Former design consultant at Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser and Fat
Face, Zoe Price-Smith decided to leave her life in the UK behind in
2011 to lead the design team at Hunkemöller, one of Europe’s leading
lingerie and lifestyle labels. During the unveiling of Hunkemöller’s
upcoming Winter ’15 collections, FashionUnited took a moment to sit
down and talk to the label’s busy Director of Design.
FashionUnited: What’s it like working for Hunkemöller, one of
Europe’s leading lingerie labels?
Zoe Price-Smith: “I love it. I have been here for three years and committed
everything to working for Hunkemöller. I moved my family here and my
husband set up his business here. I think you have to absolutely love
what you do to really take it forward. I adore lingerie and I love the
brand and I see so much potential in it, so it gives me true energy
and passion to drive it onwards.”
“Right now I am very, very happy with where we are, a place that took
us some time to build up to and I am very proud of it. To see the
vision for the next coming year as well really feels me with so much
energy and enthusiasm for my job. I feel really honored to work at
Hunkemöller and I am very proud of my job.”
How many collections do you create per year?
“We launch really big collections, so we would do four quarters per
year, and one alone could contain over 300 different bras. Our
Christmas collection is slightly smaller, because its a shorter
period, but before that there is our third quarter which is Autumn,
but starts really around the end of June which is a difficult
transitional time as it runs all the way up to October, so its our
biggest collection. So imagine, last season we had around 370 bras
plus bottoms and then we had nightwear on top of that, so its a lot to
coordinate the whole lot. You have to have a very clear vision from
the start so everyone knows exactly what they are doing.”
How big is the design team?
“Well I have ten designers working in my team, as well as a few
freelancers but I will coordinate and brief my team as to what it is
going on with all collection launches. We have a very creative team,
as it is a design based company, so they have to be. So design is at
forefront of our business and our strategy is to maintain that going
into the future to become a stronger brand.”
How do you set the mood/tone for Hunkemöller’s collections?
“It is really based on runways and fashion. And we also look at global
trends world wide and then rewrite it for our brand. So its very
eclectic mixing prints to get the spirit of what the trend is all
about and then you have to translate it down to create concepts for
each product range and collection. And there is so much research that
goes into it, we create everything in house, so we only use the
intelligence we see from the outside world and bring it all in to
create our lingerie.”
“We want to make sure we transport the latest runway fashion trends
into lingerie, so we used a lot of transparency, paneling and
asymmetric shapes to craft a beautiful, seamless collection for this
Holiday season.”
And do you work new emerging trends into your current
collections, such as soft bras?
“Actually, we’ve added quite a few new soft cup bras into our
collection this season, not only because they are trendy, but because
the demand for them is there and is quite high. If you go through our
current collection there are a lot more soft, none padded bras, with a
touch of lace here and there. And we are building it up, season after
season for our customers as its very much in demand and current.”
“The general every day woman is bigger than before and she does have a
bigger bust. She wants more cup sizes and styles available to her,
because these women do not always want to wear traditional foam bras,
so we want to offer them an alternative.”
Why is it still important to have a traditional Christmas
inspired collection?
“Because the day itself is like Valentines Day, everyone wants a red
lingerie set and we just wanted to make it more seductive this season,
by adding new strapping and glam. But of course, we made sure we have
other choices as well, for those who do not want a traditional red
set. We have ones in cobalt blue and lighter blues, which are all
important this season as well as your jewel tones, emerald greens and
red berries mixed with prints that come through in a seductive
way.”
“Then we also created a small collection called Snow Queen,
celebrating the purity of Christmas, with a touch of sparkle, seen on
the iridescent shine coming through on the laces, the rich chocolates
which are really key in a variety of shades and tones to give it that
Christmassy richness in a soft, beautiful way.”
How do you decide what cup style/design to use for a
particular bra?
“It all comes down to working with the buying teams. So they’ll say
that they may need four balconies and five plunges and then its up to
us [the design team] to create those shapes. But it comes from a
merchandising and sales perspective, what styles are selling and what
ratios our collections need. So they supple that information to us and
we then go on to design around the data they give us.”
How is Hunkemöller’s Noir line different from other lines?
“Well, Noir we launched a few seasons ago and it is our premium line.
It is about pure sophistication, its timeless and its the attention to
detail that separates it from our other lines. It needs to be visibly
obvious that it is more expensive and why. It has its own handwriting,
a signature, which makes it stand out. The color palettes are quite
consolidated, which could be two colors, and you can see the product
is Noir just by the lace used, the straps, all those components which
makes it stand away from the rest of the collection.”
“The price points do sit a bit higher than the rest of our
collections, but that allows us the freedom to do a lot more with the
fabrics, lace and materials we ultimately decide to use to make it
that bit more sophisticated.”
And how important is sleepwear and nightwear for Hunkemoller?
“Our nightwear has always been important for us, but its growing
within the brand. We offer two sides of nightwear. One which is based
around the same trends we translate into our different lingerie
collections, which is usually displayed alongside the lingerie in
store, and then we have our more ‘cozy’ division. The cosy lines,
which consist of oneies, soft pajama bottoms and tops tend to sit on
tables in the middle of the stores, as they follow their own concept
and trends separate from our bras. It is really important that we also
remain up to trend when it comes to our nightwear as well, and we have
our own separate design team for nightwear alongside our lingerie and
bra specialist design team. ”
Lastly, can you tells us a little bit more about your ongoing
collaboration with model and presenter, Sylvie Meis?
“Well this season we will be launching our second lingerie
collaboration with Sylvie, and when we came together to work out the
upcoming collection we found the city of London to be the perfect fit
because I am from London, she lived in London, she loves London, so
our roots together in London came out strong. We wandered off to study
the more fashion influence side of the city and we wanted to translate
the sense of modern glamor we found into traditional lingerie, along
with what she loves, paying attention to the most finest and delicate
details to make it very Sylvie. Which was important for the
collection.”
“The editorial shoots for the collection were all shot in London, you
can see some of the main landmarks in the background of the photos
that were shot outside.”