00:03House fashion is generally marketed itself.
00:06It makes women feel bad about themselves.
00:08I'm Emma, the founder and CEO of Playful Promises.
00:11We don't want to make people feel like unwelcome,
00:16that lingerie is just for kind of straight couples.
00:18It's for like everyone and anyone.
00:20When I was younger, there were no options except for my mom's bras,
00:24which were not cute.
00:25We don't fit the fantasy. We are the fantasy.
00:27We want to make sure that everyone is included,
00:30that everyone feels beautiful.
00:31I absolutely don't want to put my money into companies
00:35that aren't going to cater to me.
00:37There is a diverse range of women with diverse body shapes
00:40who want sexy lingerie.
00:57Today we're here to do a shoot for the anniversary of our brand.
01:04We're shooting today to represent different people,
01:07people that would not normally be seen in mainstream fashion
01:11and in lingerie especially.
01:15We wanted to make sure that this shoot is referencing like ball culture,
01:2180s inspired, kind of glittery, lots of glamour.
01:27We don't see enough people represented.
01:30It needs to change and it's not difficult to do.
01:35We've got a really amazing array of models coming to work with us today.
01:39We're really looking to capture a diversity of our size range and our client base.
01:46So I think, yeah, keep her in that one because it looks so good in that picture.
01:50One of the things that inspired me to go into lingerie
01:53is that I realised there was a sort of gap in the market
01:56and I felt like there was really a space for a brand that is affordable
02:02and has a much wider size range.
02:05We've currently got 78 bra sizes
02:08and we're actually adding even more sizes.
02:11Yeah, yeah.
02:14A lot of the time people think that because we're an inclusive brand
02:19that the design process must be different
02:20and actually that's the whole point.
02:23It isn't different.
02:24The design process of making a sexy product is the same.
02:28So that's why there's no excuse for other people not to be doing it.
02:32I actually worked as a stripper, which maybe surprises some people
02:37but that's how I was then able to fund going back to university again
02:41to then do a degree in fashion design.
02:44So I was working at nighttime dancing and then doing the business in the day.
02:48Having worked in the sort of adult industry,
02:51I really felt society doesn't understand that really all feminism is about
02:56is about allowing women to make their own choices.
03:08The reason we decided to work with Laina for this photo shoot
03:11is that she's been quite vocal about wanting to work with Victoria's Secrets
03:15and Victoria's Secrets were quite unpleasant about trans models.
03:27It was a moment for me to say, I'm going to go after the big one.
03:31I'm not going to settle and just do these little small fights.
03:34I'm going to go after the war and I'm glad that they finally said something, you know.
03:42We don't fit the fantasy. We are the fantasy.
03:45Our ideas, our bodies, our conversations, our way of thinking
03:49has been literally ripped from us and put in stores to sell back to us.
03:55We thought, fuck it. If Victoria's Secrets don't understand
03:59why they should work with her, we will.
04:01You know the vibe we're going for?
04:03Yes, I love that. That's what I'm like.
04:05Kind of like...
04:09Amazing.
04:11Victoria's Secret is kind of like, has a vision of what they want.
04:15And that's fine. They have every right to have that vision,
04:17but I don't want the rest of the world to fetishize that
04:20because it's not including everyone else.
04:22Beautiful.
04:23Gorgeous.
04:24So sparkly. Amazing.
04:26I love that.
04:27I love the lighting.
04:28The lighting is beautiful.
04:30We look at Victoria's Secrets and we think that's everything that's wrong
04:34with how lingerie is marketed to women.
04:37One of the interesting things about Victoria's Secrets
04:39is recently their financial data showed that their sales were falling
04:42and the media interpreted this, that women had lost interest in like sexy lingerie.
04:49And I actually think it was a complete misinterpretation.
04:51What it is, is that women, they just don't like the way that Victoria's Secrets is expressing female sexuality.
04:58They want to see a broader, more inclusive expression of female sexuality.
05:02Being inclusive has been a really big part of the success of our brand.
05:12We're one of the first brands to work with a gender fluid model.
05:15We decided to do a collaboration with Gaby Fresh.
05:18She was one of the original Body Positive bloggers.
05:23Inclusivity for me, it covers gender, it covers race, it covers size, it covers age.
05:37When I was younger, I wanted to model. I was like, there's no models that are ever going to be
05:43my size.
05:43I'm too big.
05:45In the past, anything cute came in an A cup or a B cup.
05:50I mean, now you can find gorgeous lingerie in like triple D, E, H, G sizes that most people don't
05:58even think about unless you're a larger woman.
06:00I enjoy the fact that I can be here today and will be able to show other women that you
06:06can be sexy.
06:09Growing up, I felt like I was always looking for my own personal heroes that I looked up to and
06:16my own idols that inspire me.
06:19And it was hard for me finding it because I was living in such a like hero white norm society.
06:24And conforming to that society was always kind of like a hassle and stress.
06:29It's important to just have your own moment to just like love yourself and fashion can really help in that
06:35field.
06:37We feel that we're really lucky to have been so successful when we took so many risks.
06:42And it shows that we are in touch with what women are looking for.
06:49There's so many people who are hiding behind, you know, their oversized clothes.
06:56They're still wearing that basic beige bra every day and that's it.
07:00I feel like everyone deserves to feel confident and sexy.
07:05Society still has lots of problems with sizeism, ageism, racism.
07:09The industry is getting better.
07:11But as in, you know, the way that society needs to move forward, so does the industry needs to keep
07:15pushing boundaries as well.
07:18I'm happy that I live in a generation where we are pushing those doors down so we can have seats
07:23at the tables where we belong and where we've always belonged.
07:28Do you want to put music on afterwards?
07:30Did you want your music?
07:46We'll see you next time.
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