PARIS — French lingerie specialist Aubade wants consumers to “live your desire,” the slogan that accompanied the visual brand direction unveiled Tuesday.

“Sexy is the brand new cool,” said the corporate’s brand and product director Samar Vignals at a presentation. “Our mantra is about liberating the sexy in each woman and divulges itself in very alternative ways but with a variety of sincerity.”

Gone are the body shots that highlight the product. Of their place are portraits of girls wearing the lacy and infrequently racy designs, with most making daring eye contact within the debut images for spring 2023.

The moment felt ripe for a refresh as “femininity, seduction and sexy now not have anything to do with the way in which they were expressed a number of years ago,” said Vignals.

This comes because the brand — whose sales got here to 74 million euros in 2022 with 63 percent of its business done in France where 54 of its 57 stores are positioned — is stepping up its global expansion. The U.S. is in its sights, with the opening of a Recent York-based subsidiary last 12 months.

For Vignals, “American [consumers] are sometimes a step ahead [in] movements of emancipation, of empowerment,” she said, adding major inroads had stemmed from the U.S., akin to #MeToo.

In line with its “sexy confident” product core, Vignals said the brand can be expanding on its underwear-as-outerwear segment — its nightwear category grew 42 percent last 12 months, in accordance with company figures — and proceed to develop its higher-end offering through designer collaborations in addition to craftsmanship akin to French Leavers lace.

A key notion on this recent chapter is “empleasurement,” a portemanteau of empowerment and pleasure, that covers the concept “seduction isn’t any longer an outdoor injunction, it’s a private decision and it’s taken by the ladies themselves,” driven by the compounded effects of the digital revolution, the #MeToo movement and a leaning toward comfort brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and its ensuing lockdowns.

Folded into this recent term is size and shape inclusivity. Aubade will proceed to increase its sizing range, going as much as a G or H cup in bras and a XXL in bottoms. Vignals said this was “an investment relatively than something with immediate returns” but a crucial step to maneuver toward being as inclusive as it will possibly.

“Few brands offer [such a range] and our challenge is to make this visible through our images,” said Vignals. In line with the brand’s concentrate on seduction and sexiness, it would be developing its male offering, adding more revealing styles that make use of its signature lace and transparencies from June.

In response to Vignals, male consumers were more present for occasions akin to Valentine’s Day or the vacation season, going as much as 20 percent of its clientele on such periods and buying mostly online.

One other evolution is that retouching would now be kept to a minimum, to match a more realistic outlook on the body, and casting would reflect “more voluptuous” silhouettes.

“The brand needed to evolve from that viewpoint and accompany [societal] evolutions to make sure today’s women recognized themselves more within the image offered by Aubade,” she continued. “The thought for Aubade is to reconcile body and soul.”

Together with the brand new campaign, the brand outlined the way it has been stepping up its overall diversity, inclusion and sustainability efforts across its supply chain but additionally its organization. It revealed 93 percent of its workforce and 69 percent of its management are female.  

By 2026, it goals to have 50 percent of its collections made following eco-design principles, although she identified that within the 20 components of a bra, elements like foam utilized in padding, underwires and elastics remained challenges to this point.

Within the meantime, it’s pursuing a “zero destruction” goal by donating its offcuts, unsold merchandise and prototypes. Vignals said the brand and its Switzerland-based parent group Calida were making steps to be consistent with the goals outlined within the U.N. Global Compact.

From summer 2023, all Aubade products will carry a QR code that can result in a traceability page outlining the knowledge on suppliers at each step, developed with French start-up Fairly Made.