{"id":60680,"date":"2013-01-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-graduate-launches-lingerie-company-that-is-dear-to-her\/"},"modified":"2013-01-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T00:00:00","slug":"uri-graduate-launches-lingerie-company-that-is-dear-to-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/01\/uri-graduate-launches-lingerie-company-that-is-dear-to-her\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 graduate launches lingerie company that is dear to her"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I., Jan. 3, 2013 \u2013 If you\u2019re a woman, you\u2019ve probably had one of those \u201coops\u201d moments in your underwear. <\/p>\n


\nFret no more, ladies. Thanks to 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate Sharon Ruggieri and her colleagues, leak-resistant intimates for women are here – finally – to catch life\u2019s little surprises.<\/p>\n


\nRuggieri, 28, and her business partner, Julie Sygiel, 25, a Brown University graduate, are the brains behind Dear Kate, a Providence-based lingerie company that is winning rave reviews in the fashion world.<\/p>\n


\nSales are soaring. The duo recently returned from a trip to New York, where they unveiled the company\u2019s new and improved line to buyers and grateful customers. No one is more surprised by the success than Ruggieri, a mechanical engineering and Spanish major who grew up in Cranston.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt blows my mind where we\u2019re going,\u201d says the budding entrepreneur. \u201cThe response has been incredible. The potential that we have yet to explore is the most exciting part.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAfter graduating from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2007, Ruggieri received a Fulbright in Mexico to work in banking and then got her MBA from MIT\u2019s Sloan School of Management, one of the most prestigious business programs in the country.<\/p>\n


\nShe was searching for new opportunities when she met Sygiel at a networking event in Providence for startups. The two hit it off, and the team was born.<\/p>\n


\nSygiel had created the underwear as part of a class project at Brown, where she earned her chemical engineering degree in 2009. Dear Kate is actually a rebranded version of a smaller company she launched in 2011. The new Dear Kate offers an expanded line ranging from high-rise briefs to hipster-fit styles. <\/p>\n


\nThe patent-pending underwear is made with a special fabric that has three layers. The lining and middle layers are created from wicking microfiber, and the outer layer is a leak-resistant nylon\/Lycra blend. <\/p>\n


\nThe underwear is breathable, stretchy, and machine-washable. Oh, and it\u2019s attractive and comfortable too. Pairs are priced between $28 and $38 and come in a variety of styles. The company also sells bodysuits.<\/p>\n


\nInitially, the company focused on women during that \u201ctime of month.\u201d But Ruggieri says she and her co-workers soon discovered that expectant mothers experiencing incontinence and women working out in the gym were looking for extra protection as well. <\/p>\n


\nRuggieri is thrilled by the early praise, including an anonymous e-mail from one woman who said she wore the undergarment during a speaking engagement at the White House. (For details, check out the company\u2019s playful blog.)<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten e-mails from women all over the country telling us how our product changed their lives,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s the best thing about being on the Dear Kate team. Women write in telling us how they no longer have to use horrendous products. We want all women to feel confident and beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHow did the all-female company come up with such a clever name? \u201cWe want our name to say that we have every woman\u2019s back,\u201d says Ruggieri. \u201cWe are your best friend. We decided on Dear Kate because we were inspired by the idea of an advice column from Kate, a name everyone seems to love.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nFor details and a peek at the product, visit dearkates.com.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above, left to right, the Dear Kate team: Lissy King, Amanda Eller, Julie Sygiel, Zoe McKinnel, and Sharon Ruggieri.<\/p>\n


\nPhoto courtesy of Brister Photo.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I., Jan. 3, 2013 \u2013 If you\u2019re a woman, you\u2019ve probably had one of those \u201coops\u201d moments in your underwear. Fret no more, ladies. Thanks to 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate Sharon Ruggieri and her colleagues, leak-resistant intimates for women are here – finally – to catch life\u2019s little surprises. Ruggieri, 28, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}