Helena Stuart, founder, owner, and designer of Only Hearts, does as much work as you’d expect from a woman who has led a company for almost 40 years. Every hour is filled with effortless flitting between fabric choices, retail delivery dates, cost and margin management, color development and more. There is no visible anxiety or stressed-out vibes here. Helena does it all, and makes it look easy.
Since my last article on the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, we’ve seen quite a few updates. On October 24th, VS officially announced this year’s show would be held in Paris. On October 26th, they unveiled the 2016 Fantasy Bra, worn by Jasmine Tookes and encrusted with over 9,000 precious gems. On October 28th, they released the show’s full model lineup. Yet the big question, at least for me, is if VS will be able to overcome their abysmal ratings from 2015. At its peak, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show could claim over 12 million viewers. Now they’re just barely over 6.5 million, and viewership dropped more than 30% in a single year between the 2014 and 2015 shows.
Victoria’s Secret has had a tumultuous year. Slow to pivot into the bralette trend that’s been taking over intimate apparel and even slower to take advantage of the industry’s shift towards more natural styling and models, VS had been forced into the unenviable position of playing catch-up. This year, the company dropped their catalog and swim divisions and relaunched their athleisure collections, but sales have remained low, especially compared to […]
If you follow fashion news, you may have caught a recent story where Hopeless Lingerie accused ASOS of design theft. According to Hopeless, ASOS copied two of their designs, the Darla Knickers and Rosemary Bralette. In a previous post on the modern day reappearance of vintage lingerie trends, I shared how Hopeless’ Darla Knickers reminded me of similar cutaway burlesque styles from the 1950s. Yet this entire fashion copyright discussion, […]
The modern ready-to-wear lingerie industry is a blessing and a curse. On the bright side, it means great lingerie is widely available to many people, as opposed to just those privileged enough to have custom-made intimates. On the other hand, ready-made lingerie doesn’t fit everyone. No one fits perfectly into all available styles, even in the sizes they expect to wear. Plus, most lingerie labels sell narrow size ranges that […]
