Welcome, Underfashion Club Board Members!
We’re very excited to welcome the Underfashion Club’s newest board members! To get familiar, we’ve asked each member to answer two questions regarding their goals for the future with the Underfashion Club.
Margaret Clougher
VP, Production/Technical Design
Aerie
- We’d like to know why you joined the board and what you hope to get out of your experience.
I’m excited to be part of the board and hope to bring some of what we are doing at aerie (which is resonating with the younger consumers) to the UFC.
- What do you want to accomplish while on the board?
I’m hoping to help attract more members and especially younger members of our industry to the UFC as well as a broader range of intimates fashion students as full time members.
Linda Elton
President, Private Label Division
Vandale Industries
- We’d like to know why you joined the board and what you hope to get out of your experience.
I joined the board as I love and respect Ann Deal and know how precious and limited her time is. Ann is so committed to the Underfashion team and its mission of mentoring and nurturing college students entering our industry. Mentoring is something I believe in with all my heart. I was blessed to have had amazing role models to guide me throughout my career beginning with my first internship at Felix Lilienthal Buying Office many years ago.
I was so impressed with the board members I met at last month’s dinner at Sarabeth’s and am excited to be working alongside such a terrific group of professionals.
I’m looking forward to expanding the Underfashion Club member base and to getting involved with various fundraising efforts, which ultimately help students entering our industry.
While on the board I would like to help to build a greater awareness as to the importance of the Underfashion Club in serving our industry and the many young people entering the fashion industry.
- What do you want to accomplish while on the board?
I would like to recruit new members and lend my hand in various fundraising efforts – perhaps create some new fundraising events that are held in smaller, more intimate venues with dynamic guest speakers.
Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel
CEO
Curvexpo, Inc.
- We’d like to know why you joined the board and what you hope to get out of your experience.
Organizing the Curve shows I have learned how special this industry is and I want to contribute to its success. We want more young people to discover that this is a great industry to work in – whether it is to work in design or any other responsibility – we need more talents and I think the UFC is instrumental to achieve this.
- What do you want to accomplish while on the board?
More visibility for the industry, more talents who want to join, more support for them.
Erin Lynn
VP of Marketing
PVH
- We’d like to know why you joined the board and what you hope to get out of your experience.
This is my first participation on a Board of Directors and thus far, I am really enjoying just learning about how a board operates. The UFC board is such a passionate group of people who deeply care about the future of the organization and I am honored to become part of it. My experience in the intimate apparel industry has been positive, both personally and professionally, so this is a great opportunity to give back.
- What do you want to accomplish while on the board?
As one of the only members of the board with a background in Marketing, I see an opportunity to leverage my experience to benefit the Underfashion Club. I have recently become the Chair of the Brand Oversight Committee, which includes managing the website, social media and any other content that promotes the Club. I think we can gain more engagement from our current members, but I also feel that promoting the Club’s activities to the industry can also have a positive impact on membership as well.
Kerry O’Brien
Designer / CEO
Commando
- We’d like to know why you joined the board and what you hope to get out of your experience.
Intimates is such a unique and interesting area of the fashion world. There is so much camaraderie and collaboration in intimates, and so much room for continued innovation. I want to be a part of the future of intimates, and I want to make sure we are all pushing the boundaries of what intimates means and what we can do. The Underfashion Club’s mission of education and development is very true to my own mission for commando.
- What do you want to accomplish while on the board?
I’d like to see intimates become a bigger part of the larger conversation in fashion. When I first started in this industry, celebrities didn’t want to even talk about their underwear, much less be photographed in it. All of that is changing now and it’s trickling down to the way women think about their foundational pieces. They demand more from their garments now, they show them in ways they never have, and I think that’s so exciting.
Dawn Schonewald
Brand Manager
Nordstrom
- We’d like to know why you joined the board and what you hope to get out of your experience.
I have had the honor and privilege of being a part of the world of lingerie and intimate apparel for the past 26 years. I’ve met incredible people, many whom I can say are dear friends to me today. In my current role, I support a team of lingerie designers, many whom do not come from a lingerie education background, but rather have had the good fortune to apply their talent in categories that wasn’t initially part of their training. And, like me, have come to love lingerie – the product and the people – and couldn’t imagine ever leaving. What I’ve learned in this process is that we need more designers trained in the field of lingerie and intimate apparel. The industry will benefit from a stronger and diverse group of talented young designers and developers.
I also look forward to more closely connecting with the incredible talents and experienced leaders of the members of the board.
- What do you want to accomplish while on the board?
I would like to support the student designer/intern program, through the Femmy project, as well as expanding intern placements beyond the NYC location. I would like to be a part of working to encourage, foster, and create opportunities for talent in our industry.
Another idea I have – I would also like to work to further strengthen the UFC by growing our membership base (I have only recently become a member of the UFC, in spite of my nearly three decades in the industry). I think everyone in our Lingerie/IA world should be a part of something bigger – and this I believe can be done through the creation of a more “personal connection” to the community of Lingerie/Intimate Apparel. Similar to other industry groups (like a Two Ten Footwear), could we encourage a broader scope of membership, and support, for a larger mission? What would we want to do?
Sonia Vizcaino
VP, Tech Services & Finished Goods QC
Wacoal America, Inc.
- We’d like to know why you joined the board and what you hope to get out of your experience.
I accepted the invitation to join the board in order to be of greater service to the UFC. The prospect of collaborating closely with other industry leaders in addressing the needs of our industry’s future is exciting to me and will aid me in my own continuing professional development.
- What do you want to accomplish while on the board?
Since I have been a member of the SAIG committee for some years and the scope of the committee is expanding, I would like to help in the expansion of the programs and ensuring that a solid foundation is established with each new school so that we can aid students from a wider cross section of schools. It would also be beneficial to help out on other committees to aid in reaching out to industry professionals that are not aware of the work that the UFC does and how their companies can benefit.