questions from our facebook wall

Kelly: Hey Melissa! I love lululemon! How did you come up with the design for all the clothes you make? Will you be making anything new soon? Let me know! Thanks!

Melissa: Hi Kelly, at the lab we are paying attention to what is going on on the streets right now, what people are wearing, what's trending, what our guests are requesting and then adapting those ideas into more functional clothing. We use the same great fabrics that our other stores carry but are definitely aiming for a different design aesthetic.

Melissa at the event, checking out the wall for your questions!

Laura: Are there any plans to expand the Lab concept to the U.S.? I know lots of people that would love one in Chicago!

Melissa: Hi Laura! We're brand new to the company and so far we're just one of a kind but depending on the feedback we get and the demand there's always a possibility that we'll open up in other major cities around the world. So keep that feedback coming - i personally would love to see more labs open up eventually!

The online community team watched your questions roll in on the big screen!

Lin: Hi Melissa! I was wondering what are some good lulu bras for running, and whether the tata tamer is appropriate for hi-impact sports?

Melissa: The Ta Ta Tamer is our best and ideal bra for high impact sports! This is the bra that I actually designed! [Check out the Ta Ta Tamer here: http://shop.lululemon.com/Ta_Ta_Tamer/]

Shawna and Alana made sure your questions didn't get missed.

Angela: How long does it take to make a former design in a new color. Such as the Ta-Ta-Tamer - but say you wanted to make it available in Savage Green. What's that process like? Is it pretty simple to just match the new fabric and then make?

Melissa: for all the garments that are in store right now, they were planned in those particular colours almost a year ago - and the Ta Ta Tamer is pretty complex and takes a while to produce.

Laura: You should design light weight lulu harem pants, or lulu shoes/sneakers to wear at the gym, or slip on to wear to yoga.

Melissa: Hi Laura! We have made some amazing harem pants out of organic cotton and some out of luxtreme - super light and different functions - here at lululemon lab. You can check us out on facebook, we have all our garments in our photo albums. And you can write on our page if you have any further questions!

Laura: Hi Melissa! I'm wondering what you recommend for washing the removable pads?

Also, THANK YOU for designing the most amazing sports bra I have ever owned! I ran the Vancouver half-marathon a couple of weekends ago (my first time!!) and the Ta Ta Tamer totally transformed my training. YOU ROCK!!

Melissa: Hi Laura! Congrats on the Half! I was there in the pouring rain cheering everyone on! I ran my first half in the ta ta tamer too.

I like to hand wash the cups in warm soapy water and rinse and lay flat to dry. If you are in a pinch you can put them through the washer but they aren't designed to sustain that sort of wear over a long time.

Paula, Laura, and Liz (not pictured) answered questions after the party moved to Twitter

questions from twitter

@erinklegstad: any chance of @lululemon cycling clothing? I can't find any cute tops or shorts!

Melissa: we have heard lots of cycling gear requests - stay tuned to your local store, we do love feedback!

@adamgiers: hey melissa! any chance of graphic hoodies coming out in the future?

Melissa: Heck YA!! Stay tuned to lululemon.com

@shawnajacques: What are your @lululemon goals?

Melissa: Next up - Open a Lab in Toronto!! - what do you think Tdot?

@_nanc: I wish I worked at @lululemon!

Melissa: You should join the team and apply online!

Afterwards we celebrated online community manager Carolyn's b-day!

Thank you to everyone who came online to ask questions and participate in the event! We had so much fun and we are already looking forward to the next one.

Which designer would you like to hear from next? Run? Men’s? Yoga? Comment below and let us know - we're listening!

Hi everyone,

it's Alana here from the lululemon online team! I will be helping facilitate tomorrow's chat with Melissa on Facebook and Twitter and making sure we answer as many questions as possible. Thank you to those of you who already asked your question in the comments here or on Facebook. We are excited, too!

Melissa will be answering as many questions as possible, but if your question doesn’t get answered please know that it may be because it requires someone from that specific department to answer. To clarify exactly what kinds of questions Melissa will be best equipped to answer, keep on readin’!

questions melissa can't answer

Anything involving secret sauce. Also: whether specific products will be coming back, future store locations, and/or enhancements to specific current products. This is because each product has its very own department within lululemon, and only someone from that specific department would be able to answer those specific questions. So if you're aching to ask a question about our run shorts, let us know! If we get enough run questions we will bring a run designer online for our next chat.

questions melissa can answer

As we mentioned in our introduction, Melissa worked on the product team for three years between production and design as lululemon's full-support, high-impact bra designer and will be able to answer most bra-specific questions. Have a question about how your bra fits or what tank to pair with it? Ask Melissa. Also feel free to ask her about our bra line, her experience as a designer, or what it's like to work on the design/production team. Do you love the Ta Ta Tamer? Guess what, she invented it!

Melissa now manages the lululemon lab - a unique retail/design space based in Vancouver. The lab designs, creates and produces lululemon pieces that you can't buy in regular lululemon locations. Are you wondering if the lab has plans for expansion, what they make, if they plan to sell it online? Come online and ask!

And finally, Melissa is a super friendly and creative person with lots of interesting goals. Read some of her blog posts to get to know her better here.

She's yours for 60 minutes, and very excited to hear from you!

See you tomorrow at 6:30 pm PST!

Alana

ask a question on facebook

On Wednesday, May 12 at 6:30 pm come to our Facebook wall and ask your design and product-related questions for Melissa, lululemon lab manager / designer.

ask a question on twitter

At 7:00pm the chat party is moving to Twitter, so tweet Melissa your question @lululemon!

meet melissa!

Melissa checking out a sample at the lululemon lab in Vancouver

Some facts about Melissa:

• She's been with lululemon for 4.5 years, with 3 of those on the product team between production and design
• Claim to fame: created the Ta Ta Tamer
• Currently doing a 30 day Harem pant challenge (watch for the blog)
• Favourite designer: Alexander McQueen (fun fact: I named my new macbook McQueen)
• Used to be a makeup artist
• Current personal goal pursuit: photography class
• One year goal: open up a lab in Toronto

see you online may 12!

This is our very first online chat with a designer. Bring your burning questions, and see you online May 12 at 6:30pm PST!

What do you do at lululemon?

I’m a Project Coordinator ... "What does that mean?" is usually the next question I get. Basically I manage the process of construction related projects. I do this for showrooms, minor works (adding slat walls, adding lighting, replacing floors etc), sweeps program, and open re-models (a renovation done on a store while it remains open).

What is a typical Monday like?

Oh Mondays... bike to work, Store Dev construction call where we discuss the progress of each new store we are working on, lots of email catch up, circuit training, get down to business. I like to leave Mondays somewhat free from meetings because there is lots of catch up from the weekend. You have to play the coast game, send out a bunch of emails Friday afternoon and by the time you get in Monday morning all your east coast people have gotten back to you, very helpful.

What are your quotes to live by?

Live simply, speak kindly, love generously, care deeply.

How do you sweat once a day?

Bike, circuit training and now the Grouse Grind. I like to mix it up or I get bored.

What is your 10 year goal?

Hmmm…. Blissfully married to the man of my dreams, living in Vancouver by the beach, working part time, traveling the rest.

Our bra designer (aka Chief Ta Ta Tamer) Melissa (on the right) with MelEesa, also a lululemon designer.

In less then 3 days time, I’ll begin a 60km journey through the streets of Vancouver. I’ll be one of a couple of thousand participants in The Weekend To End Breast Cancer which benefits The BC Cancer Foundation. This is actually my third time participating, but my first time walking in Vancouver. I walked for the first time in 2005 in Toronto, and last year I took my walk to the streets of Rome, Italy – accomplishing two goals in one weekend.

This year I’m excited to walk through a city that I’ve come to call my home.

The beauty of this walk is that it’s not about the walk at all. It’s really about the journey we all embark on when we initially sign up for the walk. Since that moment, I’ve been fundraising and talking up a storm. It’s amazing to me to see my community come together to support me in achieving this goal of mine. Between word of mouth, a few emails, selling bags of candy at the office (a little known fact about lululemon’s product team is that we’ve all got a sweet tooth), and holding BBQ lunches on the rooftop for the whole Store Support Centre at lunch time. Friends and colleagues came together to help with the planning, prepping and execution, and their selfless support humbles me continuously.

Although I am still a few dollars short of reaching my minimum (mandatory) pledge of $2000 I know it will all come together in time.

If you aren't familiar with the walk, we start bright and early Saturday morning at Rocky Mountaineer Station and walk throughout the city, camping overnight on Saturday at Killarney Park. Another early rise on Sunday and we finish right back where we started. I'll be surrounded by thousands of other walkers, including survivors, supporters, women who are currently fighting, oodles of family members that are walking for someone they loved and lost, and others like me who walk simply because we can. I may not be walking with friends but I won't be walking alone.

Vancouver, when you see us walking through your neighborhood this weekend, cheer us on. We worked hard to raise an awful lot of money for the BC Cancer Foundation and would love to hear your support.

I’ll be videoing portions of my walk and will be posting a little video blog in the coming weeks, as well as tweeting along the route all day long documenting the journey.

Much love,
Your favorite Ta Ta Tamer

Melissa

You can support Melissa here: www.endcancer.ca/goto/tatatamer2009
Follow The Weekend to End Breast Cancer on twitter: http://twitter.com/Wkend2EndCancer
Follow Melissa's journey this weekend at http://twitter.com/Miss_Content

Above: Melissa, the designer of the Ta Ta Tamer and author of this blog post, at her desk in our head office in Vancouver, BC. 

How exciting that the Ta Ta Tamer is making it’s online debut! I couldn’t be more excited to share this product with our online guests.

Let me tell you a little about this bad boy; The Ta Ta Tamer is lululemon’s very first Full Support Sports bra – honest to goodness ladies, Full Support! I’m on the small end of the big boob girls out there but I have enough that I used to wear 2 bras to be comfortable when running. So naturally when I was asked where I saw myself on the Design Team (I was working as a Product Developer, always with goals to move into Design) I couldn’t help but suggest I design Full Support bras for us. The Ta Ta Tamer is my first ‘baby’ and we’ve had such great response from the guests in our stores that I just couldn’t wait to be able to share this with everyone.

We receive regular emails from stores/guests/online community about women no longer needing to wear multiple bras to go for a run – these are the things that make my life and the stories that give me chills I print out and put on my cork board for daily inspiration.

The goal with the TTT was to have a bra geared at larger cup sizes C-DD’s (eventually going up to E cups online only – stay tuned!) specifically for high impact sports like running. One of my pet peeves with most sports bras available today is that they smoosh, I’m a girl and a curvy one and I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t look like a girl when I’m running. The cups maintain your shape – say goodbye to uni-boob! The Ta Ta Tamer is available in regular bra sizes that fit true to size – if you don’t know your size you may want to go to a specialty bra store to get properly fitted, or if you are close to a lululemon athletica location we have fit experts there that would be happy to help you.  

Keep in mind this is designed specifically for full support – which means a snug fit – that’s how it works.

• Try to fit the bra on the middle row of hook & eye loops and a comfortable strap length for regular gym workouts and medium impact activities.
• Specific non stretch areas under the bust and under the arms take a lot of the weight off of your shoulders and keep it around the band – which is where it should be.
• Stabilized shoulder straps help control movement.
• The shoulder straps are also  lightly padded and a little wider to help distribute weight and be as comfortable as possible.
• Mesh around the cup areas not only helps with stability and motion control but also ventilation.
• Tighten up the shoulder straps and hook & eye closure for maximum support during your run

You know your bra is fitting you properly when:

• everything is feeling snug and secure
• there is no spillage out the armholes or top of the cups
• you can breathe
• your girls are front & centre – out of the way of your arms
• the rib cage band sits straight all the way around your torso – if your band is riding up your back then it’s too big and you likely need to go down a band size (*note* if the cups fit you well but the band is riding up, when you go down a band size you need to go up a cup size – so a 36C that is riding up the back may need to try a 34D)
• Jump up and down and make sure your bounce is minimal – adjust straps accordingly

Enjoy! And please send feedback! The Fall 09 colors (hitting stores somewhere close to August) will have adjustable straps in the back so you can easily hide the straps under your racerback tanks (you can see I like to colour coordinate my bras with my outfits).

Here's a peek at what we currently have available online:

In Black or Aruba: http://shop.lululemon.com/Ta_Ta_Tamer_II/
In Alarming: http://shop.lululemon.com/Ta_Ta_Tamer_II/

Or, as always, pop into your local lululemon and do the jump-up-and-down-in-the-change-room test.

Enjoy in good health!