This Friday Underlines chats with Ann-Marie Manley, Head of Brand & Marketing at the Wacoal Group. Ann-Marie has been with the group for nearly 22 years and has been an integral part of the company’s brand growth and expansion during that time. Despite all her experience, her work ethic means she has not conquered the task of ‘sitting on her hands’ and saying yes too often!
Life before Wacoal?
My route into the industry was certainly not the conventional one. I became a mum at 19 while studying Marketing and Business at De Montfort University in Leicester and, just to keep life interesting, I also worked two part-time jobs.
On Saturdays I helped run a flower stall on Leicester Market, where I learned about hard graft, quick thinking and the importance of understanding your customer. And I also worked at Habitat as a wedding-list consultant, helping excited brides-to-be choose everything they needed for married life. It was quite a contrast: market-trader camaraderie one day and carefully curated tableware the next!
Balancing university, work and motherhood was challenging, particularly when my fellow students had rather different demands on their time. But becoming a young mum gave me an enormous sense of purpose. I was determined to create a better future for my son, and that motivation shaped my work ethic from the very beginning.
Looking back, it was a monumental start to my career. The market taught me resilience and commercial instinct; Habitat taught me how to listen, advise and create a memorable customer experience; and university gave me the strategic foundations to build upon. It wasn’t always easy, but it was never dull, and it gave me a perspective on people, business and opportunity that has stayed with me throughout my career.
What attracted to you to working in this industry?
I would love to say that I had always harboured a burning ambition to work in lingerie, but the honest answer is that I hadn’t. I knew I wanted to build my career in fashion, while remaining in the Midlands to be close to my support network, so my options were naturally more limited.
At the time, I was working for Adams Childrenswear and felt ready for my next opportunity to learn and grow. I spotted a role at Eveden advertised in Drapers and decided not simply to send in an application and hope for the best. Instead, I emailed Tony Thwaites and Tracy Lewis directly to put myself forward (essentially cold-emailing before it became a recognised networking strategy!)
What began as a practical career decision quickly became much more. I discovered an industry with an extraordinary combination of creativity, technical expertise and genuine purpose. Lingerie is highly personal: when it is designed and fitted well, it can transform not just how a woman looks, but how she feels. I was also drawn to the pace, the people and the constant opportunity to learn.
So, while lingerie may not have been a lifelong calling at the outset, it became an industry I developed a real passion for. Sometimes the best careers aren’t meticulously planned, they begin with curiosity, initiative and the willingness to send one well-timed email.
What is different about working in this sector?
What makes this sector different is the extraordinary level of passion at every stage. You see it in the designers balancing creativity with technical precision, the machinists bringing those ideas to life, the fitters sharing their expertise, and the sales teams, buyers and independent retailers who understand their customers so deeply. Every detail matters, and everyone has a view, so even the most straightforward conversation about a bra can quickly become a wonderfully passionate debate!
That passion is something I see throughout Wacoal. There is a genuine commitment not only to creating beautiful, technically excellent products, but also to giving our retail partners the knowledge and support they need to deliver the best possible experience for women. It creates a shared sense of purpose that reaches far beyond simply selling lingerie.”
Because lingerie is so intimate, the impact of getting it right can be incredibly powerful. You can physically see the difference when a woman leaves a fitting room wearing a bra that truly fits: her posture changes, her confidence grows and she carries herself differently. Knowing that the collective expertise of so many people can create that moment is very special, and, for me, it is what sets this industry apart.
It is also probably the only industry where women in a meeting will quite happily reveal their bras to show everyone what they are wearing! That was certainly an eye-opener when I first joined the business almost 22 years ago, but I quickly realised it was simply another expression of the passion people have for the product.
Your typical week?
Is there really such a thing as a typical week? Certainly not in my world! The rhythm of the business changes throughout the season, and the diary I begin with on Monday rarely looks quite the same by Friday.
The one constant is time with my team. Staying connected, sharing ideas, working through challenges and ensuring everyone has what they need to succeed.
Beyond that, the week can take me in many different directions. I might be planning one of our busy seasonal campaigns across our portfolio of brands, or shooting back-to-back for several weeks as those plans come to life. I could be in a design meeting viewing future collections and how we will support these from a marketing perspective, reviewing how our brands and campaigns are performing, or working alongside our sales teams and retail partners. Those customer conversations are invaluable: they bring us closer to what women are looking for, what is happening on the shop floor and where the next opportunity might be.
It is a role that can take me from discussing product, fit and campaign imagery to exploring the future of AI, all before lunch. I’m not sure I would have predicted that combination when I joined the industry almost 22 years ago, but it certainly keeps things interesting!
Whom do you admire in the industry?
It is almost impossible to choose just one person, because I admire people across so many different parts of the industry.
I have enormous respect for our independent retailers and professional fitters. They combine technical knowledge with empathy, discretion and a remarkable understanding of their customers, often remembering a woman’s bra size long after she has forgotten it herself!”
They create trust in what can be a very personal and vulnerable environment, while also running businesses in an incredibly fast-changing retail landscape. That requires resilience, instinct and no small amount of determination.
I also admire the designers, product teams and machinists whose expertise sits behind every garment, as well as the leaders and mentors who share their knowledge and create opportunities for others. Having benefited from people who saw potential in me and gave me room to grow, I particularly value those who lift others as they progress.
For me, admiration is less about someone’s title or profile and more about the difference they make to the product, to the people around them and, ultimately, to the women we serve.
If you were not working in this industry, what do you think you might be doing instead?
I think fashion would still have found a way to keep me. I love the combination of creativity and commercial thinking, so in a parallel career I might have returned to childrenswear, perhaps as a designer or helping to shape and build a children’s brand. Children are wonderfully honest customers, of course, so there would be absolutely nowhere for a bad design to hide!
My other great love is music, so I can also imagine working somewhere in the music industry, perhaps in brand, marketing or artist development. Fashion and music have always influenced one another, and both are ultimately about creativity, identity, emotion and connecting with an audience.
So, in another life, I might have been designing childrenswear by day and working with musicians by night. I should stress that I would be firmly behind the scenes, the world does not need to hear me sing!
Your greatest challenge?
From a personal perspective, one of the greatest challenges has always been balancing a career with family life and everything else that somehow finds its way onto the list. (Thankfully my children are adults but I still recall the long school holidays alone feeling like an eight-week exercise in advanced logistics!).
Like many women, I have become very good at juggling multiple responsibilities, but we rarely give ourselves enough credit for everything we manage. We are often far quicker to focus on the one ball we think we may have dropped than the ten we have successfully kept in the air. There have certainly been times when I have felt stretched too thin or questioned whether I was giving enough to every part of my life. Over time, I have learned that balance is not something you achieve once and perfect forever; it changes constantly, and sometimes “good enough” really is good enough.
From a business perspective, one of the most interesting challenges is managing a portfolio of brands sold across global markets. Each brand must have a clear identity, a distinctive creative voice and a meaningful reason for consumers and retailers to choose it. At the same time, we need to benefit from our collective expertise and scale, while responding to the very different needs of individual markets.
It is a careful balance between consistency and local relevance, and between collaboration and protecting what makes each brand special. A one-size-fits-all approach rarely works in any global business and in lingerie, that phrase is particularly dangerous!
Proudest moment to date?
Personally, my proudest achievement will always be my two children. They are both adults now, building their own lives and following very different paths, and I am incredibly proud of the people they have become. As a parent, you learn that your role is not to define the destination but to give your children the confidence, values and support to find their own way. Seeing them do that is enormously rewarding (and slightly surreal when I kid myself I still feel about 25 myself!)
Professionally, one of my proudest moments was being involved in the launch of Elomi in 2008. At the time, lingerie created specifically for curvier women, combining exceptional fit and support with genuinely fashion-led design was not widely available. Women deserved far more than simply scaled-up versions of products designed for somebody else.
Tracy Lewis, formerly CEO of Eveden, and Liesl, formerly Elomi’s Head of Design, were truly inspirational in recognising that need and having the vision to do something about it. There was a real pioneering spirit behind the launch, and it was incredibly exciting to help bring something to market that women had been asking for but were struggling to find.
Watching Elomi grow from that original idea into the strong, internationally recognised brand it is today has been enormously rewarding. Knowing that I played a part in its beginnings and in helping more women feel seen, supported and celebrated is something I will always be very proud of.”
Worst move so far?
I don’t tend to think of decisions as “worst moves”, as each one teaches you something. But if I had to choose, it would be saying yes too often – even when my diary was clearly saying no! I’ve learned that good leadership means trusting others, delegating and giving talented people space to shine
After so many years in the industry does anything surprise you?
Absolutely! What continues to surprise me is how much there is still to learn. After almost 22 years, you might imagine I would know everything there is to know about bras, my family certainly think I talk about little else! Yet the industry never stands still. New materials, technical innovation, changing consumer expectations and the way women shop constantly challenge us to think differently. I have learned that experience is incredibly valuable, but curiosity is even more important. The moment you think you know everything about your consumer is probably the moment you need to start listening more closely.
Any other ambitions going ahead?
I have never been someone with a perfectly mapped-out five-year plan. My ambition is to keep learning, remain curious and continue helping our brands evolve in ways that are both commercially strong and genuinely relevant to women.
Where do you think you will be in 10 years’ time?
In ten years’ time, I hope I am still doing something I genuinely love and feel passionate about. The exact title matters less to me than continuing to be creative, purposeful, surrounded by inspiring people and always learning. I want to still wake up feeling excited about what I do (at least on most Monday mornings!)
Time out?
Time out is all about family, friends, music and making memories. I love trips to Ibiza, but I am equally happy walking the dog and enjoying some fresh air, so my downtime can range from a dance floor to a muddy field!
Life moves incredibly quickly, so spending proper time with the people I love is important to me. Good music, good food, a lovely glass of wine, plenty of laughter and new experiences are usually the perfect way to recharge.
The one product you couldn’t live without?
I’m going completely outside the industry for this one and cheating quite considerably, because choosing just one is impossible! I’m a sucker for skincare lotions and potions, so C-Tetra Luxe by Medik8 would be very difficult to live without. In fact, almost anything Medik8 earns a place in my bathroom cabinet. Then there is my Eight & Bob perfume, which is simply divine.
And bringing it back to lingerie, Fantasie Smoothease briefs are an everyday essential. Glowing skin, smelling fabulous and feeling comfortable, I think that qualifies as one survival kit!
Fantasie Smoothease …. qualifies as part of my survival kit!
Pet Hate?
Bad manners and wasted time. I believe you can be ambitious, honest and direct without ever being unkind, respect costs nothing. Oh and people who reach airport security and appear completely surprised that they need to remove their liquids and empty their pockets!
