“Katie Warner Johnson spent her college internship in a blur of boring and unflattering black blazers, pantsuits, and shift dresses.

It was 2006, and working as an analyst on Wall Street, she felt she needed to prove herself in a male-dominated industry, where her colleagues were often men who were much older than her. Dressing professionally and blending into the landscape of the trading floor was one way to do that. But while the garments allowed her to look the part, they weren’t particularly well designed: They wrinkled easily, were covered in sweat stains after long, hot days on the trading floor, and were not designed to flatter the female body.

A few years later, she decided to use those experiences as an opportunity to create a startup that reimagined the way women dress. In 2011, she launched an online store called Carbon38 that curated clothing with technical properties–say, moisture-wicking or temperature-regulating features–once only found in activewear. “I saw Carbon38 as a platform that went way beyond what you wear for your hour at the gym,” Johnson says. “These are clothes designed to take you through your entire day seamlessly and comfortably. We believe this is where the fashion industry is going.”

In 2015, Johnson set her sights on reinventing workwear, hoping to permanently kill off the outfit that she once was forced to wear to work everyday. Since only a smattering of brands at the time were making professional clothes using high-performance fabrics, she decided to design and manufacture her own. These ideas came to life in a collection that including a pencil dress and a blazer that looked trading floor appropriate, but were made from neoprene–a material used in scuba diver’s wetsuits.”