PROFILE: Cake Lingerie

My name is Tracey Montford I am one of the founders and Creative Director at Cake Lingerie.
Cake has been commercialised for 2 years and is a fast growing global business that is sold in over 18 countries worldwide. It is my role to come up with visual concepts for new collections i.e: stories, themes, colours, styling, presentation of visual merchandise and the overall look of Cake’s brand identity.

What inspired you to become a lingerie designer?
I have an art design background and was a High School Art teacher for 9 years before I had my son. Cake Lingerie was conceived out of my own need for functional yet beautiful maternity lingerie when I was pregnant over 5 years ago with my son Ethan, at that time there were only matronly, unflattering maternity and nursing bras. I’ve always been interested in design and fashion, it seems like an easy transition.

What makes your designs different from others?
At Cake we combine style, functionality and comfort to create a garment that is beautiful and a joy to wear. We never lose sight of the fact that our garments are working bras. We take customer feedback on board and are constantly striving to improve our garments. Cake Lingerie is made by mothers for mothers.

Are there any celebrities wearing your designs and who are they?
We have a number of celebrities wearing our garments including well-known celebrities in Australia. This includes the likes of Elka Graham, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Dannii Minogue. In the US we have celebrities such as Heidi Klum, Isla Fisher and Kourtney Kardashian to name just a few.

Do you wear your own products?
Yes I do, I am actually 15 weeks pregnant currently, so I’ve started to wear maternity bras again. I must say I am love wearing Cake – the bras are super comfortable and look fantastic.

What’s your favourite lingerie brand (not your own!) and why?
I think like most women, you find a brand that fits you well and you stick to it. I find I purchase a lot of Elle MacPherson bras as I am naturally a smaller bust and the styling and shape works well for me.

Do you think there’s enough choice for D+ sizes?
The D+ market has really expanded over the past few years. We’ve definitely noticed a huge increase in the demand for large cups. Naturally larger cupped women increase as all women do when pregnant, so the demand for G-H cups has really exploded in recent years. At Cake we’ve been working on a style that will cater for pregnant and breastfeeding women in cup sizes DD-H. We are really excited about introducing this style into the market place in February 2011.

Are you happy with the way lingerie is sized? If not what changes would you like to see?
We have just started to show a new line with ‘MY BUST’ technology, which will be available to buy in February 2011. We have found it difficult over the past 2 years to please both the small cupped and fuller cupped women with the same style of bra. A ‘B’ cupped woman has different needs to an ‘F’ cupped woman. ‘MY BUST’ understands individual women’s needs and we have designed a completely different styled bra for B-D cups than for DD-G cups using the same outer fabrics. Giving smaller women a plunge inspired bra which creates more lift and shape, and the larger cupped woman a balconette styled bra with more coverage and greater support.

What advice would to give to an aspiring lingerie/swimwear designer?
I believe that design is something that comes from within, you either have it or you don’t. I would say to anyone who is aspiring to be a designer to give it a go. Draw your inspiration from everywhere, listen to your target market and never lose site of the end goal. It is important to be original and find a niche market as the lingerie industry is very competitive with a lot of players in it. I also believe that in order to be noticed you have to be seen to be doing something different.

How do you get your inspirations for new collections?
I draw inspiration from everywhere, being a maternity brand we only release 2 new collections a year so I try to stick with classic colours and prints inspired by vintage designs. I always experiment with at least one style a season and push the conventions of what is usually identifiable as Maternity lingerie. It is often this style that out sells the others.

Do you use paper and pencil to design your first draft or is it all done on computer?
I usually create mood boards. The mood boards illustrate the mood, colours, textures and prints I am drawn too at the time. Pencil and paper comes second.

What would you be doing if you weren’t a designer?
I would probably be teaching Art to High School children.

What are you working on right now?
We have just finished our 2011 collection sampling and will look to photograph the mood shots Mid October for the catalogue. I love this part as everything comes together so beautifully and we have a fantastic team who we work with every year.
We will be starting on concepts for 2012 shortly.

What makes a great lingerie model?
We have a very limited choice as we use pregnant professional models from some of Australia’s top agencies. We prefer to use models that are around 8 months pregnant at the time. We look for someone who is warm, friendly and naturally beautiful. We look at a lot of models, take Polaroid’s and make the decision with the photographer to suit our location and story concept.

Tags: Cake Lingerie, Designer Profile

Category: Designer Profile, Featured