27-03-2025
Dapper Boi Partners With Nordstrom, Offering Size & Gender Inclusivity
Pache is the co-founder of Dapper Boi, an all-gender and size-inclusive brand that's now available online at Nordstrom. This month, their jeans will be available online, featured in both the men's and women's categories. The brand offers a size run of XXS through 4X and waist sizes 26 through 52. Dapper Boi pieces are designed with functional touches, like deep pockets and curve-friendly button-downs. This partnership is a major step for the San Diego-based brand, which has gained national attention from Inc Female Founders 500 (2025), CBS Morning News, OUT100 2023 List, and the documentary Show Her the Money.
I spoke with Dapper Boi's founders, wives Vicky and Charisse Pasche. Started in 2015, the brand has a deeply relatable and personal origin story. '(I had) my own personal struggle shopping in the men's department," shares Vicky. "I started the brand because I needed clothes that fit me."
Charisse wasn't exactly prepared. 'Wait, I have this full dream that we're going to build our 401k, that we're going to spend 30 years at a company," shares Charisse. 'I'm first-generation Filipino. That's just what I grew up knowing.' Though she'd never imagined starting a brand with 'zero experience,' she says that she was all-in on Vicky's vision.
Of Vicky's style when they were dating, Charisse playfully reflects, 'Vicky was a hot mess. She was buying these clothes that were two or three sizes bigger, just to fit around her hips because men's clothes are not made to fit a woman's body. (Meanwhile) clothes from the women's section she still wasn't her.' Historically, Vicky has shopped in the plus-size – or big and tall – men's section. 'Not only is it kind of the least cool option, but those clothes still didn't fit me," says Vicky. "The (tops) were down to my knees.'
'We advertise to the LGBTQ-plus community because that's where we came from, particularly those who are masculine-presenting," says Vicky. "They shop in the men's department and aren't used to having those clothes fit them.' Next is curvy or athletic women who shop in the women's department and struggle with fit or function. 'They have the same exact issue as me shopping with their curves. They also have the function problem, like it shouldn't be revolutionary to have deep pockets.' Finally, the brand serves men who are athletic or curvy, who experience similar challenges. For example, athletic shoppers have thicker thighs that aren't accommodated by standard fit.
Charisse says she doesn't see it that way. 'Clothing has no gender. I can be male, female, non-binary and wear the same pair of jeans.' Vicky says she's grateful for the opportunity to be on the show, but feels that the investors missed the mark. 'It doesn't need to be a whole third section. It just needs to be clothes that you feel authentic in," says Vicky. "We're trying to break the binary way of thinking. This is about style preference and body type, not gender. They really niched us when really we're welcoming to all. We pride ourselves in (creating) confidence.' Vicky is also quick to point out that part of the fundraising challenges the brand has faced is part of a bigger problem with how venture capital gets distributed. 'Of all venture capital, hundreds of billions of dollars that are deployed into companies every year, less than 2% go to women-owned businesses and less than 1% goes to LBGT-owned businesses,' she shared.
The brand struggled to find a manufacturer who could understand their vision and take them on as a client. 'A lot of people just hung the phone up on me.' Of the Nordstrom collaboration, however, they describe their initial meeting with the company as 'the easiest conversation," said Vicky. 'They got it immediately. They were on board.'
The Nordstrom partnership has the couple thrilled, but they've made it clear that they're sticking with the brand no matter what highs or lows come their way. Charisse shares that part of her unwavering commitment comes from the feedback the company has gotten from parents. 'Parents have reached out to us and said that what we're doing has saved their children's lives,' says Charisse. The couple recalls one experience where a mother shared that her child had been suicidal before seeing Dapper Boi videos online. "If we can show up in this world and do a little bit to help people feel their most authentic and (help them) represent how they feel on the outside with how they feel on the inside, that's what we're going to do."
