Nisa: underwear with a mission

Nisa: Underwear With A Mission

Project 2017-10-26 16:37:53 +1300

Update: We are so overwhelmed and grateful for the response we have had since launching the Pledge Me on Friday evening. We reached our goal in a weekend!  ❤️  We now aim to push past our goal of $10,000 and reach $20,000. The additional income will go towards:

1. ongoing product developing, including offering larger sizes
2. staff training
3. increasing staff wages

We will be posting updates about our progress through our Instagram/Facebook account. In other news, we were on the front page of the Dominion Post! Check out the full article here.

Nisa is an underwear label that aims to help women from the bottom up.  Our underwear is lovingly sewn by women from a refugee background in a sunny studio in Wellington, NZ.  Our mission is to provide them with meaningful and interesting paid work, while at the same time making kick-ass undies.

Nisa’s founding employees are Boshra, left, from Syria, Fowziya from Somalia and Rana from Iraq

We work with the softest organic cotton knit fabric and locally woven elastics to create a hug for your bottom.  We have four different styles of briefs to suit every shape, size and lifestyle.  We also offer bralettes in matching colours, for those with comfort in mind.

The Nisa team has three employees from refugee backgrounds and our goal is to employ more.  Our employees have sewing skills from their home countries, which we’ve built on by training them to use our specialist lingerie sewing machines.

We believe Kiwis need to do our best to help refugees not just resettle, but thrive in New Zealand.  Help us launch our brand and transform lives one derrière at a time.

Ashleigh wears the grey set (high waisted half cheek brief and bralette), and Newala and Tian are wearing the white set (low waisted, half cheek brief and bralette).  Check out our website for our full product range (www.nisa.co.nz)

The limited edition Christmas snowflake pattern shows our full cheek option.  

Our team

Elisha Watson quit her full-time job as a lawyer to found Nisa early this year, after spending two years volunteering with the Red Cross as a refugee resettlement volunteer.

Elisha spoke to many refugees who desperately wanted to find work - to become better integrated in their communities and provide for their families - but were held back by language and cultural barriers.

She bonded with many women over their shared love of sewing, and wanted to create a business that would utilise those skills and provide them with their first job in New Zealand.

Nisa’s founding employees are Boshra (from Syria), Rana (from Iraq) and Fowziya (from Somalia).  We can’t wait for our team to grow. We also have the lovely Shannon helping with marketing.

Our ask

We are in the pre-launch phase at the moment, and there are a few final costs to meet before we can formally launch our online shop in Jan/Feb.  We need two more specialist industrial sewing machines (which cost approximately $4,000 each) to make the best underwear possible, and we need to train our employees to use them safely and sew to the highest standard.  We also want to further develop our line of bralettes - we have patterns and test pairs, but we want to ensure we can offer a range of sizes.

Find us

Instagram: www.instagram.com/nisaclothingnz

Facebook: www.facebook.com/nisaclothingnz

Website: nisa.co.nz

Email: [email protected]

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