The Playful Promises Blog covering all things knicker-related! Bras, girdles, corsets, panties, knickers, gstrings, thongs, longline bra, bra sizes, la bra, suspender belts, garter, dresses, clothing, boutique, stockings, seamed stockings and more!
We had a cracking year, here's a little run down of our favourite bits!
January
For the past few years we've been teaming up with other indie brands for the big Love Bomb! In January, we decided, rather than shoot models in the designers' lingerie, we'd shoot the designers themselves (apart from Curvy Couture who couldn't join us). For 6 days each brand ran a different offer or discount in the run up to Valentine's Day, and we all talked about what we loved about each brand.
We started to launch our SS'14 collection, featuring the neon pink Nancy and peppermint green Penny sets!
February
One of the most common pieces of feedback we get from our customers is the need for a wider range of sizes. As a small brand, with the cost of each different bra size being significant, we just aren't able to please everyone and create as many sizes as are requested. Our standard size set went up to 36DD, and the most common requests were for E and F cup sizes, so we took the plunge (no pun intended)!
In February we launched the Lily collection, which included 32E, 32F, 34E and 34F sizes in both an open cup bra and a balconette bra. The feedback we received was amazing! The E and F cups almost completely sold out within a matter of weeks, which proved to us that the extended sizing was a good idea, and worth including in future sets. We have since re-stocked this line and included 36E and 36F cups also.
March
Starting with our friends, Kiss Me Deadly, we launched guest brands on our website and in our Boxpark boutique. Soon followed by French brand, Maison Close.
April
We started to bring in our AW'14 collection, including our Jackie set! We were really happy with the lookbook for this collection too, as it was quite different from our previous ones with it's minimal, 60's feel.
May
As we work a year ahead, we shot our SS'15 lookbook in May of this year. This allows us to take the collection to tradeshows and show our stockists what we will have available for the next year. Many stockists plan their next seasons based on pre-orders they place at trade-shows.
Here's our model Laura with her "bodyguards", our makeup artist Cheyenne and hair stylist Dee!
June
This year marked our 10th birthday, and we wanted to celebrate in style! Emma, designer and creator of Playful Promises, planned and organised an extra-special collection to be manufactured in the UK. We teamed up with artist Karina Akopyan for a special print featuring an exclusive circus illustration (photo on the left), theming the entire project around vintage circuses.
The result featured gold fringing, bodysuits, bra sets and more, each a new style for Playful Promises. Each piece is an incredibly limited edition, and once they are gone, they are gone!
August
We said hello to Mia, another F Cup set featuring an exclusive print designed in-house and detachable suspender straps!
We began stocking makeup from Sugarpill and Shien Cosmetics!
October
We shot a new Halloween lookbook inspired by Victorian Spiritualism, which mixed and matched pieces available at Playful Promises.
November
We began stocking boudoir accessories by Spanish brand, Secret Play
We took part in the Lingerie Secret Santa campaign, with fellow independent designers! This box of goodies went off to our secret santa all the way in the US, Clare Bare.
December
We shot our AW'15 collection with some of our favourite models, Miss Miranda, Miss Deadly Red and Veanne (IMM)! We are SO excited about this collection, which should be arriving from April onwards!
The stunning retro-inspired Brigitte arrived, as the final part of our AW14 collection.
The first part of our Spring/Summer 2015 collection, Gwendolene, has just arrived!
What's next for 2015?
We've got so much planned already for 2015, and so excited to be able to show you what we've been working on!
We LOVE our new Mia set, and we bet you do too! So how about a giveaway?
Mia is one of the newest sets in our Autumn/Winter 2014 collection (called "All Tomorrow's Parties"), inspired by the icons of the '60s and '70s. The bra and brief set are covered in cherry blossoms, one of our exclusive digital prints that you won't see anywhere else!
The panelling and mesh top of the bra contrasts against the cute pink ribbons, and the brief has detachable suspenders.
Best yet, it goes all the way up to 36F! We took on board the requests for 36E/36F cups, following the success of our Lily E and F cups, and created Mia in the extra sizing. Here's Mia on the 32F sized Emma:
So how can you win one of these gorgeous sets?
Check out the Rafflecopter below (if for any reason that doesn't work, you need to post a comment on this blog post, with your email, letting us know why you'd love a Mia set!)
Twice a year, we head off to Paris to Salon International de la Lingerie, to show our buyers and stockists our new collection of pants. While it might sound rather glamorous, most brands hide the parts about carting large suitcases around (or they get their interns to do it instead) and spending the majority of the day waiting.
So here’s our semi-glamorous Paris Tradeshow diary!
Just 2 of the 5 bags we had!
24th January
10.30am - We made sure all our lingerie and show pieces were packed into our 5 (!) suitcases and grabbed a taxi to Kings Cross for our Eurostar at 12.25.
4pm - arrived in Paris, building up our muscles dragging our suitcases off the train (with no assistance!). Grabbed a cab straight to the exhibition hall to set up our stand. On the Friday the hall is still being set up, especially the larger brands' stands, so we had to navigate around paint tins and rolls of carpet left on the floor!
Our stand is nearer the back of the hall, in the "Limited Edition" section (which essentially means young designer) alongside similar independent brands (next to us were What Katie Did, Olivia Von Halle, Underprotection and Beautiful Bottoms, nearby were Kiss Me Deadly, Fräulein Kink, Bordelle and Lascivious).
We set up and locked our samples away ready to just open up the cupboard in the morning. Luckily our hotel was just 15 minutes walk, and we already knew of a nice place to eat quite close by, where we were joined by the ladies from Kiss Me Deadly and Betty Blue’s Loungerie. We ended up exhausted and in bed by 10pm!
9am - After a quick breakfast we headed down to the exhibition hall to set up our stand. Wonder of wonders, the lock on our cupboard door had broken off, possibly from the weight from the samples, so the next few evenings were spent hiding this fact and hoping nothing got stolen (there’s been many an occasion when fellow brands have had something disappear overnight).
We had a good first day, meeting both new boutiques and current customers interested in seeing our AW14 collection!
One of our new stockists is Lulu Boutique in Haarlem, Netherlands. They have only been open for a few months but we loved seeing photos of their shop. We should be delivering some of our goodies to them in the next week; do visit them if you are in the area!
We met the ladies from So Lenceria, an online shop based in France. We also met with one of our long-term buyers from Elegance in Greece.
This was a fairly quiet day for us, but we met a few new people.
We met Shukeena who is going to be launching Little Black Box in September; we are really interested in seeing her brand develop! We also met Enrapture from Hong Kong, Timbree et Culottee from France and a lady from Sizem - an interesting bra fitting app.
7pm - For dinner we ventured a bit further afield with Karolina Laskowska to a really beautiful art nouveau style restaurant. There was a bit of a wait as we had just turned up without a reservation, so we spent some time staring at the live crabs and lobsters in the tank. The food was good, but actually not as good as the place we went to on the first night!
The opera house was near the restaurant - it's so beautiful!
27th January
Last day of the show!
We met a lovely lady from Fashion Snoops who took some photos and asked us some questions for an article she will write - we will post it once it’s up.
Another interesting new contact was a Tunisian manufacturer; as you may know, we already manufacture in China and will be making some limited edition pieces in the UK this year. China used to be the cheapest place to have something manufactured (although we independently audit our factories to ensure they remain ethical), however prices and minimum quantities are rising, so we are interested in seeing if different countries can match or beat the price. We need to make sure our pants are still affordable while remaining great quality!
We also spoke with the buyer of Lemon Curve to see what sold best for them last season, and to show them our AW14 collection. If you are based in France you can find our lingerie on Lemon Curve here!
5pm - Our Eurostar was at 7pm, so we packed up and rushed out of the show just before 5pm. Emma told me some horror stories about how they once had to queue for a taxi for an hour and narrowly avoided missing the train! Luckily we seemed to get a taxi within 20 minutes and zoomed off to the Gare du Nord while the driver started talking about all the landmarks we passed (although I only understood a tiny amount as he was speaking in french!).
There was a bit of chaos getting our luggage through the security checks. They had a upwards sloping baggage belt, which appeared to have no grip and caused our heavy suitcases to slide back down towards us. Of course nobody else made a move to help us, so we had to guide the suitcases into the scanner ourselves.
Ironically, the only people that helped us onto the train with our bags were British. To finish off the show we both had separate arguments with people, one about the toilet and one about seats!
It was an exhausting mode of travel, that’s for sure!
