In So Many Words
Stamp a flirty label like “angel,” “naughty” or “luscious” on a lettuce-edged camisole, pair it with a sexy cotton tap pant, package the whole thing inside a canvas envelope and you get the perfect Valentine’s Day treat for a sweetheart, a sister or a pal.
This clever gift accessory is the signature of the loveletters loungewear clothing line and its founders, Angela Mallick, 29, and her sister, Maya, 25.
With great-fitting tees and camisoles, matching thong panties, tap pants, nightgowns slit up the sides and drawstring pants that flare perfectly at the ankle, loveletters loungewear is sweatpants gone sexy.
All the pieces are 100% cotton and come in pastel colors, as well as black, white and gray.
But the story really comes together with the words, which give the simple pieces their character.
A camisole that reads “hot” may be paired with a thong emblazoned with a red-hot chili pepper. A baby tee labeled “forbidden” has matching underwear that’s stamped with a juicy apple.
In some sets, the words stand alone, with “princess” or “wicked” spelled across the chest of a long-sleeved tee that is paired with a solid white drawstring pant.
“Our words are really what we are known for,” Angela explained recently, sipping champagne from a heart-shaped flute at her Westwood apartment.
“A lot of time goes into choosing the words, which are all very womanly,” said Angela. “We’ve taken ‘princess,’ ‘spoiled,’ and ‘cranky’--all terms that are used to describe women--and we’ve put an amusing spin on them.
Angela suggests collecting a different shirt for every mood: “The other day, I wore my ‘cranky’ shirt to the doctor because that’s how I felt.”
So far, their customers are playing along. In just more than a year, loveletters has moved out of the Mallicks’ living room and into a New York showroom.
The dark-haired sisters founded loveletters without fashion training. And it wasn’t lingerie but jewelry that launched their business careers.
To earn extra money while they were students at UC San Diego, the sisters decided to sell some of their own semiprecious jewelry creations at the local swap meet. The $5,000 profit took them to New York’s fashion trade shows in 1995 and launched their fledgling company, Malic Jewelry.
The jewelry business was fun--for a while. But soon the Mallicks ached to travel to a new destination in the fashion world. Lingerie was the ticket.
Out of brainstorming sessions with both family and friends, the idea for loveletters was born. But the concept, the young entrepreneurs discovered, is only the beginning.
“When we first set out to design the clothes, we didn’t know anything,” Maya recalls. “I found a pattern for a pant, cut the material with scissors, stapled it together and turned it inside-out. Looking back now, I just want to laugh!”
But both believe now their lack of experience actually worked to their advantage.
“If we had known what we were up against, starting our own fashion business, we probably never would have followed through with it,” Maya admits.
After launching the business in the winter of 1996, things snowballed. Before long, their loungewear was getting coverage in the pages of Glamour, Seventeen and YM.
The sisters’ partnership reached new heights last spring when Victoria’s Secret debuted the loveletters line in its summer catalog.
“We didn’t know how it would work out with Victoria’s Secret,” Angela says. “When the catalog had only been out two days and they called us for more orders, we couldn’t believe it!”
Next up is a loveletters baby line and an international launch for the company later this year.
“We really haven’t had lives since we started,” Maya sighs. Both have been struggling to maintain long-distance romances with far-away boyfriends.
“Who knows?” Maya says with a grin. “Maybe, subconsciously, being separated from our boyfriends is what made us come up with the loveletters idea!”
Two-piece loveletters sets retail for about $39 and are available at Fred Segal in Santa Monica, Planet Blue in Malibu, Trio in Sherman Oaks, Lisa Kline in Beverly Hills, at upscale boutiques nationwide and through the Victoria’s Secret catalog. For more information, call: (888) LOVE-070.
