Our Story
Mālō e Lelei, Talofa lava and Welcome to you all!
I am a proud New Zealand born Tongan and mother to four beautiful children: Lennox-Rua, Archie-Leo, Penelope-Anne and Selafina Luvamoeloto, a wife to my best friend/ co- founder Sam and previously an Air New Zealand Team Manager and now aspiring and business woman hopeful! :)
My Lūva journey
My Lūva journey began 12 years ago, following the birth of my first born. I was 21 at the time, young, naïve, scared lol and curious about my body and the changes it was going through. My mother (being a mother of 7 herself) immediately became my go-to and advisor on all things I was experiencing both pre and after birth.
In our Tongan culture, giving birth is not something that is taken lightly. The toll that it takes on one’s body, never leaves it quite the same ever again. Don’t get me wrong, we go through this beautiful process where a woman's body transforms to carry and give life. But post birth it takes time for our bodies to adapt and recover.
Like other cultures, we have our own Tongan traditions which is a mix of old wives tales, traditional ways and science. My mum had told me that in the islands in the old days women would always wrap their abdomen area immediately after birth to support the postpartum journey and help nurture their bodies back to health.
My mother was present at the birth of all my four children and true to form, after each birth she would always remind me to ha’i (tie) my kete (stomach). She said that in the islands they would use a tupenu or a sarong to tie around their waist. At first I thought this was another one of those “tongan tings” that my mum was introducing me to, but that was until I felt the difference.
From there, we levelled up and I stopped using sarong’s and went out and started purchasing waist trainers. Waist trainers have supported me in different ways both pre and post birth. And now, four kids later – while on maternity with my baby and putting on my waist trainer I started thinking about the different kind of support that I needed, the different occasions of when I would want to wear it, how it had to feel and how I needed it to hold everything in! lol.
That’s when Lūva Shapewear came to life. I wanted to provide a product to make women look and feel good and help them through their postpartum or weight loss journey. I also wanted to provide a platform where I can empower new mums and women to take control and feel confident in their bodies.
What’s in the name:
The name Lūva is taken from my youngest daughter’s name Selafina Lūvamoelotu. Selafina was very lucky to be gifted my grandmothers name by my mother. I became inspired to start this new business while I was on maternity leave with Selafina so it made a lot of sense to name my new business venture after her. Lūva means She Is Loved. An appropriate name for our brand for as women, before we can love others, we must first love ourselves.
My Why
From a young age your pathway is laid out – well at least it was for me. You go through school, then onto course/uni , you graduate and you get that 9-5 …..and so is life. My pathway wasn’t always traditional because I always felt like there was something missing. For the last 14 years I navigated my way through various roles at Airnz, always trying to look for more and wanting more from life. When Covid hit – our industry was one of the worst impacted. I had staff leave and find new careers and when I went on maternity leave I knew that there was a void that I needed to fill…
Lūva is the step I’ve taken to fill that void. It is a vehicle for me to drive something that I am personally passionate about with a product that I know personally, has worked for me.
My vision is to help shape the way helping women look good and feel good whether they have just had a baby or are training or getting back into working out giving them the support every woman needs.