Lingerie Goes Beyond the Bedroom

Fleur du Soir satin gown ($2,295) by Fleur du Mal

Fleur du Mal founder Jennifer Zuccarini is a high concept kind of girl. The designer and entrepreneur behind the new luxury ready to wear and lingerie online destination adores beauty, fun, and decadence. Still, her elegantly edgy designs are also very wearable—just ask Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and WWD, which have all featured Fleur du Mal since the site’s November launch. With previous gigs including co-founding lingerie line Kiki de Montparnasse and working as design director of intimates for Victoria’s Secret, the New York-based Zuccarini is inspired by the idea of dressing up, and, she explains, undressing.

Tell us about the concept of Fleur du Mal.
JENNIFER ZUCCARINI: I was really interested in the idea of desire and building a lifestyle around that. It’s really inspired by the idea of dressing and undressing—things to wear at night, beautiful underthings. Building a world around that has always fascinated me, from music to art to collaborations.

What made you decide to name the brand after a Charles Baudelaire novel, Les Fleurs du Mal?
JZ: I was always thinking about it! I came across the name when I was traveling in Argentina. I came across the book and it just kind of hit me: this could be the one. I liked the duality of the name, something that’s beautiful but also has a darker side to it.

The darker side feels very New York. 
JZ: Yes, that’s what makes New York interesting—it has some of that grittiness. I wanted it to be beautiful, but I didn’t want the brand to be too precious. I wanted it to have a spirit to it. 

You personally designed every piece in the collection. What was your inspiration?
JZ: For my first collection, I was really inspired by the idea of Paris nightlife in the 1970s, like Régine’s. It’s fun, decadent, and sexy. I love that whole feeling.

Let’s talk corsets. Why should a modern woman have a corset in 2013?
JZ: I think it’s the one thing you can put on that really transforms your figure and your body. It makes you feel so great. Of course, it’s not something I think women should wear all the time—it’s an experience. Even getting into a corset, you have to have help from a friend. It’s not that easy, but it’s really rewarding when it’s on you in the right way. It cinches you in, it changes your posture and your body. A shaper can have the same effect, but it’s not going to be as dramatic as a corset.

We did a collaboration with a corset maker in Paris called Cadolle. We did leather ones made from French lambskin, and we also have a corset without lacing to wear under things, and then we have a bustier.

What sets Fleur du Mal apart from other lingerie brands?
JZ: If you go to department store, it’s really kind of depressing. I don’t find it a great experience. This is more of an aesthetic, a culture. And trying things on at home can be really nice instead of inside a cramped dressing room. 

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The First Ad Campaign On Facebook’s Poke Is For … Lingerie

A shot of the lingerie ad.

Less than a week after Facebook released its Snapchat competitor, Poke, ad agency Grey Tel Aviv decided to test whether the app was marketing friendly by launching its first-ever ad campaign.

Appropriately, the marketing push was for a lingerie line. (The Poke and Snapchat platform allows users to send texts, pictures, and videos that self destruct after 10 seconds and has been hailed as the perfect sexting app.)

Delta Lingerie gave Grey a simple brief, to promote “a one-time sales promotion on lingerie” that “won’t come back.” Which seemed to work perfectly with Poke’s one-time only viewing platform.

So the shop had model Ninet Tayeb’s agent take a 10-second video of his client getting dressed in her very own bathroom. When she slams the door, the camera zooms to a message asking viewers to go to Delta’s website for a one-time sale.

Of course, the campaign posed quite a few problems. Since users can only send their disappearing messages to a maximum of 40 people at a time, Tayeb’s agent had to manually retake and resend the video over and over again.

There were also limitations on who the Poke campaign could actually be sent to. Daniel Barak, who worked on the campaign, told Business Insider that “In order to bypass the fact that Poke isn’t opened to Brands, we sent the Pokes to the model’s fans through her agent’s personal Facebook profile.”

And then, of course, there are the minor details that the video is completely unsharable and if the consumer blinks, he or she might miss the crucial message at the end of the video.

Watch how they did it below:

SEE ALSO: 
Venus And Serena Williams Get Owned At Ping Pong In The New iPhone 5 Ad

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