Honey Birdette

So here's the thing about Honey Birdette-it's not your typical lingerie brand, and that's kind of the whole point. Founded back in 2006 by Eloise Monaghan in Australia, this isn't some corporate boardroom creation. It started because Monaghan walked into an adult store for a hen party and thought, "This is revolting." She wanted luxury lingerie that didn't feel sleazy or male-oriented, and honestly? She nailed it.

What makes Honey Birdette different is the experience. We're talking champagne trolleys in stores, "press for champagne" buttons in fitting rooms, and staff they call "Honeys" who live and breathe the brand. It's theatrical, sure, but in a way that actually works. The stores have dark gloss tiles, velvet curtains, custom whisky bar carts-basically, they're designed to make you feel like you're stepping into something special, not just shopping for underwear.

The product itself sits in this interesting sweet spot. A bra and brief set runs around $240, which puts it firmly in the luxury category but not quite at ultra-luxury prices. They drop new collections weekly-usually five pieces at a time-which keeps things fresh and gives you a reason to keep coming back. And they're big on selling sets rather than individual pieces. Notice how they've managed to get suspender sales up to 90% of their bra volume? That's not an accident.

Here's what's interesting about their growth trajectory. They started with 55 stores in Australia, expanded to the UK, and opened their first U.S. location at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles back in 2018. By 2021, Playboy's parent company PLBY Group bought them for $333 million-yeah, that's not a typo. At the time, Honey Birdette was pulling in about $73 million in annual revenue with around 60 stores across three countries.

The brand's not without controversy, though. They've had ads banned, faced complaints about provocative window displays in shopping centers, and dealt with workplace criticism. But controversy seems to be part of their marketing DNA-Monaghan has basically said negative attention drives sales, and the numbers back her up.

What's clever is how they've adapted their retail concept for different markets. Each store is supposed to have unique features-maybe a champagne bar in one, a private salon in another. The Century City location had exclusive pieces you couldn't get anywhere else, like the Chloe Red Corset. It's experiential retail done right, which is probably why they're still opening physical stores when everyone else is closing them.

The online side is growing too-it was at 15% of sales a few years back and climbing. They ship internationally, offer free returns within 45 days on full-price items (14 days for sale items), and have that 24/7 live chat support. The packaging is discreet, which matters when you're shipping luxury intimate items.

Honey Birdette carved out a niche by treating lingerie shopping like an event rather than a transaction. Whether that's your vibe or not probably depends on how you feel about champagne buttons and theatrical retail experiences. But you can't argue with the business model-they turned a gap in the market into a $333 million acquisition.