Morgan Curtis, founder of Morgan Lane

How many of you can confidently say that you’ve got the whole quality-lingerie-for-every-occasion-thing down? Me, neither. Funnily, it’s the one thing most women every day yet an overwhelming number of us fall victim to wearing the same ol’ tired number we’ve sporting for years in heavy rotation. Designer Morgan Curtis is one of the few exceptions to the rule. You see, she’s been collecting vintage lingerie and 1920s negligee since her teens. Naturally, then, nobody blinked an eye when she launched her lingerie line, Morgan Lane, back in 2012.

Launched with a mission to offer something more creative than the run of the mill practical or overly sexualised styles we’re all accustomed to, one of the best things about the line is the degree to which it celebrates and thinks about women. Many of the styles in the line are named after and built around the spirit of women that Morgan holds dear, and she’s nailed the balance between comfort and the kind of fun, playful pieces you’ll want to invest and treat yourself to.

Oh and she just happens to be the daughter of NY-based designer Jill Stuart and got her start working her way from the shop floor in her mother’s stores to working as part of the design team. Don’t be fooled though – her success is well and truly her own. Read on to find out about her CFDA nomination, how she talked her way into a buying meeting with Selfridges and why it pays to be old-school in business.


Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis
Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis


ON DESIGNING LINGERIE OVER FASHION: I’ve always been obsessed with lingerie ever since I was young. When all of my friends were asking their parents for bags and shoes for their birthday, I was asking for a fancy bra. I’ve just always loved the little details that goes into and how you feel when you’re naked with a piece – when it’s just you and the bra. Lingerie is the first thing you put on and the last thing you take off. I feel like it’s the most personal relationship you can have with your clothing. When I was shopping for pieces for myself, I saw a gap in the market for fashion in intimates. A lot of people were turning out the same things year after year. There wasn’t much creativity in the intimates or sleepwear market so I saw an opportunity to do something and jumped on it.

ON HOW LONDONERS STYLE LINGERIE DIFFERENTLY: Women in London definitely shop for intimates in a different way than here in New York. I think people in London and Paris go a bit more outside the box and know how to incorporate intimates and things like pyjama dressing into their wardrobes. Here, a lot of people think more about function. They want Spanx and bras that stick to your body and don’t have straps or a back. It’s a lot more practical. In the US, people are only starting to realize that lingerie can be a key part of your wardrobe and not just something you shove in a drawer. Finally, people are shopping for lingerie as a feel good present and not just waiting to receive it as a gift. It’s so common to buy a t-shirt or a sweater and feel excited about it but when you buy a piece of lingerie it’s so much more personal. I think there are a lot of brands out there that are sexy and edgy and intimidating to buy. What I’m trying to do is provide comfort and playfulness while also being modest in a way.

FYI – WHEN IN DOUBT, MATCH: When you know your underwear is matching, you’re more confident and feel like you’ve done at least one thing right that day. With my stuff, a lot of it has a sense of humour so when you’re having a really bad day, knowing you’ve got an emoji face on your underwear can definitely brighten your day.


Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis


Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis
Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis


ON CREATING THE FABRICS & ILLUSTRATIONS HERSELF: I have an artist background – I’ve been painting since I was about 15 – and I love illustrating so all of the prints, fabrics and illustrations are created by me. They’re all original and I use them in each collection in different ways. An illustration, for example, will appear on a silk pyjama but it’ll also be embroidered in tulle on a bra or an applique on a panty. I illustrate all the packaging too based on my Lainey doll, who is the brand muse. When I started the brand I was working on a series of doll painting and I wanted the brand to have a character that people could connect with and make it more of a lifestyle to tap into. I started drawing her and she became this funny, seductress that was always being chased by boys but is fiercely independence and always in charge. I worked with a doll designer based in the UK to create the actual doll based on my drawing so a lot of the classic collection, which features all of the key styles of the line, come with her on it.

ON THE PROS AND CONS OF BEING INVOLVED WITH FASHION WEEK AS A YOUNG BRAND: I’ve been involved in a lot of runway shows for Jill Stuart. I was there for five years-worth of runway shows. I just think there’s so much pressure and work that goes into just 10 minutes. It’s over in a blink of an eye, whereas a presentation is often an hour long and allows people to really see the collection and take it in and absorb it. As a business, we get a lot more back from the investment we put in and for our guests, it’s just more of an experience. I think people are sick of watching a model looking uncomfortable, stomping down a runway. My presentation this season was kind of fashion-presentation-meets-rock-concert and I think the girls really enjoyed it because their personalities really came through and they were able to dance and be themselves versus being stiff and standing on a plank. The disadvantage of presentations, though, is that it’s hard to get models to commit to such a big block of time. Often, when stores buy into a collection, it’s often a few items that ends up getting displayed on a small rack so it’s often hard to articulate the world of your brand to your customer through a department store. I think that often stores make a selection of your collection and often, it’s only a few items that they put on a rack so it’s often hard in a retail environment to articulate the world of your brand. This season I really took advantage of how you can style the swim with the pyjamas and the lingerie to show that you can wear the pieces together rather than thinking of them as separate categories so that was really important for me. When it comes to people purchasing, people still love being able to buy the whole look from the runway or from a presentation. You’re kind of showing them how to wear it. Showing in a place like Milk Studios and being surrounded by lots of other great presentations taking place at the same time gave us so much more opportunities to have people I didn’t even know come and walk into my presentation. I think it’s really important to do so something at fashion week even if it’s not a show or presentation just to show you’re involved and have something to talk about.


Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis


Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis
Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis


ON TALKING HER WAY INTO SELFRIDGES: I emailed the team and found out that the main girl from the buying team was on maternity leave. I flew to London and turned up and lied that I had an appointment with her and said that the schedule must have got messed up. Somehow I convinced them that it was there fault that I came all the way to London from New York for an appointment that hadn’t been put in the calendar. The assistant saw me really quickly. I went and had lunch after the meeting. I was supposed to be catch the Eurostar to head to Paris that afternoon but got a call saying the buyers loved the collection and wanted me to come straight back to show it to the whole team. They ended up writing an order for my pyjama collection right away and it still does really well. We just launched the lingerie there and have some really great exclusives coming out for Christmas.

ON JUMPING IN FEET FIRST: I learned a lot from my mom because she has a really similar story about how she got started at a very early age (a lot younger than me). She did the same thing with Bloomingdales here in New York and got her collection in the window and has this incredible story about how that happened. It really stuck with me and I think so much of my personality. I’m so hands on every part of the brand so I think when you’re that heavily involved, no one can really sell it like you can. When people meet me, the brand instantly makes sense, so as much as I would love to have support on the sales side, I think in the beginning it’s really important as a designer to pick up the phone and call people. A lot of buyers don’t read email so keeping it old school is really important. For example, we’re off to LA tomorrow and I’m going to have a lot of the collection in the trunk of my car old-school style and am going to drive around all of the stores like a sales woman and try and get my pieces stocked. I also think it’s really important to visit stores you want to be stocked in. Just because a store has an amazing name doesn’t mean it’s a great fit for your brand. I will sometimes go buy something just to see what the customer experience is like.


Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis


Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis
Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis


OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF BEING AN EMERGING BRAND: One of the biggest challenge in the beginning is that there are high minimums for everything. As a designer you want to create a small run of a piece or something unique, special and one-of-a kind but because of the factories, you have to make a certain amount, which is often a lot more than you want to. That scalability problem applies to everything. Every designer wants to sell to lots of stores but you also want to maintain that new-brand-have-to-have-it feeling too. The way you launch a brand is really important because people always look back at that. I’ve been thinking about doing this for so long and have so many ideas about what I want to do so staying focused and editing can be really difficult. Picking one direction and sticking with it so people can really identify with a language is hard.

ON NOT BEING DISTRACTED BY THE ZEITGEIST: Focusing on my core signature collection is like a bookmark for me to go back to and constantly reference because it wasn’t created based on what was working for everyone else. It’s my DNA. It’s probably easier in intimates to keep it more focused. There isn’t as much exposure in intimates. It makes it harder from a PR perspective too because celebrities aren’t stepping out showing their underwear but I’m hoping that the launch of my swim collection will make securing publicity easier.


Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis
Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis


Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis

Morgan Lane founder, Morgan Curtis

HER CFDA AWARD NOMINATION: The CFDA is really major here. I know Aurora from Brother Vellies who won last year and watching her process is what got me excited about it and made stop for a second and think I could actually apply. It’s been a ton of work. The day I found out I was in was the scariest day of my life. The process starts with hundreds of people. The first thing you do is send them your website and look book. Then you have to fill out a paper application. Then, the final 50 or 60 that they choose have to make a special brand book, which is like a 200 page Taschen-style book. A jewellery designer, for example, bound hers in brass. They’re all really impressive and amazing. I made mine myself and put it in a lazer cut acrylic dolls’ house. They tell everyone who makes it to that stage to be in their offices from 10am-4pm in the chance that you might make it into the final 10 and be filmed by film crew. They came to my office at like 3.45pm so I was freaking out. It was probably the last stop that they made. I didn’t move from my desk. I didn’t go to the toilet the entire day. I was just so worried. But when I found out it was really exciting and it’s been an incredible journey ever since. Even, right before you came here, David Neville from Rag & Bone was here because each of the judges does a site visit. So tomorrow Jenna Lyons is coming; Diane von Furstenberg and Anna Wintour have been here. It’s been unbelievable. A lot of them came to my fashion week presentation too.

ON COMING FROM A FASHION FAMILY: Other than me being obsessed with lingerie, I chose it because that’s one of the few things my mom doesn’t do. I wanted to separate myself but I wouldn’t have been able to do it if it wasn’t for the amazing people that work at Jill Stuart who have been incredibly supportive of me throughout this journey. And I learnt so much working for my mom. I started off as a sales girl in store and have designed, been the fabrics director and I’ve assisted on shows. Learning about those different departments in a bigger company has been so helpful for me now in my own business where I have to wear so many different hats at the same time. What is different is that my mom’s business has been around for such a long time, before social media and all the things we have now. What I love is that I have this classic old world mentality about how to run a fashion business while also being current and thinking about doing things that neither of us have ever done before. That’s kind of the scary part…

WHAT’S NEXT: Swim is the most major thing I’m working on right now. It couldn’t have come at a better time because one of the things CFDA encourages is for you to expand into different categories. I’m also really trying to build my e-commerce site so we’re launching lots of new exclusive designs, which is really exciting. It’s really going to be an experience that you can’t have in a retail store.