Ten Year Anniversary

It's hard to believe that Angela Friedman is now a decade old. We marked the 10 year anniversary of our brand launch on June 2nd, 2022, and what a long, wild ride it's been! We thought it would be a nice celebration to take you on a trip down memory lane and look at where the brand began, how it ended up here, and all of the collections we've created since its launch.

Throwback to 2012, to Angela Friedman's first lingerie and loungewear collection Versailles.

Brand Beginnings, 2012

The original brand vision was born out of the designer's love for vintage style, her freelance work with burlesque performers and other designers for New York Fashion Week, and a theatrical and ballet aesthetic. Angela's previous role was as the Head of the Ladies' Department of the New York City Ballet costume shop, so much of her work since has been inspired by the opulence and drama of the stage.

After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the Angela Friedman brand launched with an opening party on June 2, 2012 with clients from around the country. With champagne, pastries, and live baroque violin music, we enjoyed the launch of the Versailles Collection with 3 models displaying the new designs in a presentation format. With that, the brand was born!

The Angela Friedman launch party 2012, courtesy of photographer Reto Sterchi.

Brand development

From 2012 to 2022, the brand's focus has remained largely the same: to offer beautiful and ethically handcrafted lingerie to as many people as possible! While we've maintained a quality standard of using only the finest materials and local production, we've been able to extend our offerings with size expansions and more inclusive language in our marketing. Although we moved production and design offices from the US to the UK in 2018, we've maintained the same high-quality manufacturing with ethical labor practices throughout. (And yes, despite now being a British company, we continue to ship to our American customers every single day!)

Our focus has always been on the garments, but we also prioritize paying fair wages to staff and vendors and environmentally-friendly business practices like no-waste production with recycled off-cuts and low-carbon manufacturing with 100% renewable energy. We routinely give back to the community through donation initiatives for causes like the NHS during Covid and the war in Ukraine. You can learn more about our commitment to social and environmental responsibility on the blog.

Behind the scenes, where we ethically manufacture all of our designs in-house in the UK.

Collections

Over the course of the last decade, Angela Friedman has designed 19 complete collections of vintage-inspired lingerie, silk loungewear, and authentic corsetry. These pieces have ranged from simple and sleek silhouettes to extravagant masterpieces with dozens of components and trimmings. Some pieces have been limited edition, but many of our favorite and bestselling designs are still available as continuity runs.

With each new collection comes an inspiring selection of pretty things, handmade from 100% pure silk, French lace, fanciful floral embroideries, and soft and delicate trimmings. To mark our Tenth Anniversary, here are photos from each of our past 19 collections, including our newest Ten Collection - available now! You can scroll through these collections here:

Press and Celebrity

Even in the early days, press and magazine editors took note of our unique, vintage-inspired designs. Our first cover story was in Town and Country Weddings in spring of 2013, with our Genevieve camisole and tap pants touted as trousseau-worthy loungewear. Soon we were receiving requests from dozens of major publications, and we found ourselves turning down requests due to high demand! Our published features include multiple covers for W Magazine (with a silk bralette on Winona Ryder and a nightgown on Eva Green) and CR Fashion Book (with silk ruffled panties on Gigi Hadid, a silk and lace corset on Rihanna, and ;a floor-length robe on Staz Lindes).

That's not to mention the many other designer interviews and both online and print features besides cover stories. Angela Friedman has been interviewed for Forbes, Business Insider, and Racked Magazine, and her lingerie designs have been photographed by Vogue China and Vogue Australia, Glamour, Buzzfeed, Playboy, CNN, The Lingerie Addict, and LIVE Fast, as well as many others. While we can't share most of the photos here for copyright reasons, you can find links to all of these features on their own websites via the Press Clippings section of our blog.

2022 and Beyond

We're so happy to have already shared our designs with thousands of customers via online shopping and in-person events like trunk shows and pop up shops, as well as through independent boutiques around the world. Time and time again, our customers leave us 5-star reviews, raving about how special our designs make them feel. That's really what our lingerie is all about: not only how it makes you look, but how that makes you feel. When your clothes are comfortable, soft, beautifully made, and ethically produced, you'll also gain an extra boost of confidence.

So what's next to come for a small, independent brand after such a successful decade? More collections, of course! We're never content with just one or two new designs, so we're releasing the brand new Ten Collection with dozens of new pieces. It'll be released in batches over the course of the next year, but we've already begun sharing the new arrivals. We hope that this Ten Collection will help to further inspire you and to grow your lingerie wardrobe with confidence and expert styling.

The Ten Collection features the new Amandine range in beautiful French lace.

Every time you buy and wear an Angela Friedman design, remember that you're supporting an independent brand, an individual designer, and many other small and local businesses such as our vendors, photographers, and retailers. We're just one small part of the bigger picture, and we're so glad that you can be a part of it with us! If you would like to stay in the loop for future announcements and new designs, make sure to sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of this page.