Introducing ZIFAN: Unapologetically Feminine Lingerie
By ESTELLE PULESTON
Founded by Zoe Wang earlier this year, ZIFAN is a premium lingerie brand that’s all about owning your femininity. The company is based in New York but the garments are all made in a boutique atelier in Italy, using fabrics such as bespoke Swiss embroidery and finishes that include custom gold-plated hardware and Swarovski® crystals.
Despite her innate love of fashion, Wang initially started her career working in fintech as was expected of her. It was work she found rewarding, but not particularly fulfilling from a creative perspective. And in such a male-dominated space, she also increasingly found that she missed having room to flaunt her feminine side.
So, when a successful trading project gave her some spare income, she decided to finally follow her heart and put herself through Parsons’ fashion marketing program. It was here that she met Victoria, now her designer, and dived headfirst into the lingerie industry by launching ZIFAN alongside her studies.
Each product range begins with a moodboard, centered around how Wang wants the wearer to feel. ZIFAN is, she says, “a brand that is not just worn, it is felt… Everything we design is about the shift you feel the second it’s on. When a woman wears ZIFAN, she’s meeting her truest, most feminine self.”
Once the vibe has been pinned down and the sketches done, it’s time to hit up New York’s garment district, where Wang insists on manipulating as many fabrics as possible to check if they drape just so, and if they feel buttery soft to the touch.
She leaves with piles of swatches that she continues to study – folding, stretching, even viewing under different lightings to settle on the perfect materials for the collection. Unable to find quite what she was looking for in terms of embroidery, she also worked with a Swiss embroidery house to develop an exclusive motif that runs throughout the debut collection, which is titled Fiore’s Dream.
After all of the garments are designed, the next step is of course refining the fit. For ZIFAN, this months-long process involved numerous fit tests on models, sometimes adjusting things by mere millimeters and resampling over and over until the fit felt, in her words, ‘effortless’.
And that process didn’t stop when the collection was finally ready for launch. “Restocks come with elevated fabrics and trims and a refined fit shaped by customer feedback,” explains Wang, “We take each of our customer’s feedback seriously, and communicate with our atelier constantly on improving the pieces.”
The bestselling look in Fiore’s Dream, one which has already sold through multiple times, is the Tease Me bra set. Crafted from Italian silk and the bespoke embroidery, it’s a wired balconette and thong with flirty cut-outs and dazzling gold-and-crystal jewelry. Like everything in the collection, it’s available in a choice of four timeless colors: Ivory, Black, Champagne Gold, and Petal Pink.
For those who buy beautiful lingerie to show it off as often as possible, the crystal-accented Crave bodysuit with detachable garter straps and the Valentine’s Whisper corset top with a dramatic strappy back both offer the opportunity to style a flash of embroidery under a blazer – or perhaps over a relaxed white shirt, in the case of the bustier – for a glam night out.
And finally, a personal favorite of mine is Wang’s The Enchantress silk dress, cut short and spicy and with a chic cross-back design. A magical combination when paired with the sheer tulle Nocturnal Diva robe that complements the leafy embroidered trims!
All ZIFAN lingerie is made exclusively with OEKO-TEX®STANDARD 100 certified materials, and is available in a size range that spans 32A to 32F, and XS to XL. Prices run from $45 to $145.
Contact information:
Website: https://maisonzifan.com/
Instagram: @maisonzifan
Email: customercare@maisonzifan.com
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