TAP INTO YOUR FEMININE POWER WITH ARTIST MLAK & CICI UNDERWEAR
A mutual passion for exploring the unique strength and power of women led to a rare collaboration between Karlee Mackie (artist MLAK) and CiCi’s Ellisa Bennett.
Australian artist MLAK recalls, “I love CiCi’s ethos and couldn’t wait to tell Ellisa about my nan, Masako, who was a Japanese healer. She had a little sacred ritual that would empower women to find their feminine power and boost fertility.
My nan would tell women to wear red underwear!
This was to encourage women to be mindful of their red base chakra, to invoke passion, connection to their bodies, to be romantic and bring in life.
I've done a lot of work around how women are the only portal to earth. The only way in.”
Founder of CiCi Underwear, Ellisa Bennett explains how they met, “I’ve been drawn to MLAK’s work ever since I first stumbled across it in a gallery in Byron Bay. I reached out to her because I was awestruck by everything she does.
When MLAK was telling me about her nan and her passion for exploring female power through her artwork, I knew we had to collaborate. We decided to launch our most popular product in red, in honor of her nan’s sacred ritual.”
The MLAK artwork that the collaboration is based on was created especially for CiCi following their conversation. The piece is currently held as an NFT through OpenSea and its price is listed at 478 Ethereum, or about one million Australian dollars.
The foundation of CiCi Underwear is based on women supporting women. “Women Supporting Women drives everything we do, from our significant and continuous investment into product development, to encouraging women to embrace their bodies, power, sexuality, and of course to our Pair for Pair policy,” says Ellisa Bennett.
CiCi’s mission is to provide every woman in the world with the underwear they deserve.
For every pair sold, CiCi donates a pair to women in need. CiCi has already donated thousands of pairs of underwear, through foundations and charities such as RSN Foundation and Share the Dignity.
The lack of access to underwear is a huge global issue across homeless populations, minorities, and displaced peoples. Global One conducted a study, which found that almost 60 percent of female refugees did not have any access to underwear at all.
ABOUT MLAK
MLAK (Karlee Mackie) is professional free surfer turned artist based in Byron Bay NSW. The artist approaches painting organically, adapting, and evolving to create work that plays with motif in space. Dynamic, youthful, and fun, MLAK translates across scale, articulating in an original voice.
The artist has exhibited internationally with major sellout shows in LA and has a growing base of collectors in Australia.
Cai Leplaw made a film based on a poem written MLAK called B eve. Taking the lie out of the word believe. It’s an abstract word journey about women being the portal to earth. The only way in. With the red root chakra mantra at the end.