About JulieMay
Our Story
I built JulieMay to be a blessing to sensitive skin, starting with my own.
I’m Tiffany, founder of JulieMay. This is the honest version of how we began, in my own words, with as little corporate polish as I can manage.
In My Own Words
Living in my own skin
For most of my life I never thought of myself as someone with allergies. When the symptoms are always there, they simply feel normal. You stop being able to tell whether this is just you, or whether your body is quietly reacting to something.
I’ve had allergic rhinitis and hayfever for as long as I can remember, and in my thirties I was diagnosed with eosinophilic asthma. The short version is that the fibres and finishes in synthetic fabrics don’t just sit on your skin, they end up in the air you breathe. The worst nights, usually in winter, were the ones where I woke up covered in hives and had to get up and bathe at 3am to wash the allergens off before I could sleep again. Glamorous, I know.
Building JulieMay didn’t just give me a business. It helped me understand myself, and make peace with a body I’d spent years arguing with.
Read the full story on our blog →
Tiffany
Founder, JulieMay Lingerie
“A blessing to sensitive skin.”
“JulieMay came from my own story, my own discomfort, and my relief at finally understanding that my body was never the problem. It just needed better materials, better design, and a kinder conversation about women’s comfort.”
How It Happened
The journey
From Hong Kong to London
I came to the UK from Hong Kong and earned my Law Master’s at Queen Mary University of London. The plan was a sensible career in law. I’d love to tell you I had a grand vision for lingerie, but honestly, my own skin had other ideas.
Pitching JulieMay into existence
The first time I pitched JulieMay in front of a crowd was at Queen Mary’s Pitch Night in March 2018, and somehow I walked off with both Overall Winner and Best Pitch, plus the university’s backing to apply for a UK entrepreneur visa. A few days later, on 21 March, I sat in a small room in London and pitched the whole idea to my visa officers. I was terrified. The hardest question, and I quote, was to evaluate how Brexit would affect the business over the next three to five years. I must have said something sensible, because the Home Office let me stay and build JulieMay here.
Learning the craft, then building the business
I had the idea and the stubbornness, but I didn’t yet have the skill. So after my law degree I took a lingerie and swimwear design course at UAL, London College of Fashion, and learned the whole craft from the ground up. Patterns, fabrics, construction, the lot. There was a great deal of unpicking involved. About two years later JulieMay was properly set up, wearing the gold JULIEMAY wordmark it still wears today, and I had finished my very first design, which I’m still quietly proud of.
Our first show, and meeting the team
Our first ever show was the Allergy and Free From Show at London ExCeL, in July 2022. It’s also where I met our marketing lead face to face for the very first time, in front of one small table and a great deal of nervous energy. That little table turned out to be the beginning of the team JulieMay has now.
And the world started to notice
Somewhere in all that building, the work began to get noticed. Most Promising New Business of the Year, Best Lingerie Brand of the Year, a place among Britain’s most inspiring small firms, a Young Innovators’ Award, and a spot on NatWest and The Telegraph’s 100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch, with kind words in The Guardian and the Evening Standard. Lovely moments, every one, though really just more chapters in the same story.
Still listening, still building
The story is still being written. We’re working on smarter sizing, mastectomy and nursing bras, and deeper skin health education, so women can understand their skin and not only dress it. And the most important part of what comes next is you. If you have a story about your skin, your comfort, or simply a day that felt a little easier, we would genuinely love to hear it. Join our community, reply to any of our emails, and tell us. We are always listening.
What The Journey Taught Us
Five lessons from the road so far
Sensitive skin deserves beautiful choices
Nobody should have to choose between comfort and feeling like themselves.
Fabric matters, and so do the details
Cotton and silk help, but so does taking away what irritates, like exposed elastics and harsh dyes.
Comfort is built by a team that cares
It has to show up everywhere, in the design, the fit, the support and the way we listen.
Listening is a design tool, not a slogan
We ask our customers a great deal, because comfort is personal and we’d rather not guess.
Community is the quiet engine
It doesn’t just inspire us, it shapes what we make next.
The People Behind JulieMay
A small team with rather large hearts
JulieMay has never been one person. Behind every order is a small, slightly obsessive team who care about the women we make for, and about getting the little things right. We’re designers, marketers, makers and one extremely supportive dog. We’d rather not turn this into a row of job titles, because what matters isn’t who does exactly what. It’s that real people, who genuinely care, are looking after the thing in your drawer that touches your skin all day.
A Note To You
You’re part of this story now
Now and then I sit down and write a proper letter to the people who’ve shaped this brand, about what I’ve learned, what we’re changing, and what’s coming next. It’s the most honest thing we publish.
“Most importantly, I want to say this: I hear you. JulieMay exists because of the community that supports it, and every message and every story you share helps shape what we build next.”
What started with one woman’s rather stubborn skin has become a community of women all over the world. Thank you for being here. It means everything.