Workingirls Lingerie

Magic and engineering go hand-in-hand at Workingirls Fine Lingerie. Owner Josee Calderisi opened the undergarments store in 2013, where she creates a tailored experience for her clients. “I specialize in bespoke tailoring,” she says. “This type of tailoring is based not on my design, but on the customer’s desire.”

Josee studied fashion at LaSalle College in Montreal, and then continued her training in the U.K. at the London College of Fashion. She studied basic lingerie-making techniques there, but the real eye-opener for her was apprenticing at Huntsman's Savile Row with a menswear bespoke tailor who specialized in jackets.

“Bespoke tailoring is one of the oldest forms of tailoring,” explains Josee. “It’s where measurements are taken and each suit is customized to fit the man who will wear it. While I was apprenticing, I had this realization: if you can do this with a jacket, then you can do it with lingerie.”