The designers making lingerie that women actually want to wear
In her “Meet the underwear” sketch, the comedian Carla Freeman takes on the persona of some of the different types of knickers found in a typical woman’s lingerie drawer, imagining the conversation they might have as their owner considers which to choose for a night out.
“Date night tonight! I’ll see you later, OK?” trills Sexy Pants, AKA Freeman in a red slip dress, leopard-print scarf and Italian accent. “She’s not gonna take you, sweetheart,” grumps Granny Pants, a scarf tied over her silver perm. “It’ll be me again. It’s always me.”
It’s all too easy to reach for the same styles that have done the job in the past. But innovation has come for the underwear drawer. Fittingly for a sector worth around £5billion, British brands and designers are tweaking the formulas for our most foundational pieces in ways that are worth a closer look. Here’s a survey of some of the names to know.
Colourful lingerie adds excitement to your everyday
Georgia Larsen, founder of Dora Larsen
Blush. Cream. Sand. Cinnamon. Clay. Think of typical lingerie shades, and a muted spectrum of neutrals comes to mind, plus a touch going-out black. Georgia Larsen believes underwear drawers needn’t be basic nor boring – why should they, when they can zing?
As the founder of lingerie brand Dora Larsen, Larsen has pioneered a more vibrant vision of lingerie. It’s one that might see a woman begin dressing for her day in a periwinkle mesh bra with grass-green straps and a coordinating thong, or a fuchsia and teal lace bra-and-knicker set.
“Colours are so linked to your emotions,” Larsen says. “We provide excitement and a bit of joy in people’s day as they put on their lingerie.”
Larsen began her career as a lingerie buyer for Topshop. Whenever she brought out lingerie in fun, interesting colours, “it sold so well”. Drawn to contemporary Scandi brands like Ganni and Stine Goya in her own wardrobe, she craved a more energising embrace of colour in the lingerie sector. “I couldn’t believe there wasn’t anyone in the market doing that,” she says.
She launched Dora Larsen (named after the family dog) in 2016, drawing early attention from buyers at Anthropologie and Net-A-Porter. Things ticked along nicely until the pandemic, which “changed everything”.
The brand introduced bralettes and bodysuits to appeal to customers looking for comfort and everyday wearability. In 2024, the popularity of bralettes has waned and underwired bras are back on the menu.
High-leg knickers – with a more dramatic cut over the hip – are also on the rise. “Women want to feel sexy in styles that are wearable, where they can still wear their lingerie with jeans and a T-shirt,” says Larsen.
The brand, based in Bath, develops the majority of its fabrics in-house. All the lace used in its famous high-waist knickers is unique to the brand.
The same shapes and styles repeat season after season in different colour and fabric combinations. Unlike brands that rely on appealing to men and do their biggest business around Valentine’s Day and Christmas, Dora Larsen doesn’t get much of a V-Day boost – it’s the women who actually wear the stuff who keep coming back to buy it, whenever they like.
Sexy underwear doesn’t have to cost a fortune
Damaris Evans
“Designing lingerie is like engineering, but harder,” says Damaris Evans. “You’re not just building a bridge that has to function; it also has to be comfortable. There’s no point designing something that’s going to look pretty but then you want to take it off after five minutes.”
Evans has been a go-to designer for adventurous lingerie ever since she sent Sophie Dahl down the runway at her Central St Martins degree show wearing a polka dot dress and matching knickers.
Through Damaris (the brand) and Mimi Holliday, she made all manner of underwear innovations: from the corset-back knicker to the bow-back knicker, from clear PVC bras edged with French leavers lace to the cat-ear headbands she designed with royal milliner Jess Collett.
“We could have sold thousands of those,” Evans says. Forget naughty or nice. “Our tagline was, ‘Nice girls can be naughty too’.”
Evans’s lingerie has ended up on Kate Moss, Angelina Jolie and Kendall Jenner. Now she’s designing for a different client via a collaboration with Marks & Spencer, creating luxe-feeling bras and knickers for the mega-retailer’s Boutique range.
“If Damaris is about the dream – invention, fantasy, new ideas and high fashion – then this is bringing an essence of that to M&S. Ultimately it’s very pretty and very girl-friendly,” she says.
The mega-retailer is every British woman’s go-to for knicker multipacks and T-shirt bras. Evans is betting the M&S lady would like a pair of peekaboo-back knickers in her shopping basket, too. While she may have been the first lingerie designer to sell £100 knickers, her M&S range is more accessibly priced, starting at £10 for a thong.
The first drop is Aletta: two bras, two knickers and a slip in lilac satin and mesh with heart-shaped embroidery. The high-waisted Brazilian knickers (£12) feature a keyhole cutout in the back – a very Damaris touch.
The next collection, out in April, comes in spring-fresh pink, with embroidered lemons and flowers. And because this is not just any lingerie collection, but an M&S lingerie collection, the range also includes a pair of those corset-back knickers.
“Women go to M&S to get a beautiful bra that’s comfortable,” she says. “Now it’ll have more of a high-fashion feel.”
You can wear stylish underwear and still be comfortable
Katie Lopes, co-founder and creative director of Stripe & Stare
“Nobody wants to put on uncomfortable underwear and then try and achieve all day,” says Katie Lopes, co-founder and creative director of sustainable brand Stripe & Stare. “You should be able to put your underwear on, feel great and not think about it again.”
Lopes became fascinated by underwear after watching customers at Austique, the King’s Road boutique she ran in the Noughties, buy “armfuls” of stretch-lace thongs. “I thought it’s great that they’ve found this thong, but we’re British and we like a pair of pants. Where’s the cool knicker for every single day, that’s super-comfortable and your go-to in your underwear drawer?”
She embarked on years of research and development to come up with the answer, launching Stripe & Stare in 2017. Her great innovation was to question received wisdom concerning underwear construction. Specifically seams.
She stripped out bulky elastic seams (“that’s what gives you VPL and ‘wedgifies’ a knicker”), replacing them with lace trims sewn on with a flatlock stitch. “It’s not rocket science, but it means you get a flat fit and a smooth finish, and the knickers stay where they’re supposed to.”
She also prioritised sustainability, fashioning the knickers out of TENCEL modal, a soft-touch fabric derived from wood chips. The result is biodegradable pants that the brand says are more than twice as soft as cotton equivalents. “We knew enough about the damage that fashion was doing to the planet that it felt like [we] should try to do it in a more sustainable way.”
It’s a winning formula. In 2023, Stripe & Stare became B Corp certified and sold nearly 500,000 pairs of knickers – a mix of its original knicker, high-rise, thong, hipster, brazilian and other underwear styles. There have been collaborations with LoveShackFancy, Emma Bridgewater, Lady Garden and influencer Camille Charriere. If sales trends continue, Lopes expects the brand to achieve £10 million in turnover in 2024.
Now, as in the beginning, what women appreciate most about the brand is the comfort. In fact, “the biggest surprise has been the dropoff in thongs,” says Lopes. They initially represented 20 per cent of underwear sales; over the past three years, that’s dropped to 6 per cent. Lopes has observed a “massive” shift to high-rise knickers since introducing the style 18 months ago. Full-coverage pants now account for 38 per cent of underwear sales.
“Our customer is dressing for herself now, more than she ever has. And she wants to feel attractive, not frumpy,” Lopes says. “You can still look great, but do it for yourself and your comfort levels.”
Loyalty from repeat customers (including Oprah Winfrey) has been key to success. “I think underwear now is about joining a tribe, and once you find a tribe you stick with it.”
Your underwear can work harder for your everyday lifestyle
Oria Mackenzie, co-founder of Underdays
When Oria Mackenzie and Amelie Salas were canvassing friends and acquaintances for underwear complaints, they kept hearing about “the gusset problem”. People said that the triangle or strip of fabric lining the inside of underwear was too short, too narrow, non-breathable or just plain twisty. “That patch of fabric touches your most intimate parts,” Salas says, “and in a lot of cases, it doesn’t give you the support that you need.”
As a result, designs for Underdays, the direct-to-consumer brand the duo launched in 2021, feature what may be the world’s only gynaecologist-approved gusset: extra-long, and made using bamboo-based fabric with antimicrobial, moisture-wicking properties.
The former Farfetch colleagues started Underdays to solve the gusset problems and others like it – to optimise underwear, basically. Before Underdays, they felt that no existing lingerie brands offered what their underwear drawers lacked.
“That perfect balance between fit, comfort and functionality is really the thing that a modern day woman is looking for,” Mackenzie says. “Women have incredibly busy lives, and we wanted to create underwear that speaks to that.”
So their Everyday brief is breathable, with seaming that means it stays put and a crossover V-waistband that adds a little something extra to the design. It’s soft and feels like something different, something more, than what we’ve come to expect from basic underwear. The Bare Basic is a super-lightweight, zero-VPL style, and The Workout is designed to wear under gym leggings.
“For us, Underdays is about improving an everyday product,” Mackenzie says. “Comfort doesn’t necessarily need to mean nappy-looking underwear.”
The brand is still tiny and new, but they’ve already sold over 100,000 units and boast a repeat purchase rate of over 35 per cent. They hope a new partnership with All Things Butter, the chef Thomas Straker’s butter brand, will reach new audiences.
“We always say our underwear feels like butter, so we thought, why not?” Salas says. “It’ll be a fun, unexpected collaboration.”
