The 4th Annual Lingerie Forum takes place in Latvia later this month and Underlines caught up with Vanilla Blush, a British brand that is placing production of some of its lines in this North West corner of the EU. Vanilla Blush was created over 10 years by Nicola Dames who wanted attractive lingerie options for women (and men) who have had a stoma. Based in Glasgow the brand has grown rapidly picking up awards for design and innovation along the way but Nicola says: “We launched Vanilla Blush live on ITV’s ‘This Morning Show’ and had huge coverage of our good news human interest story. But were always aiming to run a very successful business, and for it, in many ways to be irrelevant that I have a Stoma. I don’t want to be known for that, I want to be known for being a great business leader.”
The business has grown by leaps and bounds and is still in private hands despite an attractive offer in 2017 to buy it – Nicola says she still has very big plans for the brand “as I know where the global brand is going.”
So what of this brand’s move to head to Latvia after successfully creating an international brand that is sexy and glamorous and breaks all the perceptions of a medically proven product? Nicola says: “At first I asked the question as to why Latvia? However, my co-partner and husband, is a lover of history and politics and he explained to me the whole USSR link, independence in the early 1990s and the fact that Latvia had a legacy of lingerie production within the old pre-1991 system. I cannot say specifically where as I want to keep that to myself! But for most people, they would have no idea that Latvia is the Real Madrid of the luxury lingerie market.”
