NAUGHTY BUT NICE

KAVITA DASWANI steps into the mesmerising world of Agent Provocateur, as she speaks to the brand’s creative director, SARAH SHOTTON, about her latest sultry collection, inspired by the ’70s movie Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

IRRESPECTIVE OF THE copycat nature of the fashion industry, Agent Provocateur has the unique distinction of not having anyone try to emulate it. Not successfully, anyway.

The British brand, known for lingerie, lounge attire and swimwear that’s as edgy as it is refined, remains as provocative as its name suggests since it debuted in the 1990s in London’s Soho district. Fast forward more than a decade, and Agent Provocateur, with its distinctive black-and-pink motif, seems to be everywhere: Moscow, Athens, Zurich, Dubai – and Hong Kong, where it’s available through Lane Crawford.

In February, haute erotica came to the normally staid environs of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills when Agent Provocateur opened its West Coast flagship. In a crowd that included celebs such as Donovan Leitch, Estella Warren and a silver-bobbed Debi Mazar, models roamed wearing star-shaped sequined nipple covers, lacy suspenders and barely-there thongs. Overseeing the bash was Sarah Shotton, the brand’s creative director, who has been with the company virtually from the beginning, apprenticing with its founders, Joe Corré and his thenwife Serena Rees. Under her purview, the Agent Provocateur design team makes beautiful bras and undies by trying them on, wearing them home, and tweaking as they go. For as elite as the brand is – an average bra is around US$170 – it still endeavours to retain something of an Everywoman appeal.

“The ethos of the brand is the same as it was when we began,” says Shotton. “It’s about strong women who want to feel empowered.”

A couple of years ago, the company launched Soirée, an even higher-end version of the regular collection, which began to roll out in a few selected stores such as Harrods and Bond Street, where it’s often showcased and tried on in whisper-quiet VIP rooms.

“We wanted to move the brand on a bit, to offer something darker, more luxe, with more of an evening feel,” says Shotton. “It’s really about showing the undies off, and we got such a great response.” Items are priced from US$550, and include a chain-laced bra studded with Swarovski crystals for US$700, peaking at an elegant kimono gown woven with real gold threads that carries a US$5,000 price tag. There are nightgowns that look as regal as evening dresses, draped to perfection.

But for the most part Agent Provocateur remains synonymous with its stable of classics. Yes, there might be an ongoing fascination with the tasselled nipple covers, but regulars shop at the stores for its classics: the Maddy style is fuchsia satin with black French lace, while delicate bras in lilac and champagne are exactly the sort of thing customers let peek out through their discreetly unbuttoned blouses.

For spring/summer 2011, Shotton and her team referenced the work of the late filmmaker Russ Meyer, who made a name for himself with campy movies from the ’60s and ’70s such as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Shotton decided to predicate the current collection on Meyer’s body of work because of her own personal interest in art and filmography.

“In many ways Agent Provocateur is a vintage-inspired company,” she says. “And the work of Russ Meyer seemed to have the same sort of feeling.” The palette is vivid and arresting: coral, cobalt, scarlet. Silhouettes for the season are even more pronounced, with the underwear designed to suggest a little more cleavage, a curvier behind, a streamlined waist. There is something whimsical, almost tongue-in-cheek about the offerings: the Heather style is inspired by the uniform of a French maid, while Roxie, in brilliant blue, features satin bows. Playsuits continue to be an important part of the company’s seasonal lines; here, the Esme is made from silk stretch coral chiffon with fanciful retro-inspired black ribbons. Baby-doll dresses are adorned with a flurry of silky tassels, swooshing with every inflection of the body. There are corset dresses with a row of gilded snaps down the back and which take an age – and ideally an extra pair of hands – to put on. But the effect is unbelievably voluptuous. Despite its contemporary provenance, the brand retains a kittenish, Brigitte Bardot sensibility; high-heeled sandals with marabou details, shimmering hosiery still made entirely in France, baby pink bra-and-undies sets embellished with dots of raised black flock and satin bows. In a more obvious nod to retro, there are fluffy pink and black robes, belted at the waist, that look like they belong on the set of Mad Men.

With more stores in the wings – Shotton says she and her team are looking for a London flagship, and scouting other venues in Paris, Milan and parts of Asia – Agent Provocateur is poised to grow in other ways as well. There are four popular fragrances, loaded with libido-inciting pheromones, of course, with more planned. And possibly, further down the line, other categories as well, although Shotton couldn’t say what. Which all, in her estimation, goes to prove that recessions and global downturns notwithstanding, there does always seem to be room in a woman’s boudoir for sweet and lacy underthings.