"About binders, T-Kingdom and myself"
By Winson Lo
President and founder, T-Kingdom

Hi, my name is Winson Lo and I am the founder of T-Kingdom (that's me on the right). I would like to take this chance to write a little bit about binders, why I make them and perhaps a bit about myself.

Binders...

Binders are designed to bind your breasts. In the 16th century, women wore corsets to shrink their body, in order to look slimmer, and to be more attractive to men. Nowadays, people use binders to flatten their breasts, but for another purpose - to show the self-awareness of their own body.

People bind their breasts for different needs, some for good looks, some for gender identification, and some for sense of security. They are Lesbians, FTM and people who suffer from the discomfort of big breasts. Sometimes, even people attending a masquerade will use a binder.

In the past, people used all sorts of ways and materials to bind their breasts. One such techniques is winding elastic bands around the body, but the bad thing is that the bands easily come loose as the person is moving, and of course, if the bands fall down, it can be really embarrassing. Besides, you can't wear thin clothes in the summer otherwise people will notice weird shapes under your clothes or even see the bands. And because of the material the bands are made of, sweat doesn't evaporate easily. This causes the bands to stink after a while, even if you wash them everyday, and if you use a public laundry place the bands might attract attention.

Another technique is even worse - "the belly binder", it's really heavy, tight, uncomfortable, and can slip down easily. To avoid this, some people use sticky tape to secure it over the chest. This leads to strange plastic smells and it of course hurts a lot when you tear it off. The people using these belly binders are not only tolerating all these pains, but also the risk of embarrassment if other people will see what they are wearing.

So, how did I come up with the idea of producing binders? The greatest motivation is my own need.

Me & T-Kingdom ...

I have liked gender neutral dressing styles since I was young. Until I was about junior high school age, I knew about lesbians, and then I realized that "I am a lesbian myself". At that time I adjusted very well to my new gender identification, and I thought it's a very natural thing to me, because that's the real me! But my parents didn't take my coming out of the closet so easy. They thought I were influenced by some bad guys and tried to stop me and change my dressing. But they didn't understand that dressing style cannot change the inner gender tendency, the appearance is only the reflection of one's appreciation of beauty. Fortunately, after many conversations, and my "good performance", my parents eventually accepted my lesbianism, and supported my "binder production" career very much. They often give me their opinions on my business, and recommend my products to their friends who needed it. They are really amazing parents, aren't they?!

I started wearing binders when I was in high school. Like most did at that time, I used flexible bands that winding tight around my breasts. Some of my friends were using sticky tape or "belly binder". These were all extremely uncomfortable and inconvenient methods. So we came up with the idea of "how wonderful it would be if we had some clothes that could bind our breasts".

My "binder" business originated together with a friend who had started the clothes design business several years earlier than me. Before that I had been working with my father in his bakery. Because of my own need for a binder and since I wanted to share this better technique with all my friends, so I decided to work with her. In the beginning I was in charge of frontline sales, and she was responsible for production. But we fought a lot around the problem of supply shortage. To avoid the shortage and fight, I went to study "how to make and design clothes" at the Employment and Vocational Training Administration. After I got their Diploma, I started to make and design clothes. Since then I have put all my efforts into my binder-business and have been enjoying it so much. The first partnership lasted for 4 years, but we decided to part since we couldn't agree on how to run the business.

T-Kingdom was founded in 1998 with only the 3 models we had "inherited" from the old partnership. By now we have added another 8 models to cater to different needs and body shapes. In 1999, we broke the conservative way and started selling our products via the Internet since we wanted to reach International markets. It was very exciting to start seeing orders coming in from all over the world. Every day is a learning experience - "Hey, where is Belize?" or "how do we ship 200 pieces to Sweden in the cheapest way?"

Together with some friends, we established "Republic of Castro", a Chinese language community website for lesbians and gays. T-Kingdom was one of products provided by Castro, together with financial services, gift cards etc. With about 30% sales growths, T-Kingdom meets more people's needs. Starting from early 2003, together with Enspyre's marketing support (www.enspyre.com); we're exploring oversea markets more proactively, in order to serve more people across different nationalities.

Where we are going ...

These days, T-Kingdom is not only providing Taiwanese lesbians and FTMs a comfortable and convenient binding bra, but we are also researching on ergonomic products, and come up with more designs for more needs.

Being in need of binders myself as well as loving what I do, I am always thinking about how to design comfortable, useful and pretty clothes. T-Kingdom will keep on improving to make more and more user-friendly products.

Some friends with big breasts kept asking me how to make breasts look totally flat. The fact is that using a binder is not like having a surgery which can take your breasts away overnight. If it could, how terrible wouldn't that be? So if you have big breasts, you have to be more patient, flatten your breasts gradually with the binder and do some exercise to make it sturdy. We don't suggest you to wear a binder that's too tight and makes you feel uncomfortable.

While running T-Kingdom, the greatest reward is to get to know many friends from a variety of occupations and places. With their precious ideas T-Kingdom grows better and stronger, since as we really need a great binder!

Take care everybody!

Winson

Office hours: Monday - Friday (09:00a.m. to 6:00p.m. Taiwan time)

E-mail: service@t-kingdom.com
FAX: +886-2-6609-6051
Address: 2F., No.460, Jhonghe Rd., Jhonghe City, Taipei County 235, Taiwan (R.O.C.)