WACOAL DIA – one of the most exclusive lingerie brands in the world, makes its appearance in April with an opulent pop up shop in Harrods, the only stockist of the label outside of Japan.
WACOAL DIA designer, Atsuko Kamio, describes her designs for women who “seek sensibility and perfect, and understand a delicate sense of beauty”. The collections take inspiration from Japan and Japanese paintings with lavish laces and fine embroideries in ultra feminine styles (padded plunge bra, sheer flared knickers, cardigan, camisole and tulle petticoat alongside suspender belt, thong and brief.
WACOAL DIA – lingerie for the discerning
In an exclusive interview with Underlines, Mr Nigel Addison (Sales Director of Wacoal Eveden) spoke about the appeal of the WACOAL DIA label. “WACOAL DIA was the first luxury lingerie brand launched in Japan some 10 years ago. Every season stunning collections of luxurious lingerie are introduced as well as a selection of ready to wear pieces. This is Japanese lingerie with French couture-style for a woman with a great sense of style, comfortable with her choices and can afford to wear the best. The WACOAL DIA goal is for women to always look and feel their best.”
The Design inspiration?
“The collections are designed by Atsuko Kamio. Designing from a young age, under her mother who was also a designer, Astuko developed a passion for handcrafting and sewing after travelling to France – fell in love with the delicate style and design of French lingerie.
At the time there was nothing like this in Japan and Atsuko recognised the potential and big gap in the market – feeling it was her responsibility to bring this niche to Japan.
For WACOAL DIA – something which is delicately designed is the most striking. In Japanese art a huge amount of time is spent on each tiny object and it is the same with WACOAL DIA collections. You can see the quality of the collection through its craftsmanship and stitching. Being clever with the hands comes from traditional Japanese practices of calligraphy and tea ceremonies. The WACOAL DIA collections use opulent fabrics, based on natural shapes and colours which show Japanese history, culture, customs and morals.
Not only do WACOAL DIA collections provide a great fit but they also offer a unique shape. Unlike the European market, WACOAL DIA’s collections bring something new – the beauty being they don’t cover up the breasts they shape them with only a light amount of fabric. This year the WACOAL DIA Tullips collection celebrates its 10th anniversary, featuring a delicate Tulip motif on exclusive WACOAL DIA fabric the collection’s flowers and leaves which move sensually with your body. Tullips continues to remain a hugely popular collection with all WACOAL DIA customers. Launching for SS14, is the Khaki Vert collection which has received a fantastic reaction so far! This unique collection is truly special to Japan, combining flowers and leaves inspired by a Japanese painting of Aogaki (Green Persimmons) this collection offers its delicate embroidery an array lingerie styles and ready to wear pieces.”
WACOAL DIA Khaki Vert
And the Harrods connection?
“The pop up shop will be a great opportunity for customers to see more pieces of the collection, including some of the exclusive ready-to-wear and stunning lingerie. It will be there for just a few weeks with a dedicated WACOAL DIA team present to really advise on the collections and offer fittings. The brand has an outstanding reputation in the Japanese market for its premium collections, where it is sold in 11 stores. In Europe however, our focus is for it to remain highly exclusive with our main focus being to develop its sister brand WACOAL throughout premium stores. We hope the activity will help to highlight the entire WACOAL brand and show how both this brand as well as B.tempt’d are actively growing at a fast pace here in the UK. Now under the WACOAL EVEDEN umbrella, throughout the next 12 months we will be supporting both WACOAL and B.tempt’d in all our activity so it is a really exciting time for us.”
WACOAL DIA prices start from £120-£245 for lingerie and £320-£780 for ready-to-wear pieces.
