Tag: Natalie Grunberg

The beauty of France here

“Panty By Post is about shipping a piece of self-love in a little package,” says Natalie Grunberg. (photo from Natalie Grunberg)

Underwear. We all wear it and it’s not something most of us think too deeply about – until our own pairs look too disheveled, torn or worn out to warrant further use. But Vancouverite Natalie Grunberg thinks a lot about underwear – panties, specifically.

She started considering these hidden pieces of apparel on a trip to France in 2009. “I was inspired by the lifestyle I saw,” she told the Independent. “I loved the way the women dressed, the kind of confidence they have when they’re walking down the street and looking so lovely, even if it’s just to get a baguette.” As she spent time in French stores, she noticed the beauty of French underwear and lingerie and, not long after she landed at YVR, she started her own company, Panty By Post (pantybypost.com).

“I feel like there is value in putting yourself together well, and it starts with your underwear,” she said. “Panty By Post is about shipping a piece of self-love in a little package – the sexiness, self-respect and confidence of the French comes to your doorstep like self-esteem in a box.”

Grunberg, 39, is a native Vancouverite and member of Congregation Or Shalom who has been vacationing in France since the age of 14. That French influence had a profound impact on the Grunberg kids. Paul, Natalie’s brother, owns the French restaurant L’Abattoir in Gastown, while Natalie, formerly a high school teacher, gave up her day job two years ago to focus on her business. The learning curve was steep and those first five years, she said, were “like a mini MBA where I taught myself the skills I needed.”

At first, she imported sexy, lacy panties. Then she surveyed her customers to find out what they were looking for in terms of panties and bras. She learned that her mostly North American customers wanted beautiful underwear that was comfortable and durable, “nothing poofy or scratchy. They need to be able to wear them under their business suits or under their jeans,” she explained. So, she created her own label and forged a manufacturing relationship with a Colombian company. “I prefer working with Colombia over China because they offer really great working conditions and give their workers health care and support for single moms,” she said.

photo - Monthly subscriptions start at $15 and increase depending on the style and type of panty
Monthly subscriptions start at $15 and increase depending on the style and type of panty. (photo from Natalie Grunberg)

Who buys panties by post? It’s an admittedly unusual way to source your underwear but Grunberg’s demographic ranges from 25 through 65. “Sometimes, it’s a mom buying for their daughter or themselves, other times a husband or boyfriend is purchasing for their partner, but this is not for the bargain shopper,” she insisted. “Our customer is not the Costco shopper who buys a Haines pack of 10 underwear. Rather, these are women and men who understand the quality and value of a good panty.”

The Panty By Post transaction starts on the internet with monthly panty subscriptions starting at $15 and increasing depending on the style and type of panty. Grunberg includes a handwritten note in each box of panties she ships and can personalize the notes if her customers have a specific message they want to relay. Some have been monthly subscribers for the seven years she’s been in business. Others prefer to use Panty By Post for special occasions like a bridal shower gift or Valentine’s Day treat.

There’s a massive difference in the mindset of French versus American women, Grunberg noted, and it goes well beyond the panties they choose. “French women focus on buying good quality instead of volume. They 100% understand the value of wearing beautiful underwear, not just for your partner, but for yourself. North American women are more focused on comfort and don’t see the value of those little details. We don’t care as much about quality because we’re more focused on buying a lot.”

Grunberg is determined to change that mindset. “It’s not OK to sacrifice beauty for practicality because we can have it all,” she said. “It’s not about impressing a man, it’s about taking pride in your appearance. I’m on a mission to change the panty drawers of North American women. I want to bring the experience of France directly to your door.”

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

Ready to welcome refugees

As of Nov. 24, the Government of Canada was processing 4,511 applications for privately sponsored Syrian refugees (not including Quebec, which has its own procedure). The map shows communities where private sponsors have submitted an application. (image from cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/welcome)

Vancouver’s Jewish community is mobilizing to welcome refugees from Syria. The federal government has announced that 25,000 Syrian refugees will come to Canada before the end of February. While most of those will be government-sponsored, groups of Canadians, including many in the Jewish community, are leaping at the opportunity to be a part of the resettlement project.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Anglican church to streamline the process. The federal government has a number of sponsorship agreement holders, which are established, experienced groups that are engaged in aiding refugees on an ongoing basis. To expedite the process, the Jewish community is primarily working through the partnership with the Anglican Church of Canada so that synagogues and other Jewish groups that may want to sponsor can do so efficiently.

“The Anglican diocese, rather than setting up a separate relationship with each of the synagogues, proposed that there be one memorandum of understanding with the Jewish community,” said Shelley Rivkin, Federation’s vice-president for planning, allocations and community affairs. “We will be the holder of the memorandum of understanding so the synagogues will raise the funds and issue a tax receipt. The funds will then come to us and be in a restricted account and, as those funds are distributed, they will go directly through us so that the diocese is not having to deal with multiple parties.”

Or Shalom Synagogue has already raised two-thirds of the funds necessary to sponsor three families. Natalie Grunberg, a member of the Or Shalom Syrian Refugees Initiative, said they are expecting their sponsored refugees as early as January. The group has launched a series of events, including a concert of Syrian music, to raise awareness and money for the project. The federal government estimates the cost of sponsoring a refugee family for a year to be about $30,000, but Vancouverites involved in the process are working on an assumption of about $40,000, based on housing costs here.

Or Shalom is working through existing partnerships they have built over the years. Rather than going through the Anglican church, they are working with the United Church of Canada. Grunberg acknowledged that some in the Jewish community have differences with the United Church’s stand toward Israel, but the priority was to expedite the refugee sponsorship process and they believed working through existing relationships would be most effective.

Grunberg is noticeably proud of her congregation’s efforts so far.

“We’re a very small synagogue and we’re sponsoring three families,” she said.

Through existing relationships with the Syrian community here, Or Shalom will focus their sponsorship efforts on reunifying families that already have some members in Metro Vancouver and also on members of the LGBT community.

Temple Sholom is also rallying for refugees. Almost immediately after announcing the idea during the High Holidays, the synagogue raised enough money to sponsor one family.

“We’ve now decided to sponsor a second family,” said Rabbi Dan Moskovitz.

He acknowledges that there have been some anxieties among his congregation about bringing Syrian refugees here.

“I met with every person that voiced that concern to me,” he said. “I met with them personally. We talked about it. We talked about the people that we are bringing in – they were concerned about terrorists coming across – we talked about the difference between private sponsorship, as we are doing, and what we’ve been seeing in Europe with refugees flooding across borders … that we were sponsoring families with young children, that our sponsorships were family reunification, so they would have real roots here in B.C., particularly in Vancouver. We acknowledge the fears but at the same time we also recognize that this is a crisis and that the Jewish tradition teaches us quite clearly to love the stranger. Israel is doing things for refugees on the Syrian border right now with their hospitals and we had to do our part.”

Moskovitz cites Torah as the basis for his enthusiasm.

“Thirty-six times in the Torah, in the Bible, it says to love the stranger because you were once strangers in the land,” he said. “The Jews were once refugees ourselves and this goes all the way back to the land of Egypt and the slavery of the Israelites under Pharaoh, where we were running for our lives; in that case from the famine, according to the biblical story, and the Egyptian people welcomed the Jewish people, welcomed us in and gave us food and shelter and we lived there for 435 years, according to the Bible. From that and so many other times in the Bible, the most often-repeated commandment in all of Jewish tradition is to love the stranger, to love the immigrant; love the stranger, because that was you once.”

More modern Jewish history is also a factor, he added.

“We are largely still here even though throughout our history people have tried to destroy us because at critical times in our history some people took us in,” said Moskovitz. “We like to think we did it all by ourselves and there is no doubt that there is a tremendous resiliency of the Jewish people but, at the same time, we have been the beneficiary of others sheltering us at times of mortal danger.”

Congregation Beth Israel has created a task force to look into possibly sponsoring a Kurdish Syrian refugee family. Executive director Shannon Etkin said the group will analyze the resources available within the congregation community to provide for a family beyond the minimum requirements set out by the federal government.

Other synagogues, organizations and individuals who may not have the resources to directly sponsor a refugee or family are being encouraged to support on-the-ground efforts by the Joint Distribution Committee, which is aiding refugees in Turkey and Hungary. This support is being organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.

“They’re doing a lot of direct aid for women and children and also doing some work with frontline responders,” Rivkin said.