One of our favourite pieces in particular has to be our beautiful lace balcony bra. This gorgeous golden number from the Duchess of Warwick collection teamed with matching mini briefs just oozes decadence and romance. We love it! And with a sumptuous silk tie detail on the brief rear, we think this seductive little piece will be a top draw must-have for any stylish lingerie lover!

From leavers lace, to sultry silks we adore delving through luxury lingerie collections that are pleasing on the eye (and body!). So we thought we’d treat your peepers to a couple of visually pleasing lingerie brands that we particularly love…

How could we resist sharing these gorgeous pieces by luxury lingerie brand I.D. Sarrieri. Made from beautiful silks, lace, tulle and Swarovski crystal embellishments, the pieces all all about seduction. And seduce it does. The lingerie flirtatiously sculpts the body and highlights beautifully the feminine form. Much like Lucile’s approach to lingerie, it seems that I.D. Sarrieri also strives to celebrate the female figure, and we love that!

French lingerie brand Huit is eye-catchingly beautiful. From delicate floral tones to vivid bright shades these pieces scream out summer fun and sunshine. Just what we love at the Lucile office! Flirtatious crocheted lace give the pieces an adorable naughty but nice touch. Huit is sweet, sumptuous and effortlessly chic.

First of all I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Raonaid (unusual name, right?) a fashion promotion student from Preston. I was born in Scotland (hence the Gaelic name) but sadly don’t remember any of it as I moved to Lancashire when I was 2. If I had a pound for the amount of times I’ve had to pronounce my name to people I think I’d be a rather rich lady by now! But sadly life doesn’t work that way. Such a pity! Growing up with this constant name intrigue I suppose I’ve gotten used to it though and it really doesn’t bother me at all. As a matter of fact I find it quite amusing these days. My name is pronounced ‘rainy’ – like the bad weather we so frequently have. Luckily, I’m the exact opposite to this as I have quite the sunny personality. My friends would describe me as a bit of a quirky and imaginative soul. And they would be right. I’m like an excited child when it comes to vintage markets, and I can quite happily spend hours delving into my imagination getting creative. I quite like having an unusual name though. It’s a bit of a unique ice-breaker and definitely a name to be remembered (just don’t ask anyone to spell it…). Anyway, this year’s been a rather busy one so far and it looks like it’s going to continue!

I’m currently on my placement year at university so when I first landed the intern role at Lucile HQ I was thrilled to pieces. For one, the lingerie is stunning. Sumptuous silks and laces make up beautiful, feminine pieces that every girl dreams about. And secondly, the idea of being able to gain valuable experience with a British heritage brand that prides themselves in producing quality made lingerie in the UK really appeals to me. There’s something quite romantic and reminiscent about Lucile and I love the fact that they are so keen to keep up the ‘Made in Britain’ tradition. It is to be admired, especially in the current economic climate with prices soaring and so many other British brands resorting to manufacturing their products abroad.

In the current fast-paced, throw-away culture of today it’s such a shame to see so many brands abandoning UK based manufacturing. Brands favour cheap mass-production and in many cases this then results in the quality of products being reduced. In no time at all the product then becomes unusable and has to be thrown away. What I love about Lucile is that they strive to ensure that their lingerie is well made and of amazing quality. Yes it may be a few pennies more in price than that of a mass-produced brand, but at least by purchasing from a UK brand such as Lucile for example you will be guaranteed longevity, quality and a gorgeous piece of lingerie that will never go out of fashion. What more could you ask for?

Nostalgia and reflection are two activities that we don’t often have much time to do, but we were reminisicing only a few days ago about how far our fabulous brand has come. What a year! It was only May last year that we were preparing to move into our Manchester offices – our collections were still sketches on paper, and our launch seemed a million miles away. But, here we are, already planning for Mode City, Paris in July! The saying “time flashes before your eyes,” doesn’t seem to be truer for the Lucile team at the moment.

We’re so proud and grateful for all the support and ethusiasm from our lovely clients, press and fellow brands in the launch of our first collections. Never did we think that we’d get such fabulous coverage from British and international media alike, a big thank you! So, with the production of our Duchess of Warwick collection being pushed forward to meet demand, as we speak, here are a few of our favourite press images and here’s to 2012, we can’t wait to see what it has in store for us!

The idea was simple, she was going to launch her own brand of knickers, that are 100% British; made in Britain, with British lace, using British workers. It sounds simple really, and a great idea for all us pre-existing lingerie brands in the UK, as it would highlight how difficult and costly it is to produce 100% of your products in this country these days. However, with our whole team glued to Channel 4 at 9pm last night, we were a little bit shocked. Mary implied that there were no lingerie factories or 100% British lingerie labels in the UK at all, and that she would have to re-open a closed down factory in Middleton, Manchester, and employ 8 apprentices to hand-make thousands of pairs of knickers to ‘bring manufacturing back to Britain’.

As one of a few British lingerie brands designing, producing and selling our products in this country, we know for a fact that the factory we currently use is extremely popular, even in 2012, and is so busy in fact that we are having to wait up to four months for a production slot for our new AW12 collection to be made. Obviously that’s not to say that other factories aren’t struggling, or that other areas of British manufacturing aren’t suffering either, but there is lots of life out there for British manufacturing still. Fellow British lingerie brand Kiss Me Deadly shared their views in this incredibly interesting blog article last month, http://www.kissmedeadly.co.uk/diary/?p=874. As they say, she may end up doing the industry a world of good and raise awareness for the struggles of British manufacturing in general, but it’s a shame that so far Mary is yet to mention other British manufacturers or lingerie brands other than the one she has set up herself, which could be seen as quite misinformative for those not currently in ‘the business’.

Slight issues aside, we all enjoyed the programme thoroughly; with a highlight being young father Andrew from Rochdale, who is now one of Mary’s apprentices. Determined to make a life for himself and for his child, he turned out to be a whiz on the sewing machines and somehow seems to have found his life’s calling. We’ll keep watching the next two instalments to see how much good Mary can actually bring to this industry, but you can’t deny it’s a story that makes for good television.

Laura T

For your chance to win a tickets for you and friend to simply tweet about our LFW show and tag us in your post! Winners will be picked on Monday 13th February, so you’ve got the weekend to get tweeting!

Can’t wait to see you there! xxx

When I woke up on Monday morning, hopped into the car to drive to work, I have to say I did not expect to be stuffed into a very unattractive black bag and smuggled into the Lucile offices. As the most important member of the team, it is not how I expect to be treated. I have to say, this isn’t my favourite mode of transport, I am use to the front seat of the car, but if this going to be regular occurence from now on, I at least insist on a upgrade…I quite like Mulberry handbags, hint hint.

Hello all!

This week I got the amazing job of being able to help behind the scenes at the new Lucile photoshoot! They’ve all been hard at work preparing for the new collection, as we’re getting ready to release a brand new Lucile line!

Yesterday was the official photoshoot for said collection, and I got to have a nosey at what was going on. We descended on Sutton Park in York first thing last Wednesday morning, and I was immediately greeted by a team of lovely looking people that were all eager to get the day started. The place itself is stunning: it was built in 1730 and is filled with incredible artwork and furniture from the 18th-Century, many pieces being from Buckingham Palace. As Lady Duff Gordon (aka Lucile) and her legendary designs and clients are the inspiration for our collections, the house seemed the perfect setting to set the scene for our new collections.

Our model was the beautiful Mathilda from Boss Model Management, who modeled the lingerie amazingly and brought the new AW12 lingerie collections to life, both of which are named after two of Lady Duff Gordon’s most famous clients in the 1900s; the Queen of Spain and the Duchess of Warwick. The collections feature lace, luxurious silk and Georgette, to make for the perfect designer lingerie.

Info on our lovely team for the day is below, and our stunning lookbook is currently being prepped for printing, so we will have many more amazing images to show you soon – make sure you keep an eye out for a sneak peek!

Stylist: Bryan Harrop

Hair & Makeup: Richard Harvey

Photographer: Matthew Stansfield

Floral Hair Pieces: Frog Flowers

Model: Mathilda at Boss Model Management

Styling Assistants: Laura Timmins, Laura Brown

Hair & Makeup Assistant: Natalie Willingham

Pug Dog: Gracie Bear

Location: Sutton Park, York

Hello all!

Welcome to my fabulous new blog, where I, Gracie, will be regularly updating all of you with my latest goings-on and news.

Here I am above in my brand new winter coat. Isn’t it wonderful? Walks here were starting to get a bit tedious in this cold weather we’ve been having, so Camilla decided to treat me to this furry beauty to keep me warm on the chilly December days. I was all set for wind, snow, rain, or whatever the world’s weather had to throw at me, (or so I thought) when an onslaught of  the white stuff descended onto our home town this weekend and I was temporarily made a prisoner of my own home. Usually I would savour the idea of being stuck inside all weekend, snuggled up in front of the fire, but as we all know, we always want what we can’t have and unfortunately I did start to get a bit fidgety after a while.

A question now for all of the other pet owners out there, (as we know for a fact there are a lot of you!) what are you treating your beloved furry friends to this festive season? Will it be a traditional doggy stocking filled with yummy treats? Or will you now be taking style notes from yours truly and spoil your pets with a trendy new outfit? My lovely coat turned out to be a bit of an early Christmas present, (seeing as it was well and truly needed this week) but as the date draws ever closer, all I’m looking forward to is sitting under the Christmas tree eating lots and lots of lovely food, and maybe watching Elf on the telly. This Christmas I’m hoping Camilla lets me have seconds of my dinner; after all, I have been extra good this year.

Merry Pugmas to you all!!

We are partial to a bit of pampering at the Lucile offices. Our friends over at I Need Pampering have recommended a few spa days we’re more than excited to try for ourselves. It’s no lie that the winter can be harsh on our skin, the cold weather and central heating leave it feeling a bit dry and dehydrated…which is not ideal when we want to feel at our best in our lovely lingerie pieces at this Year’s Christmas parties.  

Beauty treatments were eager to try is facials. There’s nothing better than having soft, supple, glowing skin and we’ve heard through the grapevine that the Sienna Spa in Manchester offers a fantastic facial. Hot stone massages are trending with celebrities all over the world as well; we can’t think of a better way to banish the winter blues and what better preparation for slipping into some silky smalls!

Manicures and pedicures are a fab quick, pick me up which can make such a big difference to how you feel. A classic French manicure tidies up your finger tips and goes great with every outfit – lingerie including!

So, why not treat yourself to some well-deserved “me time,” we know we will! And after all, the perfect companion to your new lingerie set, is a gorgeously groomed body!