- - She Made the World’s Most Comfortable Thong. 20 Years Later, Commando’s Kerry O’Brien Is Disrupting Your Whole Closet

Brittany TalaricoDecember 12, 2025 at 2:30 AM

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Michael Sipe

Commando founder Kerry O'Brien.

Every summer at her Vermont lake house, Kerry O’Brien hosts an annual tomato “style-out” where she lines up the twenty-five heirloom varieties grown in her garden for family and friends to taste test and vote on. The weakest flavors don’t return, and the winners become next season’s foundation.

It’s a surprisingly perfect metaphor for O’Brien’s life’s work. Commando began as an experiment in comfort (Why settle for restrictive, unflattering undergarments?) and became a multi-million dollar company defined by invention, buttery soft fabrics and a refusal to do anything halfway. Today, Commando has grown from invisible underwear to visible authority across the ready-to-wear space, with products spanning bodysuits, leggings, suiting, hosiery and everything else you need to anchor a modern wardrobe.

And just like those tomatoes, only the best ideas make the cut.

Starting a New Chapter

Launching into the lingerie market was not on O’Brien’s bingo card. She studied business communications in college which led her to a successful career as the Vice President of Financial PR at Edelman in New York City. There she thrived in a high-intensity world powered by media cycles, client crises and strategy.

Then came September 11, 2001. And on the very next day, she walked out.

“I just knew I needed to start a new chapter of my life, because most of my job was just consuming media, and I could not relive that moment over and over again,” she says of the impact 9/11 had on her. “I’m such a fan of chapters in life, and I feel sometimes you have to know when your chapter has run its time. Sometimes you get to decide, and sometimes your life decides for you.”

She didn’t leave with her next big move in mind; a sixth generation Vermonter whose parents owned a dairy farm, she moved back up North near her family and let the change of scenery work its course. “I wasn’t like, ‘I’m going to quit my job. I need to start this company.’ It was, ‘I need to start something new for myself.’”

Michael Sipe

Commando Founder Kerry O'Brien.

The new path revealed itself like many do: through conversations with her friends seeking fashion advice.

“My friends would ask me to style them,” says O’Brien, who always loved putting together a confidence-boosting outfit. “We’d talk about all the things we would wear from dates, to weddings, to interviews and there was a common thread that I saw. They showed up and their underwear was horrendous on them.”

And so the idea to demolish visible panty lines was born. “It was a blind spot, a gap in the market. Visible panty lines are a byproduct of something digging into you. There was no one that understood that you need to be comfortable in order to feel beautiful. And that is the ethos of Commando.”

Asking the Questions No One Else Would

Kerry started approaching fabric suppliers with a simple ask: What if underwear didn’t rely on elastic?

“I was like, ‘How can I do this?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, you must not have a design degree.’ But I wasn’t afraid to question them, because I was in PR.”

She had no formal fashion training, but personal experience gave her an understanding of the market. At the time, she said, you had two options: Restrictive shapewear for a smoother look, or regular undies that allowed for comfort but ruined the line of an outfit. “Shapewear was uncomfortable at the time and the messaging was in order for you to look beautiful, you somehow had to look smaller,” she says. “And then there were the frumpy grannies, that were super-ugly, but super-comfortable. I was convinced that someone thought, ‘She wants to be comfortable. She must not care how she looks.’ That is not true at all. You can be comfortable and beautiful!”

Michael Sipe

Commando founder Kerry O'Brien displaying her intimates collection.

The hunt for the perfect fabric eventually led to the brand’s signature patented microfiber sourced from an Italian mill. It features four-way stretch, high breathability and, of course, elastic-free construction. “When I find a fabric I love, I don’t replace it. That microfiber has been the same for 20 years,” she says.

O’Brien, a self proclaimed “fabric snob,” didn’t stop there. She sourced an ultra-soft Austrian modal for the brand’s intimates, loungewear and bodysuits. She developed neoprene suiting and the best-selling faux leather stretch leggings (you know the ones!), that now come in a trouser style.

As for the name Commando, O’Brien said she was looking to be “provocative.”

“I actually thought, ‘Well, what's the worst name I could actually name the company?’ And I'm thinking to myself, Commando! The tagline could be, 'Better than nothing,' And I was like, ‘That is so bad, or that's...ahead of its time.’ I'm not a demure person. I'm bold and I’m proud of that.’

Reaching the Runway (from Vermont!)

A recurring theme in O’Brien’s story is the power of relationships, a must given the fact that she wasn’t headquartered in a fashion capital. Early on, O’Brien connected with a local Bosnian refugee couple who ran a small sewing shop and they became one of her first manufacturers. Together, they grew through recessions, supply chain challenges, early prototypes, early wins, and the everyday grind of constantly needing to innovate in the fast-moving fashion world.

And she has stayed true to that ethos of “organic growth” from Day One until now. For her first major market appointment at Bergdorf Goodman in the early 2000s, she relied on her conviction in fabric and fit to speak for itself. She didn’t bring a full collection. She didn’t bring a lookbook. She brought a handful of Ziploc bags.

“I opened up my Ziploc, and I put my four panties out, rearranged them. Did it again. And then I was like, ‘I’m ready.’” She says at first, the buyer was surprised at the size of the offering, but quickly was impressed by the innovation.

“She immediately picked it up, because she was so impressed with the technology. She’d never seen or felt anything like it.”

Courtesy of Commando

Commando's patented microfiber fabric.

The buyer bought a run of the original raw-cut thongs, which kickstarted a chain reaction: stylists began pulling Commando for their kits, photoshoots and red carpets. And since then Commando’s cultural footprint has been impossible to miss. (And the brand is still sold at Bergdorf Goodman today!)

“One designer came to me and said, ‘I love Commando, and I really want it to be underneath all my looks,’” Kerry recalls. “Then one designer went to another designer, and they were all coming to me to make their runway shows perfect.”

Taking Over Hollywood

The rise of sheer dressing in Hollywood made Commando a staple. Underwear as outerwear is now still one of the most enduring fashion trends. But there was one naked dress more than a decade ago, skyrocketed the brand’s profile Rihanna’s crystal-covered, custom Adam Selman gown at the 2014 CFDA Awards.

To accept the Fashion Icon Award, the Grammy winner lived up to the title in the fishnet dress that exposed her Commando thong.

“I was there and it was amazing,” O’Brien reflects, calling it a “wild moment” for the brand.

Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic; NCP/Star Max/GC Images

Rihanna wears a Commando thong at the 2014 CFDA Awards.

The one celebrity look that sticks with her the most is Serena Williams’ powerful 2017 Vanity Fair cover shot by Annie Leibovitz.

“She was very, very pregnant. She was wearing nothing but our Commando underwear. And the way the story goes, is that she brought it from her own drawer.”

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O’Brien still marvels at it.

“It represents everything that Commando stands for. Commando stands for comfort, but it stands for power. She felt so powerful, and she looked so beautiful, and she loves her Commando. And is very vulnerable. Comfort is even more important when you're that pregnant, and you're being shot by one of the world's most famous photographers on the cover of a magazine.”

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Filling the Closet

The evolution from underwear into a full wardrobe wasn’t a departure, it was the brand’s natural progression. Customers trusted Commando for how it felt and O’Brien was committed to expanding that “trust that Commando will be there for her. If I had stopped just at the thong, I would still be in her top drawer. Now, I’m in her entire closet.”

And each time she innovates, she starts from the same basic thought of, What’s a wardrobe staple that could be made even more comfortable? “So now the CEO Collection is one of our best-selling collections, because [our customer] loves the way she looks and feels,” Kerry says. “Wearing comfort and confidence and style together in the suiting category is really resonating with people.”

Courtesy of Commando

Commando suiting.

That also means serving a diverse range of customers; O’Brien credits extensive fit testing as a key part of her success, even serving as a fit model herself for every piece launched.

“Each new piece has to be worn by every size,” O’Brien says. “[The model] has to wear it multiple times. She also has to use the care instructions. She has to wash it at home. And on top of that, we send it out for testing.”

Building a Strong Foundation

O’Brien’s approach to family life is inseparable from the work ethic she has. “There are no days off on a dairy farm. Same with being an entrepreneur. Same as being a mom. They’re all very similar. They are hard work. They’re amazing. They’re fruitful.”

Family, for O’Brien, is both grounding and collaborative. Raised alongside three sisters and one brother, by a “strong” Lebanese mother and an entrepreneurial father, she inherited a deep appreciation for hard work, resilience and hospitality, values you’ll see if you visit her at home. “I love to cook. I’m Lebanese. Almost every night when I’m home I cook. We have a big Sunday dinner. And so sometimes we’re like, ‘Oh, it’s not so bad. Only 18 people are coming on Sunday.’”

Michael Sipe

Commando Founder Kerry O'Brien with her family.

O’Brien and her husband took the leap to run Commando together, embracing the chaos and opportunity of a rapidly growing business. “We just decided, why not just go on this crazy ride together?” The company’s trajectory surprised even them. “We never imagined that the company would take off the way it did. It exploded.” Despite the intensity, O’Brien didn’t let the other areas of her life fall by the wayside: “I feel that we all grew up together. My children grew up. I grew up. Our company grew up.”

And her children, a son in college and twin daughters in high school, are already exploring their own creative ventures — her daughter Mary sells hand-crocheted stuffed animals at the local farmer’s market — which gives O’Brien an opportunity to share lessons about curiosity, entrepreneurship, and attention to detail from a young age.

Michael Sipe

Commando Founder Kerry O'Brien with her son.

As for the advice she’d give to her younger self?

“It’s hard. And that’s normal. I would say, celebrate your wins, but not too much, because as much as you celebrate your wins, you might feel bad about your losses. Those are definitely going to happen. Try to keep an even keel about it, because it's all about the long journey.”

Commanding the Future

Twenty years after launching Commando, O’Brien still operates with the same disciplined curiosity she brought to a Ziploc bag of prototypes at Bergdorfs and to the twenty-five tomato varieties vying for a spot in next year’s garden. She’s not interested in being everywhere, she’s interested in being essential, whether that’s a hidden layer or a visible statement, that people can’t build their wardrobe without.

“When I see someone on the street wearing Commando, I know it. I’ll often say, ‘You look amazing,’ and they’ll say, ‘Thanks, they’re Commando!’ It’s the best compliment,” O’Brien says.

In October, O’Brien was honored with Fashion Group International’s Founders’ Award at the 41st Annual FGI Night of Stars ceremony in New York City. She stood in front of a room of the industry’s biggest leaders, her peers, wearing a custom Commando suit which was covered in crystals for the occasion, and shared her story to laughs and applause.

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Ultimately, O’Brien was one of the first to reject the idea that comfort and style couldn’t coexist and the culture eventually caught up. (How many of us are wearing matching sweats today?) The brand’s pieces didn’t just disappear under clothes, they set a completely new standard.

Now, as O’Brien steps into menswear, tailoring, and new technical categories, she’s not chasing trends or the spotlight, she’s focusing on the needs of the customer base. She just launched the Founder's Edit, to highlight Commando’s bestsellers and most-coveted favorites seen on and off the runway.

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“There is nothing stopping us,” she says of what's next. “We have brand recognition, people love our brand, and they're devoted to us. So now we have that platform to really go to the next level, and touch all different parts of her closet and his closet with the same philosophy focused on fabric and fit.”

And if the trajectory holds, the next two decades won’t be about expansion for expansion’s sake. They’ll be about editing, refining and keeping only what performs. In O’Brien’s world, that’s how things grow.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”