Honey Birdette hits back at critics with London-focused campaign

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 21, 2019

Lots of lingerie campaigns have embraced ‘real women’ with unretouched imagery and a move away from overt sexuality in recent seasons. But Australia’s Honey Birdette is sticking to the obviously sexy trademark style that helped it grow fast in recent years and said that its latest campaign is “tantalising and sexually charged.”

Titled London Calling, the campaign follows Dutch model Dioni Tabbers and France’s Charlie Dupont, who also appeared together in the brand’s earlier Indecent Manor campaign, “tracing their journey [as they] reunite and reignite their love affair in the British capital.”

The company has made a name for itself with campaigns and imagery that push the boundaries of sexuality, and indeed, that earlier Indecent Manor campaign generated plenty of complaints as it featured the two models in a love affair.

But company founder and MD Eloise Monaghan called the complaints “ridiculous” and said they were “part of the reason that we decided to create London Calling.”

And in her own call for diversity, she added: “The campaign was more of a personal one for me, I'm married to a female partner myself and I'm extremely proud of this campaign and what it stands for. Why is it inappropriate for two women to be together? After we went through the (same-sex marriage) plebiscite and the ridiculousness around it. That was really the reason behind the campaign and now London Calling.”

The campaign shines the spotlight on the brand’s 12 new collections, with its strategy of weekly drops having also proved key to its growth. The new collections comprise lingerie sets, ready-to-wear pieces and a limited-edition gold body chain with a focus on rich textures in shades of black, ivory, red, emerald and pink. 

The products launched in-store and online in Australia, the UK and US this week and we’ll see one of the collections dropping each week after that.