This is not your mother’s Tupperware party.
The type of clothing once reserved for suburban housewives of the 1960s who bulk-ordered plastic containers is now bringing a very different product – men’s underwear.
Instead of tables laden with cookware, trunk shows feature a troupe of male models stripped down to their breeches.
Along with boy-watching, guests can sip and snack while browsing products from men’s underwear startup brand ALPHX — a party square Heidi Hapanowicz couldn’t resist.
“I’m like, this sounds amazing, sign me up,” the brand’s personal photographer told The Post, recalling that she was approached as a potential host for the brand’s first party at her Manhattan apartment.
ALPHX co-founders Garrett Swann and Tom Speight came up with the idea of updating the classic shindig to connect directly with consumers and get real-time product feedback.
They enlisted the help of business owners or friends to throw a party with their “sphere of influence,” or about 30 people.
“Women bring their boyfriends, their spouses or their friends and it’s just a lot of fun,” Speight, who has held executive roles at Calvin Klein, Kate Spade and 2(X)IST, told The Post.
Hapanowicz remembers her mom throwing Tupperware and jewelry parties when she was just a little girl, but the shopping spree in 2022 looked a little different than the ones she grew up with.
“I had an apartment full of gay men walking around in their underwear, but it was very healthy,” said Hapanowicz, 50, adding that the party, which featured sugar cookies cut out and decorated as half-naked men, “sounds much faster than it actually was.”
“Honestly, [it was] as simple as handing out Tupperware. Nobody thought anything of it.”
“It’s a great way for people to go, ‘Oh, I’m going to buy underwear for my husband at a party,'” added Swann, calling it “a win-win” after ALPHX there is no brick and mortar store.
When researching men’s shopping habits, the pair found that one of the driving factors when buying new underwear is starting a new relationship – after all, no one wants a new partner to see their underwear pale,” noted Speight.
“They’re going to be wearing crap until we go make it better for them,” Meghan Weks, a relationship coach from Huntington Bay and past ALPHX party attendee, told The Post.
The “intimate” gift, she said, flips the script on a centuries-old tradition of men buying women’s underwear. Not to mention, buying underwear is just “not on a man’s radar,” said Weks, 44, who called the products the “Porsche of underwear.”
The brand averages about $1,000 in sales for a two-hour party, but the data doesn’t take into account repeat customers and word-of-mouth recommendations after the few events they’ve had so far.
Brooklyn-based marketing consultant Stephanie Taylor, 31, brought her boyfriend to the brand’s latest pop-up last month held at a Soho beauty clinic. The event, she said, took “the wonder out of the underwear shopping experience.”
“It’s almost like walking on a QVC set and being able to touch something versus going online where my attention span is like five seconds,” she told The Post, adding that her boyfriend bought three or four pair.
“I can see how those parties could make someone convert more quickly.”
First-time customer Julian Andrew, 33, bought five pairs at the last ALPHX party in September, telling The Post he was intrigued by “the idea of a Tupperware party”.
He appreciated being able to see and feel the product before buying, something that is being lost in an age of online shopping where returns, especially for underwear, are a concern and drive customers away from older brands.
“I don’t think people care as much about the pomp and circumstance of, say, a Calvin Klein as they have a really great pair of underwear that fits perfectly,” said Andrew, who owns a talent management.
“I don’t need Justin Bieber on a billboard selling me underwear. I need to know these will fit my thighs.”
Buying and talking about underwear, he added, shouldn’t be so “taboo”.
“I think a big part of it is the community aspect as well,” he continued. “My friends that I haven’t seen in a long time, I got to see them at an event and talk to them and know that they bought the same pair of underwear too and talk to them about the fit of theirs.
Francesca DeCapita, 43, whose partner of 11 years Matthew Gerrior, 34, runs ALPHX, said the incident was “not sexual in any way” and likened it to a “networking event”.
Hapanowicz said she’s still friends with some of the people she met at the first party she threw years ago, adding that living room parties are more “exciting” than shopping for underwear at the store.
“All they need is a snack board, some bottles of rosé and some underwear and they’re good to go,” Swann said.
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Image Source : nypost.com