garments" and that she will bring that expertise to All Is Fair.
The issue of sensitivity to transgender customers in clothing retail, particularly in terms of lingerie, made news earlier this year, when a transgender woman living in Texas went to an Austin-based lingerie shop and asked to be fitted for a bra. She was asked to present photo identification listing her as female, and was denied service when she could not provide the requested documentation.
The first lingerie brand created specifically for transgender women's bodies became available just last year. The creator, Cy Lauz, told Fashionista that during her own transition, she had been unable to find undergarments that made her feel good about who she was.
"We have very specific needs unique to our experience," Lauz said at the time, in terms of the garments themselves. She also notes that discrimination is an issue.
"If you are a trans woman who is not particularly 'passable' and are shopping at a store or public venue, you face the possibility of being harassed, judged and even physically hurt," she says.
Honig says Kansas City has been supportive of All Is Fair in its early stages.
"I can't believe how many people have gathered around this idea," she says.
UPDATE: After this article was published, KCUR learned that Danielle Meister will not be a business partner in All Is Fair.
