“When I was first workshopping the idea with friends, a friend was like, ‘Shira, you're gonna be known as the vagina girl, ”said Shira Wheeler, the co-founder of Oddobody. “I think that I credit my parents with being really open about this stuff.”

Body talk can be uncomfortable, especially for teenagers and young adults, but Wheeler believes it does not have to be. Inside a rented studio located in The Shirt Factory on 77 Cornell St. in Kingston, she keeps a basket of pamphlets breaking down everything from hormones to pelvic floor health and anatomy.

On a table in the center of the room sits the organic cotton underwear Oddobody is known for selling, while the wall above the couch displays a wide array of artwork, photography and posters; one a simple line drawing of a woman wearing underwear, another including a pregnant woman staring into the open sky and a variety of women’s body types and appearances lounging on their beds, in a photoshoot or at the beach.

Starting from a Kickstarter campaign with a friend, Abigail Gerow, who is currently based in Richmond, Va. but met Wheeler in New York City, this studio has been the place where Wheeler and her team have brainstormed, designed and archived underwear and bathing suits for 10 years.

The beginnings of Oddobody were humble – one design of women’s 100-percent cotton underwear using Japanese fabric which Wheeler was creating in New York City. But after receiving funding from an angel investor in 2019, Wheeler and Gerow were able to develop four styles, which has since grown to 15. Oddobody now sells products for women, men and children, all of whom Wheeler said could benefit from all-organic undergarments.

Now, a factory in Peru grows organic cotton, mills fabric and operates a sewing line to create about 10,000 pairs of underwear and swimsuits a month which are then sold on the company’s website. Anything from French cuts, thongs, strings, briefs, tanga and sleep shorts. Aside from its website, Oddobody is also online in Nordstrom and sells in boutiques “across the U.S.”

The real story began much earlier than that, with Wheeler “having a hunch” that the synthetic fabric which came to dominate the clothing market in recent years were not ideal. While Wheeler said that many clothing manufacturers prefer synthetic fabric because they are easier to cut and fit, she heard gynecologists recommend cotton underwear. Wheeler has also pointed to recent studies that indicate microplastics are leading to lower sperm counts in men. But not noticing many options in the market, Wheeler took matters into her own hands.

“I think now the science has really caught up. Of course, microplastics are terribly harmful to our environment, so they're found in the oceans, in our bodies,” Wheeler said. “It's often harder to wash out synthetic fabrics from bacteria, because the synthetic fabrics basically grab the oils, whereas cotton attracts water.”

Now, Wheeler describes the process as beginning with a team of nine “super talented, extraordinary people,” put up ideas on a whiteboard and brainstorm new designs. Wheeler credits her background in art and design for her inspiration, often pulling from shows or reference images that she has kept, while her tech designer and director of product refine the vision.

Inspiration can be simple; Wheeler used the example of a team member’s mother suggesting French cuts, while a different team member remembered loving her string bikini from the 1990s. What Wheeler finds especially exciting are the colors, introducing three new collections a year including the “seasonal color drops.”

“Initially it came from in many ways my mom's bathing suits from the 1970s, so that was the inspiration for the initial cut,” Wheeler said. “I just create this crazy moodboard, and then the team adds inspiration photos to the mood board, and then we pull colors from a reflection of the year prior, and then we choose the colors.”

On the design table, Wheeler laid out a black bathing suit with “Oddo” written on the top and “body” written on the bottom. Just from first glance and feel, the soft, knitted fabric stands out from the typical slick spandex that dominates the beaches and pools during the summer. Wheeler said it was based on their original underwear design and it has become so popular that it has almost sold out on their website.

Ever since making the switch from synthetic fabrics, Wheeler said that she can feel the difference, and that customer feedback agrees. She describes the cotton underwear as easier to wash and “more breathable.” She told Kingston Wire that she’s received messages from customers stating that the cotton underwear has “made a real difference.”

Oddobody’s mission does not stop there. Wheeler recalls being younger and struggling to have conversations about topics such as yeast infections or bacterial vaginosis even with health practitioners, as well as noticing how her own daughter’s relationship with her body has begun to evolve as she grows older. For Wheeler, that is exactly why each order comes with a free pamphlet discussing a different topic related to bodily health.

Wheeler works with a team of experts and graphic designers to create the pamphlets, which Wheeler describes as making educational information “a piece of artwork that you want to hang on your wall.”

This issue is all about testosterone. A small, white piece of paper with a green swirl design opens up to explain the “hormone with a PR problem,” breaking down what testosterone scientifically is and what it does to the body compared with the pop-culture representation of it.

“The idea is that we use the underwear as a way to spark conversations about bodies,” Wheeler said. “So instead of traditional printed marketing materials, we have created this.”

For Wheeler, the idea seems to be working. Oddobody has been able to participate in markets and pop-ups where Wheeler and other team members could sell products and interact with customers directly. Wheeler described some attendees pulling parts of the underwear from underneath their pants and, with a laugh, some “TMI” stories.

“I've tried really hard to be open and talk about bodies with my daughter in the same way my parents did,” Wheeler said. “I think that it's really a cultural shift in the way that we're taught how to think about our bodies, how to look at our bodies, how we feel about our bodies, and so that's really where Oddobody comes from. This effort to shift the way culture talks and feels about our own bodies.”

Wheeler has also hosted a fit salon in the studio, with an open call for models. Putting flyers up around town, Wheeler said the goal was to feature diverse body types. Instead of runway models or swimsuit magazines, Wheeler hoped to create an experience that felt much more intimate and true to the real world.

Oddobody has also commissioned a series called "Bodies in the Know," where photographers are commissioned to take self-portraits wearing the underwear, which Wheeler said has been “beautiful.”

“It's always so interesting to see where they start with the images, and then where they end because inevitably they lose themselves and find themselves again,” Wheeler said. “When you begin to explore and really look at your body, you begin to really love the texture and skin and muscles and the way you move.”

Since starting the business, Wheeler recalled beginning to ask questions about why certain underwear was considered “sexy” and others were not, and why the ones considered more attractive were also the least functional. When it comes to marketing, she also recalled the experience of being in the women’s locker room and seeing all types of bodies – older, younger, thin, large, curvy, wrinkled – and how important that was.

“I think having that exposure to real bodies is really important, and how that's packaged to us, and what is defined as beautiful,” Wheeler said. “I think that our hope is to create a much more encompassing vision of what is beautiful.”

Oddobody is not finished yet. They are celebrating their 10-year anniversary on Oct. 22, plan on launching a tween section, expanding the men’s section and, in the future, possibly a storefront in Kingston or Richmond.

“Something my business partner and I were really passionate about from the beginning was building a human-centered business where we could be thoughtful to ourselves and our employees and our customers, but that means that we have to sell a lot of underwear,” Wheeler said. “This year we're finally there where we can afford to build the team, and hopefully, I think the goal is to do this for a long time.”