The Interview: Lucy Litwack, CEO of Coco de Mer, on the brand’s new collaboration with M&S

What inspired your decision to work with M&S?

It felt like a very natural partnership. We’re two proudly British brands with a shared belief in the importance of beautiful lingerie and the impact it can have on how women feel.

M&S has earned the trust of generations of women through its expertise in fit, quality and understanding its customers. Coco de Mer has spent 25 years championing female pleasure, sensuality and self-expression. Bringing those two perspectives together felt like a wonderful opportunity to create something genuinely different.

For us, the most exciting part was the ability to introduce Coco de Mer to a much wider audience, making our distinctive approach to lingerie accessible to more women, across a broader range of sizes and price points.

And the timing couldn’t be more fitting, as we celebrate our 25th anniversary and M&S marks 100 years of fashion.

How were the collaboration design responsibilities split between teams?

The beauty of this collaboration has been bringing together two very different but complementary areas of expertise.

We brought our distinctive creative perspective – the sensual silhouettes, intricate detailing, beautiful fabrics and design philosophy that define our brand. M&S shared its bestselling styles and extensive understanding of its customer, ensuring that the collection would appeal to women who already know and love M&S lingerie.

Both teams worked closely together on the design, fit and construction of each piece. At Coco de Mer, we’re very particular about how lingerie should fit and flatter the body, which is often quite different from more traditional lingerie shapes. It was important to us that the collection retained those distinctive cuts and proportions, while benefiting from M&S’s exceptional technical expertise in creating lingerie that works beautifully across a broader range of sizes.

It has been a real meeting of creative vision and technical expertise, with both teams working towards the same goal – creating something that feels unmistakably Coco de Mer, while delivering the quality, comfort and wearability that M&S customers know and trust.

Can you tell me more about the collaboration’s hero range, Reverie? It sounds unmistakably Coco de Mer, but how has it been adapted to an M&S audience?

Reverie is probably the boldest expression of Coco de Mer within the collection. The sweeping Art Deco-inspired embroidery, rich emerald-green satin and dramatic silhouettes are all very much part of our design language.

What makes the range particularly special is the combination of those statement designs with the comfort, support and wearability that M&S customers know and trust.

Pieces such as the High Neck Plunge Bra and Body are unapologetically sensual, but they’re also designed to be worn and enjoyed, rather than simply admired.

For me, that’s the real achievement of the collaboration. We haven’t tried to make Coco de Mer less sensual for a different audience. We’ve found a way to bring that sensuality to more women, in pieces that feel as extraordinary as they look.

The release calls these shapes never-before-seen at M&S. What was the most challenging item to create collectively?

I think the more dramatic, fashion-led silhouettes naturally presented the most interesting design challenges. These were signature Coco de Mer designs, so the challenge was how to recreate those statement pieces across a much more inclusive size range without losing the essence of what makes them so special.

Pieces such as the Reverie Bra and Body were particularly challenging because they have such distinctive silhouettes and intricate detailing, and we wanted them to look and feel equally beautiful across every size in the collection.

Lingerie is incredibly complex to construct. Even the smallest adjustment to a cut, fabric or fastening can make a significant difference to how a garment looks and feels on the body.

What has been particularly rewarding is seeing how the two teams’ different areas of expertise have complemented one another. We’ve been able to push the creative boundaries while ensuring that the finished pieces are genuinely wearable, supportive and flattering across a much broader range of body shapes.

How did you adapt Coco de Mer designs to make the more accessible price point possible?

The starting point was to identify what makes a piece unmistakably Coco de Mer. It’s not simply about expensive materials or elaborate construction; it’s about the design, the proportions, the detailing and, ultimately, how wearing it makes a woman feel.

Working with M&S has allowed us to approach those elements in a different way, drawing on their expertise in sourcing, production and delivering exceptional quality at accessible prices. The scale of M&S, both in terms of manufacturing volumes and its established production capabilities in Asia, has enabled us to create pieces using luxurious fabrics and intricate detailing at a much more accessible price point.

We were very conscious that this shouldn’t feel like a diluted version of Coco de Mer. The collection needed to have its own identity while retaining the sensuality, sophistication and attention to detail that define our brand.

I think the result demonstrates that beautiful, indulgent lingerie doesn’t have to be reserved for a luxury price point.

The collaboration offers a larger size range than Coco de Mer’s own collections. What learnings did you take away from having to adapt designs to fit a wider number of body shapes?

One of the most rewarding aspects of the collaboration has been the opportunity to offer our designs to a much broader range of women.

The biggest challenge with lingerie sizing is that fit is about so much more than measurements. Two women wearing exactly the same size can have completely different body shapes, proportions and preferences when it comes to how they want their lingerie to feel.

Working with M&S has reinforced the importance of considering every aspect of construction, from the fabric and support to the smallest finishing details, to ensure the design works beautifully across different sizes.

I’ve always believed that lingerie should work with a woman’s body, not the other way around. And sensuality certainly isn’t limited to a particular size or shape.

The ability to bring our designs to women up to an H cup has been a particularly exciting part of this partnership.

Coco de Mer has always been explicit that female pleasure sits at the centre of the brand. How much of that ethos did you want to carry into a collection sitting on the M&S shopfloor?

All of it! Female pleasure is fundamental to Coco de Mer, and it has never been exclusively about sex. It’s about confidence, self-expression, sensuality and the pleasure of feeling beautiful in your own skin.

I’ve always found it strange that lingerie has traditionally been considered something a woman wears for someone else, when actually it’s the one item of clothing that nobody else can see, unless we choose to show it to them. That’s what makes it such a wonderful secret power.

We wanted to bring that philosophy to this collection. These are pieces designed for the woman wearing them, whether she’s getting dressed for work, going out for dinner or enjoying a more intimate occasion.

And I think there’s something quite powerful about bringing that message to the M&S shopfloor. It makes the conversation around female pleasure and sensuality more visible, more accessible and, importantly, something to be celebrated.

The UK lingerie market has shifted a lot in recent years, with new entrants such as Skims and Savage x Fenty changing customer expectations of lingerie. How does this collection fit into that larger change in the landscape?

I think one of the most positive changes in the lingerie industry has been the growing recognition that women don’t all want the same thing, and that what makes a woman feel confident or sensual can change from one day to the next.

Brands such as Skims and Savage x Fenty have undoubtedly helped broaden the conversation around body diversity, inclusivity and who lingerie is designed for, which I think is a very welcome development.

But I also think there’s an important place for lingerie that is unapologetically sensual, beautifully designed and celebrated as a fashion category in its own right.

At Coco de Mer, we’ve always believed that ‘sexy’ lingerie should be about how a woman wants to feel, rather than how she wants to be seen. This collaboration brings that philosophy to a much wider audience, combining bold, expressive design with the fit, quality and accessibility that M&S is known for.

For me, it’s another step towards women having more freedom to define sensuality on their own terms.

Of the 24 pieces within this collection, which one did you prioritise getting over the line?

I’d have to say the Reverie Body. It really encapsulates what we wanted to achieve with this collaboration.

The striking Art Deco-inspired embroidery, dramatic high neckline and beautiful emerald-green colour feel unmistakably Coco de Mer. It’s a genuinely statement piece, but one that also benefits from the technical expertise and wearability that M&S brings to the partnership.

I love a bodysuit because it can be so versatile. It can be worn purely for the pleasure of wearing something beautiful underneath your clothes, or styled as part of an outfit.

For me, the Reverie Body represents the ambition behind the entire collection – bringing together sensuality, beautiful design and comfort in a way that allows more women to experience the pleasure of Coco de Mer.