VPL

VPL started with a rebellious concept: a line of fashion underwear to be worn as outerwear (VPL is an acronym for "visible panty line"). Over the years VPL added performance functionality as activewear in order to make the concept real. Today VPL's innovative products frequently adorn the covers of magazines, celebrities on stage, movie and TV. Designed by women for women, VPL is a B-Corporation certified social venture with mission to empower women through education and fitness. VPL creatively incorporates excess fabric from prior production into new designs and uses the cost saving to fund women's education across the country. VPL’s CEO Kikka Hanazawa is also a founder of the non profit, Fashion Girls for Humanity, which became known to turn fashion excess goods to cash for disaster relief, raising over $1 million since 2011, and her both for-profit and non-profit ventures have been profiled in Forbes, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Nikkei, BBC, NBC, and many fashion publications around the world. She has been selected by Forbes for 2014 Philanthropist List, and Fashion Girls for Humanity was the recipient of Asia Society's Game Changer Award. VPL also won various industry prizes, including CFDA Lexus Eco Challenge and was selected as a finalist for the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund.