Marieyat on femininity, body positivity and purpose

Marieyat is normal, in the most abnormal sense and if you haven’t been properly introduced to Marieyat, you are in for a pleasant surprise.

By Madeleine Holth

London-based designer, Marieyat is one of those brands that will make you reconsider the meaning of ‘sexy’ and the endless unexplored possibilities between comfort and design for underwear and swimwear. Marie of Marieyat has taken a slow and steady approach to fashion after achieving her CSM BA degree in fashion design, which has resulted in her yearly collections feeling complete, sincere and perfected.

Marieyat is not just another brand serving underwear and swimwear, each piece is cut, sewn and detailed to perfection and with precision. Her collections are different from all the other undergarment brands on the market, challenging the concepts of what is sexy and how it feels.

“I have always been interested in collecting different kinds of lingerie. However, when I was looking for modern and comfortable undergarments, I realised there were very limited choices that are emphasised on the duality of interesting designs and comfortability (i.e. when it's comfortable normally it looks like “granny pants”, explains Marie of Marieyat.

Marieyat embraces the modern woman and the bodies of real women. Her line of undergarments truly represents a new era of body positivity.

“ My relationship with the female body has changed so much over the years. I went from hating my body as a teenager, wishing the body would change and look like someone else's, to now being so grateful for this body because of the strength and power it gives. It is important to be gentle to your body”.

So what is contemporary femininity? If you had asked 15 years ago it would probably be the push-up bra. Marie has her own idea of contemporary femininity, “femininity is very fluid to me. It is ever-changing, multi-faced and personal, there is no “one-size fits all”.

In the category of undergarments, there have, for many years, been a wide gap between the selection for women, pretty much like Halloween costumes; Either you’re a witch, or you’re a sexy nurse. Same goes for undergarments you’re either a sexy vixen in red, or you wear “granny panties”, as Marie mentioned earlier.

“I think there have been a lot of changes for underwear over the last 10 years. I feel like women today are very open and more accepting of their own bodies and know what they want. And I think it's important to have different options to cater for everyone”, explains Marie.

So do women really need a third option in their lingerie drawer? Do women want good looking lingerie that doesn’t give them a rash, slide up the bum or is noticeably visible through whatever they choose to wear on top?

“Marieyat was born out of a desire to offer a new option for someone who likes minimal designs with modernity and comfortability in mind. Also creating campaigns that are relatable for women is a driving force for us. Our goal is to create underwear that is a hybrid of style and comfort. It could be an undergarment, loungewear, or a layering piece for going out”, explains Marie.

There are definitely more than three types of lingerie on the market today, but, there is only one Marieyat. Someone who pushes for comfort, freedom and femininity - whilst giving close-to-body an aesthetic and an idea worth playing with.

For 2019, Marie explained to us what it means to be a modern woman, which sums up our only resolutions for the year. “Embrace your true self and body; both strength and weakness”.

i-D: MARIEYAT

inclusive lingerie inspired by the world's last matriarchy

London-based underwear, loungewear and swimwear label MARIEYAT looks to China's Kingdom of Women for its latest collection, and adds men’s underwear for the first time.

From the moment MARIEYAT was launched in 2013 by Marie, its London-based CSM-grad founder, the brand has cultivated a world of female empowerment and its message has always been: inspired by women, created by women, made for women. For its fourth collection -- as they add men’s underwear for the first time -- MARIEYAT took inspiration from the Mosuo tribe in China, close to the Tibetan border. “They’re the world’s only true matriarchal society, where women raise women,” Marie explained at the intimate, on-schedule London Fashion Week presentation.

“Women from the Mosuo tribe do not marry, take as many lovers as they wish and have no word for ‘father’ or ‘husband’", Shahesta Shaitly explained in an Observer feature back in 2010. In the Kingdom of Women -- as it’s known across China -- the Mosuo women make the key decisions. “There are parallels to how we work as a team of women, we are all working towards the same goal and we’re all equal,” Marie explained. That’s a powerful message. At a time in which fashion critics are contemplating the industry’s reactions to the toxic masculinity pandemic across society, the need for labels that truly respect women is greater than ever. As we exclusively share frequent MARIEYAT collaborator and regular i-D contributor Ronan McKenzie’s visual documentation of the creative female-powered launch, it should be clear to see that MARIEYAT truly respects women.

With each yearly release the label listens to the needs of its women and the range evolves accordingly. “We began by offering an alternative style of underwear that just didn’t exist in the market,” she explained. “We wanted to create styles that were comfortable to wear everyday, while being unconventional and rich in interesting details." With its growing family of women in mind, this balancing act between comfort and sensuality has been the continuous thread between each of the brand's first four collections.

“I’ve always wanted to take it slow, to grow organically so we pace ourselves on the process of making, creating a new collection once a year instead of seasonally," Marie explained. "By doing so we are able to get feedback and utilise this to develop our range of products." It's this desire to satisfy the needs of the women who continually inspire them that quietly and steadily drive MARIEYAT forward. After introducing swimwear last year and new styles of underwear and knitwear this year, MARIEYAT has listened to the pleas of men and expanded into men’s underwear for the first time. After showing the collection earlier this month, it’s dropping in-stores now. A new business model for a new generation.

“Since we started, we’ve had men approach us on emails and socials because quite rightly, they assumed we could transform it into menswear. We held off because we wanted the women’s to be where we wanted it to be. We wanted its signatures to be recognised and then branch out. I don’t want the men’s to be that different from the women’s, so that’s why we created this set-up, the idea of a family.”

Centred around the idea of an empowered community, they worked with with London-based casting agency 11casting to ensure that alongside MARIEYAT muses, the new collection was worn by friends, friends-of-friends and an actual family. With the launch of men’s, the brand’s family has just been extended.

See the full article by Steve Salter HERE