MONTREAL — Watch out, Victoria’s Secret, Canadian lingerie retailer La Senza plans to air a prime-time runway fashion show.
An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 television viewers, or almost one in every 30 Canadians, are expected to tune in at 10 p.m. on Nov. 29. The company has vowed the program will be in good taste, though the content of the Victoria’s Secret telecasts led to an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission and Victoria’s Secret dropped its annual TV fashion show on CBS last April.
“I don’t think there will be a backlash, because it’s related to the merchandise we’re selling,’’ said La Senza president Lawrence Lewin. “We’re not selling beer or cars. We were particularly careful not to go over the edge by not showing too much of the body, but even if we dressed the models from head to toe, there will always be someone who will complain.”
The half-hour show, which was taped on Nov. 3, will not just be a “walking catalogue,” but rather a vehicle to promote awareness of the La Senza brand and its image, Lewin said. “We haven’t seen the final editing so I don’t know what we’ll see. But again, we’re being careful not to seem like a voyeur backstage showing models changing.”
The show will be aired on CityTV in Toronto and Vancouver and will be broadcast six times by Fashion TV, which is seen worldwide: 9 p.m. on Dec. 7, 10 p.m. on Dec. 10, 11, 24, 25 and 11 p.m. on Dec. 28. An edited version will be on La Senza’s Web site a few days later.
La Senza owns and operates more than 200 stores in Canada, as well as 135 stores in 19 countries including the U.S. Sales for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31 were $281.8 million compared with $245 million in 2003. All figures are in U.S. dollars. Its share of the Canadian lingerie market is 11.7 percent versus 10.9 percent in 2003, according to Trendex North America. Its share of consumers under 35 years old is 24.7 percent.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
“We feel we’re still in a learning curve,’’ Lewin said. “Victoria’s Secret has been around for years and so have the department stores. We’re still the new kid on the block.’’
The La Senza Corp. parent grew out of the Suzy Shier apparel chain that was founded in Montreal in 1966. The first La Senza store opened in 1990. La Senza sold the Suzy Shier chain last year. Victoria’s Secret, a division of Intimate Brands, has combined catalogue, e-commerce and store sales of $3.8 billion and has been around since 1982.
Although La Senza has often been compared with Victoria’s Secret, Lewin pointed out its rival operates only in the U.S., while La Senza is in 20 countries.
“I suppose we compete with them in e-commerce,” he said.