Why I Created Prosper & Adore

I need to tell you something that is a little embarrassing.

Two years ago, I cancelled date night because I could not find a single outfit that did not make me feel worse about my body than when I started getting dressed. I stood in front of my wardrobe in Sydney for forty minutes. I tried on seven things. I texted Daniel that I had a headache.

I did not have a headache. I had a lower belly that nothing in my closet could make peace with.

I was not new to shapewear. I had tried four different brands at that point. The first one rolled up before our starters arrived at dinner. The second one gave me back fat I did not even have without it. The third one flattened my butt so completely that Daniel genuinely asked if I was wearing a different pair of jeans. And the fourth — the expensive one, the one that was supposed to be different — left visible lines under my satin dress and made going to the bathroom a ten-minute engineering project.

I started to think the problem was my body. That maybe I was the wrong shape for shapewear. That maybe women like me — not plus-size, not straight-size, just somewhere in the middle with a post-baby belly and wider hips — were simply not who these products were designed for.

That was the lie I almost believed.

“I created Prosper & Adore because I was tired of choosing between looking smooth and feeling like myself.”

The truth arrived through a conversation I was not expecting. A physiotherapist I saw for postpartum recovery mentioned that Colombian post-surgical compression is engineered differently from Western shapewear. I had no idea what she meant. So I went home and spent three weeks reading everything I could find.

What I learned changed the way I understood every piece of shapewear I had ever owned.

Western shapewear descends from corset engineering. It compresses one zone — usually the waist — and hopes the rest follows. That single-axis pressure is why it rolls down, because your body pushes back against the one point bearing all the force. It is why it digs in. It is why it flattens your curves while fixing your tummy. The engineering was never designed for your whole body. It was designed for your waistline, and everything else was collateral damage.

Colombian faja construction comes from a completely different tradition. It was born from surgical recovery support — designed to distribute compression across the full torso so that no single zone absorbs all the pressure. Tummy, waist, back, hips, and seat are supported simultaneously. That distributed architecture is why it stays in place. It is why it smooths without flattening. It is why you can sit, bend, breathe, and use the bathroom without a strategy meeting with yourself first.

That was the moment Prosper & Adore became real. Not as a brand idea. As a frustration that finally had an answer.

I am not going to tell you to love your body. That is not my job, and honestly, I find it patronising when brands say that while trying to sell you something. My job is to make a product that works well enough that your body stops being the loudest thing in your morning. That the outfit you actually wanted to wear becomes the outfit you actually wear. That getting dressed goes back to being a five-minute task instead of an emotional event.

The first woman who ordered from us emailed me four days after her package arrived. She said: “I wore it to my sister’s engagement party. Nine hours. I did not adjust it once. I forgot I was wearing it.” I read that email three times. That was the moment I knew this was going to work.

From Sydney to every wardrobe we become part of, Prosper & Adore exists for the woman who has already tried shapewear and been disappointed. The woman who does not need another brand lecture about self-love. The woman who just wants to get dressed, feel held, and move through her day without her tummy running the show.

Because your confidence should not feel like compression you cannot wait to take off.

It should feel like getting dressed and finally not thinking about it at all.