EXCLUSIVE: Hanky Panky Opens First Brick-and-mortar Store
Hanky Panky is getting physical.
The 45-year-old intimate apparel brand is opening its first brick-and-mortar location, a permanent store at 370 Bleecker Street in Manhattan’s West Village.
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“We have been building our digital flagship for many years and it continues to grow at double-digit levels. But we want to talk to the customer in person,” Brenda Berger, the company’s chief executive officer, told WWD exclusively. “A retail presence gives us that ability to interact directly and hear, quickly, the [consumer] feedback.
“We’re constantly bringing out new fabrications and new silhouettes and sometimes you just can’t access the whole experience online,” she added.
Hanky Panky’s first store is what Berger described as a “600-square-foot jewel box,” complete with a thong wall covered with panties in every color and the chance for shoppers to build their own bundles, something the brand currently doesn’t offer online or with its wholesale partners.
“It will be a bit like a candy store and [customers] will be able to pick and choose,” Berger explained.
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“What we’re really known for is being playful, being premium, being feminine,” she added — all attributes that can now also be found in the store. The CEO said the space will also include a lingerie recycling drop-off box, the ability for consumers to buy in store and ship to home, and will host live events on “taboo topics,” such as sexual wellness and vaginal health.
“All sorts of areas that are important to women that aren’t talked about,” Berger said. “And events on fun topics as well.”
Hanky Panky — a private New York-based company that was founded in 1977 — has considered brick-and-mortar retail before, Berger said. But the brand wanted to wait until it found the ideal location and market and that the timing was right. As the world slowly emerges from its pandemic-induced nesting, she said the timing (and demand) was better than ever.
The New York location will serve as the brand’s first store, as well as its flagship. But Southern California is also on Hanky Panky’s radar. The retailer is targeting 10 locations by 2025.
“We look at where the consumer is shopping,” Berger said, explaining why the company chose New York as the location for its first store. “And we were born in New York City; the vast majority of production is here. New York City, in terms of our flagship traffic on our website and our wholesale partners, is the top market for us. New York City is also very dynamic in terms of retail. So opening a store here feels right for those reasons. But as we continue to expand, we’re looking at other options and L.A. is certainly in our sights for the future.”
Hanky Panky partnered with Leap — a platform that supports e-commerce brands as they set up shop IRL — to make the jump from digital to physical.
“We have 45 years of manufacturing [experience] and wholesale partnerships and then our digital flagship. But for retail, it’s new to us,” Berger said. “We felt that in order to do our first foray [into retail] we wanted an established partner that could help us lean into areas where we don’t have that internal expertise. So it just made a lot of sense to partner with them so we could focus on our brand and marketing the product and the visuals and the communication with the consumer and have Leap manage all of the operating details.”
Hanky Panky’s New York shop opens Friday. New collaborations are also in the brand’s future, as well as underwire bras later this year. Hanky Panky has previously partnered with Monique Lhuillier, Stoney Clover Lane and Cynthia Rowley, among others.
“What we’re most excited about with the store is to, first of all, showcase our new brand attributes,” Berger said. “But our core product is what has maintained our business for 45 years. Once [consumers] try our product, they keep coming back, because we deliver. So that’s how we stay relevant.”
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