How to Start a Lingerie Brand in the UK: The Complete Guide for Founders

Lingerie Brand Startup Guide

If you’ve been thinking about starting a lingerie brand, then this article is for you. At Studio Nu, we love to hear the stories from people who want to start this chapter for themselves, there’s always so much passion behind it. A story, an unmet need identified in the market, a love for quality. It’s one of the reasons I love designing lingerie so much, there’s a lot of substance behind the pieces we put on our body. An intention to wear, a solution, an empowerment from wearing it.

Lingerie set design for Topshop

Within lingerie there are so many types of ranges you can design into, it might be an erotic range with a unique handwriting that you know will sell well, it could be a cooling fabric basics range to work in harmony with the female body, it may be a timeless range working with the most exquisite European laces for everyday beauty and comfort, or it might be a bodywear range with innovative fabrics and an edgy handwriting. It’s certainly an exciting time for this market and to be thinking about launching a lingerie, underwear or bodywear range.

Now let’s start to break the journey down, how to start a lingerie brand from the UK.

Lingerie Specialist Guidance

To launch a lingerie line, you need awareness and understanding about the process from concept to production in order to achieve a successful range. This goes for any fashion category, it’s so much more than handing over some images or a sketch to a factory. There are many steps and processes before the factory start production for your brand. This is why it’s so important to work with a lingerie specialist, as not only will they be aware of the standard fashion process, but they know all the lingerie specific steps too. Bras and underwear can come with many technical hurdles, niche construction and fabric specifics. So I highly recommend you find a specialist intimates consultant or designer who can guide you. 

I’m going to be honest, your standard apparel designer or fashion consultant won’t be able to guide you through the lingerie specifics.

Be clear on your vision

The vision you have for your brand is the North Star that will guide you through the exploration of creating a fashion collection and brand. It is what you will refer back to when you’re not sure how to answer a question. 

What size range should I include? Did your vision channel a body positive message for women? Then let that guide you in making your sizing category choices.

It’s absolutely ok to not be clear on your vision when your first start working with a designer or consultant, let them guide and support you.

Allow that beautiful dream you had of the brand at the beginning be the ethos that guides you and allows you to make choice with certainty. One of the most important things to remember is that you can’t be everything to everyone, so stay true to your vision and remember why you wanted to start your lingerie brand.

Finding your factory

With increased visibility coming through in the industry about where garments are made and in what conditions, we can and should make the best choices with factories. There are also incredible sustainability objectives that factories are working towards, so make sure you’re partnering with a manufacturer that can offer you quality, planet friendly options and excellent working conditions for their employees.

The highly regarded Petratex factory in Portugal

Depending on your collection style and quantity of stock you want to produce, the country you choose to manufacture in is also an important decision. ‘Made in China’ has become a bit of a derogatory term in the context of mass produced product, but I believe this is highly unjust in lingerie, some of the world’s best innovation and quality for lingerie can come out of China. Sri Lanka is another country to be aware of, sustainable practices and an ethical outlook with a strong ability to create premium quality. 

Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia are newer spaces in the lingerie manufacturing area, but there are also some strong faculties out there. Asia will tend to require bigger orders from you than say factories in Europe, but prices will be more competitive.

Of course, if you’re based in the UK, there are many advantages to producing in Europe, you are geographically closer and can easily visit, there is a high level of quality manufacturing coming out of Europe and it is a great option for brand storytelling. Don’t underestimate the beauty of showing your customer the manufacturing process for your brand. Consumers love to see behind the scenes, hear the stories of the people that made the product and learn about how it was made. European countries known for producing good quality lingerie are Italy, Portugal, Poland and Latvia.

Let’s be realistic about time

As you work with your consultant and manufacturer you will move through various processes and key milestones, from range planning, tech packs, concept sampling and fitting on the body.

Let's not underestimate how long this process can be, the average collection will take between 9 and 12 months to develop and produce. There are options to shorten this timeframe such as using existing fabrics or existing blocks which can save weeks, potentially months. 

Lingerie set design with removable garters for Bras n Things

If you find yourself working with a factory who is promising to you that they can dramatically reduce this timeframe ,it may be a bit of a red flag and you will need to find out what corners they are proposing to cut and how this will effect the quality of the fashion collection, again your consultant can guide you here.

In a nutshell…

To summarise, I would say to launch your lingerie brand with confidence you need to make sure you follow the below x 4 points: 

• Make sure you work with an intimates, lingerie or bodywear specialist designer or consultant to help you design the collection and take you through the production process with ease.

• Be true to your vision, it’s the whole reason you started this project…it will be the magic behind your collection.

• Think deeply about what you want from a manufacturer, what do you want their specialism to be, and where do you want them to be based geographically? Build a beautiful partnership with them and lean on their expertise.

• Understand that fashion brands can take longer than most people realise to build, especially specialist and technical products like bras. If you take the time, and follow the correct processes this will reflect in the quality of your product….it’s worth it!

Studio Nu has various consultancy packages that can help you launch your lingerie brand, in addition to the x 3 packages we offer, we can create a tailored package to meet your exact needs.

If starting a lingerie brand is something you think you might be interested in click here to learn more about our consultancy packages that help you launch your brand, or click here to fill out an application form and we will reach out to you.