Dressing all women: a mission that continues 20 years later

Lingerie Emma celebrates its 20^th anniversary this year.

20 years. Can you believe it? When the idea of starting a business came to me at 14 (only!), hardly anyone would have predicted that my lingerie boutique would last this long.

Many told me it would be a flash in the pan. A matter of a few nights, a few months.

It was—and still is—a natural reaction to think that. But for me, it was only natural to believe the opposite because I knew I was going to bring something new, something different to the field.

I must say that I never really felt represented in society. As a slightly curvier teenager, I always faced small or 34B.

Since 2004, the year Lingerie Emma was founded, I gave myself a clear mission, and this mission still inhabits and guides me: to dress all women.

Campaigns that make a mark and stand out

In 20 years of my career, I've had the chance to prove it time and again, especially through our communication campaigns.

Among others, I'm thinking of the one for our 15th anniversary, Toutes les femmes (All Women), through which we invited women everywhere to stop comparing themselves to others, because ultimately, well-being comes from within, not from without.

There was also the one for our 18th anniversary: The New Normal, is you. Nearly 2 years later, people still talk about it.

I am also thinking of our campaign on empowermentOr our most recent, Je suis plus que (I Am More Than). A liberating campaign that encouraged women to shed their invisible labels, those attributed by society that wrongly define them.There were our campaigns, but there were also innovations such as the creation of our mastectomy department, inspired by my father who, at the time, encountered women who had undergone a partial or total mastectomy during his cancer treatments. "You know women, you support them, why don't you support them too?"

Except I didn't just want to create a "beige" mastectomy department. I wanted to take the opportunity to offer these women products that would make them want to feel beautiful again, to put themselves forward, something that one is sometimes tempted to avoid after a mastectomy.

An irreplaceable source of inspiration

20 years is no small feat. It makes you think about the past, but it also makes you look forward, further into the horizon.

You probably don't know it, but it's you—my dear customers, my dear girls in the boutique whom I meet—who inspire me to continue. Seriously. Sincerely. I have immense pleasure meeting you, getting to know you—you and your story. You give me the guts to move forward in life.

What else can I say but that I wish us at least another 20 years together. Minimum.

Woman is always in motion. Every day, every week, every year, she redefines herself, beautifies herself, transforms herself, educates herself.

Thank you for living this waking dream with me!

Emma Dunn, founder and owner of Lingerie Emma.

Watch Emma’s 20^th anniversary interview here.