French lingerie label Livy now features at Victoria’s Secret stores

By

Anaïs Lerévérend

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Feb 12, 2019

After landing on the American continent in 2018, French lingerie label Livy is now enjoying a visibility boost in the USA thanks to lingerie giant Victoria's Secret. Livy was launched in Paris in 2017 by designer Lisa Chavy, in association with Dan Arrouas (owner of the Vog group) and the Etam group. The emerging Parisian label will be showcased at Victoria's Secret in February, in the run-up to St Valentine's Day, a key sales period for the US brand.

Following a teaser campaign on the Livy and Victoria's Secret social media accounts in the last few days, the two labels’ partnership kicked off on February 12 in New York, at Victoria's Secret 6,000-square-metre flagship store, on Fifth Avenue. Livy is the guest star in all of the store’s shop windows, while a sizeable retail area is dedicated to the French label inside the store. Along the latter’s central alley, Livy is introduced to customers in didactic fashion, “almost like an induction to [Livy’s] world and expertise, focusing on the label’s distinctive premium positioning and adopting a high-end approach designed to lead the customers to us,” said Chavy to FashionNetwork.com.

After a video presentation of some of Livy's models, the route continues up the store's majestic staircase, then along another central alley dedicated to Livy and leading to a shop-in-shop that is a full-scale replica of the 80 m2 store Livy first opened in Paris in September 2017.

The same setting will be reproduced in London from February 20, at Victoria's Secret Bond Street flagship, where it will feature for a duration yet to be determined. Livy will also be present on Victoria's Secret’s international e-store.

“It's a major showcase for us. After managing to associate ourselves with France’s national lingerie leader, Etam, it’s now the market’s world leader which believes in us, is interested in us, and is opening its doors to Livy,” enthused Chavy.

Indeed, Livy features prominently on the social media accounts of the US lingerie giant, which has nearly 65 million followers on Instagram, as well as on the US specialised press.

“Ever since we started, we were sure the label had international potential, notably in the USA, and this partnership confirms it,” added Chavy, the founder and creative director of Livy.

The invitation to feature with the US label, which is set to open its first stores in France in 2019, isn’t the only news for Livy at the moment, as the label’s own retail network is currently expanding. While the pace of the openings of directly owned stores has slowed down compared to what was initially on the cards, three inaugurations are scheduled in France in H1.

A Livy store opened in Montpellier in early February, the label's fourth outside Paris, while a second Parisian store is expected to open in early March in the Victor Hugo district. Before the summer, another Parisian opening is planned in the Marais area, where Livy has signed off on a new location.

The international expansion of Livy, visually distinctive for its creative range of models, will also be boosted by the debut on Net-A-Porter in the Autumn/Winter 2019. “Our current thinking is that we must manage to satisfy international demand, both in terms of output and organisation. We will soon need a general manager to help me sustain this growth!” said Chavy, who until now reckoned the label, whose name is derived from her own, was still in start-up mode.