Parade isn’t slowing down anytime soon. On Tuesday, the direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand is adding another product category: underwire bras.
Parade founder and chief executive officer Cami Tellez said the collection, which includes four shapes in 12 colorways all offered in sizes 32A through 46G, has been in the works for nearly three years. The styles were developed by working with 20 different body types, the brand said.
“We have always dreamt of bringing Parade’s vision of self-expression, liberation, comfort and dynamic design into this space because we recognize how important this category is to people’s everyday lives,” Tellez told WWD.
“We have been working on the R&D of this from the very beginning [of the brand], from construction to size to wear testing all alongside our community,” she continued. An initial run of styles will become available for purchase on Wednesday, with a follow-up collection made from silky mesh scheduled for roll-out on Feb. 21.
The bras add to Parade’s already wide assortment of underwear, loungewear, pajamas and bralettes, the latter of which were introduced in April 2021.
Bralettes were a boon during the pandemic, Tellez said, but recently she spotted an uptick in requests for bra styles that offer lift and shaping.
“We launched right before COVID-19 and saw our customer embrace a fast casualization. We’ve sold millions of bralettes and millions of underwear. But our customer is now going through a moment of self-expression where support and lift is important day to day.
Parade’s underwire campaign.
“For us to be a 360-degree, full-service underwear brand and connect with our customer everyday, we knew this was important. Direct-to-consumer brands in general usually have one category and have a hard time expanding into the next one but Parade has been very successful because we co-create with our community on each category we come into,” Tellez said of the launch.
For the project, Parade has developed what it’s calling “Cloud Lift,” or a wire system that is extremely flexible and wrapped in soft, rip-proof fabric to avoid poking and irritation.
The underwire bras will be offered in T-shirt, triangle, plunge and balconette styles. Tellez said this breadth is due to “recognizing the unique needs in the category and also the range of different moods and mind states of the customer throughout the day, week and years. We wanted to answer each of them with this launch.”
The bras are priced at $44 to $58 — part of what Tellez considers a competitive, inclusive-minded strategy. “Access in this category is so important to us. We are creating a brand that stands for real values at its core and when we looked at the category we saw brands charging $70 for a bra that most people in America couldn’t afford,” she said.
The brand does not have physical retail spaces so each bra purchase comes with a 30-day, risk-free guarantee return window.
Now that Tellez has addressed mostly every need in the bra and underwear space, what’s next? The company says it has a valuation of $200 million and a consumer base of 600,000 people.
“World domination,” Tellez said when asked what her next big goal is. “Listen, I think every category we have entered, we’ve won. The ultimate goal for Parade is to be the leading underwear brand for all people. We’ve established a cult-like following and sold over 6 million pairs of underwear. The next phase for us is ubiquity and expanding where you can find Parade and expanding across categories and geographies,” she said.
Source: WWD