DALLAS – Erin Braxton got tired of trying to find innerwear that was sexy, comfortable and trendy, but not too risqué.
“Why can’t innerwear be sexy without showing all your goods?” she asked rhetorically.
So, last year Braxton designed a namesake all-cotton collection that quickly found favor with friends and now retailers.
The Erin Braxton line is sold in about 50 high-end specialty stores, including Underneath in Miami, Trousseau and Sheers in Dallas, My Boudoir in San Francisco and Otto in Brooklyn.
“Sales have grown 80 percent since I started the company in 2005. Women are really responding to my philosophy, which includes trying to create a happy medium between sexy and comfortable and sexy and scanty,” said Braxton of her designs, which wholesale between $21 for a tank top and $46 for a robe.
The spring collection includes 10 styles offered in six colors: pale pink, lavender, celery green, white, seafoam blue and chocolate. There are no prints.
“I don’t want prints to overpower my designs, which are clean, often geometric and cut to flatter the body,” said Braxton, citing as examples a white butterfly sleeve top, celery green portrait back shirt with matching HotPants with keyhole cutouts on the sides and a variety of reversible pants and wrap, tank and T-back tops.
Many of the styles are versatile enough to double as streetwear, which also was part of Braxton’s vision.
“Versatility is a must for my innerwear,” said Braxton, who also works in account services for a major Dallas advertising agency and is a former marketing employee of Neiman Marcus here. “When you’re relaxing at home, why should you have to change clothes to walk the dog or answer the door? I want to take the styles of the street and runway and bring them to innerwear. For fall, I’m planning to expand my collection with more streetwear and sportswear items such as tunic tops and pullover tops.”
Braxton’s target customers are 21 to 45 years old.
She wholesales the collection at FashionCenterDallas here and the Lingerie Americas show in New York and has tentative plans to show in Los Angeles this year.