One of my first lingerie shopping experiences was at Kaori’s Closet Tokyo in NYC. A sweet little boutique on Houston, Kaori’s Closet offered fancifully-decorated Japanese lingerie, otherwise unavailable in the US, and pretty loungewear from international indie lines. With bras covered in engineered floral embroidery, 3D lace appliques, textured elastics, and perfectly-placed rhinestones, the shop was overtly girly and definitely over the top.
Fleur Du Mal is the brainchild of ex-Kiki De Montparnasse designer, Jennifer Zuccarini. The lifestyle brand offers a range of lingerie, loungewear, corsetry, swimwear, clothing and accessories. Launched in 2012, the brand now has an impressive range of stockists (including Net-A-Porter, Saks & Selfridges) and intends to open a physical store this year, presumably in the USA.
Atusko Kudo is one of the best known names in latex fashion. You could certainly argue she’s one of the designers responsible for bridging the divide between latex as fetishwear and latex as mainstream fashion. She’s dressed countless celebrities (including Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Kim Kardashian) and is stocked by some of the most prestigious luxury retailers in the world.
Disclosure: This blog post contains affiliate links. In late February, I attended my first CURVEXPO New York to report on trends for plus size lingerie. Previously, I’ve attended CURVEXPO Las Vegas and other major retail tradeshows as a buyer. Therefore, I was familiar with what to expect as a plus size woman: lots of pretty things not made in my size. Armed with that awareness, I set out to find […]
Disclosure: I purchased these trousers with my own money. All opinions are my own. Luxury is a term thrown around so liberally in the fashion industry, it’s almost lost its meaning. The term can be applied to everything from mass-manufactured synthetic satin to hand-finished silk. One could easily argue it’s fast becoming obsolete. Luxury’s original meaning of excess and attention to detail cannot easily be applied to most contemporary lingerie brands. […]
