Susie Taaffe

Susie Taaffe, Skanties Anti-Shapewear – Founder & CEO, Optus Small Business Council, BEng (Chem) MAppFin

Susie Taaffe is a multi-time founder and the creator of Skanties — a body-positive underwear brand redefining comfort for women who are done with squeezing, chafing, and shame. With a background in engineering and a previous maternity wear business under her belt, Susie brings deep experience in designing solutions that centre women’s bodies, needs, and lived realities. Skanties was born as a personal and professional rebirth. After a period of profound personal upheaval, Susie rebuilt from the ground up — launching Skanties with just one product and a clear mission: to free women from clothes that make them feel small, restricted, or ashamed. Her signature product — high-waisted, mid-thigh underwear with no chafe, no dig, and no squeezing — now serves thousands of women across all life stages, from postpartum to perimenopause, from burnout to breakthrough. Skanties are more than underwear. It’s a quiet revolution in softness — a refusal to shrink, emotionally or physically. As CEO, Susie combines strategic leadership with bold storytelling, building a brand that’s not just profitable, but deeply resonant. Susie also created Wings of Hope, a movement and message for women ready to let go of emotional shapewear — the armour, the pressure, the impossible standards. At the heart of her work is a simple belief: comfort isn’t a luxury. It’s a birthright.