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Monday, January 11, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Seattle's Zovo Lingerie embraces larger, decorative bras as recession-survival strategy
By Amy Martinez and Melissa Allison, Seattle Times business reporters
Formerly flat-chested, Linda Huse developed a bigger bust after giving birth twice in the late 1980s; like many women, she began to dread shopping for a new bra.
Stores were skewed to smaller sizes, she recalls, relegating her to a workmanlike selection of bras in black, beige or white, and no decorative embellishments.
But Huse, a nonprofit executive who lives in Bellevue, is pleased to see things are changing. During an outing Monday to Seattle's University Village, Huse stopped by the Zovo Lingerie store to browse an array of bras ranging in size from 28-AA to 46-K.
"It's about time," Huse said, admiring a frilly white-and-black lace bra with a large cup. "When you've been married as long as I have — 31 years — you want a pretty bra to surprise him."
Zovo's emphasis on hard-to-find bras helps explain why sales at the store are up nearly 40 percent from 2008, despite a troubled economy, said founder Victoria Roberts.
It also doesn't hurt that bras are an everyday must, she said, and not the type of purchase women are likely to put off until an economic recovery takes hold.
National data suggest Zovo is on to something. For the 12-month period ending in September, estimated bra sales rose 5 percent from the previous year, roughly twice the increase for women's intimate apparel overall, according to research firm NPD Group.
Roberts and her husband, Engle Saez, who both held top-level jobs at Starbucks before opening Zovo in 2005, plan a second location, possibly in Bellevue.
That they're even talking about an expansion represents a stark turnaround from a year ago, when the bottom fell out of their once-thriving wholesale business.
In 2007, Zovo began producing a pricey sleepwear line that quickly made its way to Anthropologie, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom stores nationwide.
"We went like this," Roberts said, pointing her right index finger upward, then downward. "October of last year, people stopped buying premium-quality luxury brands, especially ones they'd never heard of."
Roberts and Saez left the wholesale business and focused all of their attention on the U Village store. They stocked up on slightly less-expensive bras to appeal to cost-conscious consumers, so that prices for an F-cup and above now start at $60, rather than $75.
They also expanded the breadth of their multilabel offerings to distinguish Zovo from large department stores and other boutiques. Today, Zovo offers bras in 98 sizes, about 20 more than a year ago.
Roberts said the store's annual sales are in the high-six-figure range. Customers tend to be between 35 and 60 years old and have a household income of $80,000 a year or more.
Holding up a black lace bra with an H-cup, Roberts declared, "This is very sexy." Elsewhere, she added, a bra with such a large cup might look "like a bulletproof vest."
"All of a sudden, women beyond a D-cup get to have sexy and functional — really, all the things that women in a C-cup can get," she said.
— Amy Martinez
Formerly flat-chested, Linda Huse developed a bigger bust after giving birth twice in the late 1980s; like many women, she began to dread shopping for a new bra.
Stores were skewed to smaller sizes, she recalls, relegating her to a workmanlike selection of bras in black, beige or white, and no decorative embellishments.
But Huse, a nonprofit executive who lives in Bellevue, is pleased to see things are changing. During an outing Monday to Seattle's University Village, Huse stopped by the Zovo Lingerie store to browse an array of bras ranging in size from 28-AA to 46-K.
"It's about time," Huse said, admiring a frilly white-and-black lace bra with a large cup. "When you've been married as long as I have — 31 years — you want a pretty bra to surprise him."
Zovo's emphasis on hard-to-find bras helps explain why sales at the store are up nearly 40 percent from 2008, despite a troubled economy, said founder Victoria Roberts.
It also doesn't hurt that bras are an everyday must, she said, and not the type of purchase women are likely to put off until an economic recovery takes hold.
National data suggest Zovo is on to something. For the 12-month period ending in September, estimated bra sales rose 5 percent from the previous year, roughly twice the increase for women's intimate apparel overall, according to research firm NPD Group.
Roberts and her husband, Engle Saez, who both held top-level jobs at Starbucks before opening Zovo in 2005, plan a second location, possibly in Bellevue.
That they're even talking about an expansion represents a stark turnaround from a year ago, when the bottom fell out of their once-thriving wholesale business.
In 2007, Zovo began producing a pricey sleepwear line that quickly made its way to Anthropologie, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom stores nationwide.
"We went like this," Roberts said, pointing her right index finger upward, then downward. "October of last year, people stopped buying premium-quality luxury brands, especially ones they'd never heard of."
Roberts and Saez left the wholesale business and focused all of their attention on the U Village store. They stocked up on slightly less-expensive bras to appeal to cost-conscious consumers, so that prices for an F-cup and above now start at $60, rather than $75.
They also expanded the breadth of their multilabel offerings to distinguish Zovo from large department stores and other boutiques. Today, Zovo offers bras in 98 sizes, about 20 more than a year ago.
Roberts said the store's annual sales are in the high-six-figure range. Customers tend to be between 35 and 60 years old and have a household income of $80,000 a year or more.
Holding up a black lace bra with an H-cup, Roberts declared, "This is very sexy." Elsewhere, she added, a bra with such a large cup might look "like a bulletproof vest."
"All of a sudden, women beyond a D-cup get to have sexy and functional — really, all the things that women in a C-cup can get," she said.
— Amy Martinez
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