Our next Campus Celebrity is Sanibel Chai, a junior with a startup who is not afraid to think outside of the (fabric) box. We had the pleasure to speak about her line WICK, her passion for sports, and the complications that come with being a feminist in the fashion industry.
Sanibel Chai (left) and Liz Lian
Name: Sanibel Chai
Year: 2015
Hometown: Princeton, New Jersey
Sanibel Chai, a junior in the College majoring in Econ and Classics, shines with intelligence and charisma. As a transfer student from Duke, choosing Penn for her academic career turned out to be especially essential to her goals.
“There is more of an entrepreneurial environment here at Penn, Duke didn’t have the right environment I was looking for.”
While at Penn, Sanibel has been a part of The WALK and our own HerCampus chapter. During her past writing for HerCampus, she wrote a lot of sports and active lifestyle oriented content. Her love for tennis, skiing, surfing, and the U.K. Football League aided in forming her startup WICK.
In June 2013, Sanibel and her co-founder Liz Lian, a student at Princeton University, were tired of settling for dresses made out of subpar fabric that allowed for sweat stains, visible panty lines, and bothersome cleaning routines. The lousy construction of dresses we wear out to clubs, bars, or semi-formal events seems all too uncomfortably familiar.
WICK stands to solve these problems, with its chic body-con design made from performance material.
“Each dress is made from performance material found in yoga wear. They operate like workout attire and are completely machine washable. Looser skirts have a zippered pocket for your phone and our backless dresses have a built in bra. Some even have built in spandex shorts. Liz and I have both tried out the material at the gym to prove that they are sweat resistant!”
Sanibel shows complete knowledgeable control over her line and the work that goes into finding investors, hiring designers, and moving into production. Though, she did admit to being a bit naïve at the start of the process and called out the lack of female entrepreneurial role models.
While Sanibel and her partner Liz are certainly making a name for themselves, Sanibel spoke of her own issues with marketing her WICK brand to consumers.
“I consider myself as a feminist and at times I find myself questioning the decisions we have been making while being in the fashion world.”
Sanibel is keen on making sure that WICK is no where associated with body-shaming, and pointed out the scary online atmospheres of “thinsporation” and even “fitsporation.” She spoke of WICK’s forgiving material and her goal to show the line on a diverse body set in order to appeal more to the everyday woman.
Make sure to check out WICK at Penn’s Fashion Show on April 5th! Also, visit http://www.wickusa.com and sign up to get updates on when you can purchase this amazing product!