Transgender designer expands her underwear range to trans children

Carmen Liu hopes the range will allow trans children to feel like they belong within their own bodies. Photo / Getty

The world's first underwear range designed specifically for transgender children is being launched by a UK designer.

Carmen Liu is expanding her GI Collection range to include underwear for trans children, saying that she hopes they will allow then to feel like they belong within their own body, the Daily Mail reports.

GI Collection says the company "stands proud at the forefront of innovation" with its latest announcement.

The range will feature unique design elements especially tailored for the unique needs of trans girls.

In a statement, GI Collection said: "Despite elements of progress over the last few years, transgender people are still shunned from society and discriminated against unfairly.

Carmen Liu modelling the GI Collection in February this year. Photo / Getty

"They often lack psychological and emotional support when it comes to making the transition.

"Everyone should be offered the basic right of unrestrictive clothing – and transgender children are no exception."

Liu, a former ballet dancer, launched GI Collection in February after realising that there was nothing on the market design specifically for trans women.

The adult range sold out in days, proving that there was a strong demand from the trans community.

Prior to the launch, the only underwear marketed to pre-op trans women was a "gaff" underwear, used to tuck in genitalia.

In an interview with Huffpost, Liu said: "Underwear is a basic need for everyone, it's something that you put on every morning.

Carmen Liu launched the range after seeing that there were no underwear options for trans women. Photo / Getty

"If you go into a shop on the high street and can't buy products for you, you just feel really undesired and unaccepted.

"We do sometimes have different bodies – the shape of our bodies doesn't always work with cis female clothes – so it would be nice to see some brands go a bit further to help us."

While there are no official statistics on the number of trans people in New Zealand, at the Wellington Endocrine Service the numbers identifying as trans at their clinic shows an increase in recent years — from between 10 and 15 a year between 2000 and 2008 to 30 in 2014 and 92 in 2016.

The age ranges in 2016 were between 17 and 51 but most were at the younger end — the median age was early 20s.