Savage x Fenty, the Rihanna-founded intimates, loungewear and sportswear brand, is headed to Nordstrom, its first retail partner in the U.S.
Starting Thursday, the brand will be available at 16 select Nordstrom stores, including New York City; Seattle; Michigan Avenue in Chicago; South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif.; Northpark in Dallas, and Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Nordstrom to bring Savage x Fenty closer to our shoppers and cultivate new relationships with Nordstrom’s highly engaged, loyal customer base,” said Hillary Super, chief executive officer of Savage x Fenty. “The collaboration represents our ever-evolving commitment to bringing innovation, inclusivity and accessibility to shoppers nationwide.”
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The brand’s newest product innovation and softest collection to date — Soft N’ Savage — will be available to shop in Nordstrom stores and online, in addition to its core offerings including more than 130 styles of bras, bralettes, undies, lingerie and sleep.
Savage x Fenty at Nordstrom offers bra sizes ranging from 32A to 46DDD and underwear ranging from XS to 4X. Underwear begins at $16.95 and bras go up to $59.95.
Emily Crandall, senior vice president and divisional merchandise manager of women’s apparel at Nordstrom, added, “We are committed to offering our customers the best and most relevant brands in the market…This partnership is an exciting opportunity to expand our product selection and appeal to a younger audience seeking the latest in size-inclusive lingerie that embodies everyday sexy.”
Elaborating on the partnership, Super told WWD that up until this point, the brand has been sold on savagex.com and in its nine freestanding stores, two of which opened in the last month in Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers, N.Y., and Orland Park, Ill. She said freestanding stores in such cities as Glendale, Calif., Detroit, Miami, and outside Boston are on deck.
“It’s a really important part of our strategy,” said Super, discussing its retail expansion. “Many people think of us as a membership-only business. Certainly we have millions of customers who have chosen to be a part of our membership over the last six years. For our biggest brand fans, we offer incredible perks and benefits for being a member, but we also know that some people want to experience a brand before committing,” Super said. She said it will be opening its site a bit more to make it more fun to shop as a guest, as well as inviting customers into its own stores and expanding to new audiences with key wholesale partners. (Super said it will also be opening at Selfridges in London.)
Savage x Fenty was founded as a monthly subscription business in 2018. Rihanna, executive chairman, co-owns the company with investors including LVMH.
Asked how it selected Nordstrom, Super explained, “We did evaluate every one. We really admire the customer connection that Nordstrom has. It’s something we have with our loyal customers, and felt it was the best match for us.”
While Savage x Fenty isn’t getting in-store shops, the collection will go into 16 locations and nordstrom.com. It is doing a pop-up at Nordstrom’s in Century City in Los Angeles in October supporting its holiday collection called Lavish Lace.
According to Super, “Lavish Lace is this luxurious smooth everyday lace just as you would wear a T-shirt bra and it comes in these beautiful jewel-tone colors. I’ve been wear testing it, and I can’t take it off.”
Super said its number-one category is women’s bras. “We were founded as a women’s intimates business; we’re an intimates-first business, but we’re also seeing incredible success in lounge, sport, and our men’s business is a silent assassin. It’s growing quickly. We’re adding categories and we’re very committed to the growth of the men’s business,” Super said.
The Savage x Fenty men’s category, which launched in the third quarter of 2020 with the fashion show, includes intimates, sleep and it will be adding lounge.
For now, Savage x Fenty is only selling intimates to Nordstrom, “but we’re definitely in conversation about [category] expansion in 2025,” Super said. Nordstrom and Savage x Fenty decided jointly to sell those particular 16 doors “which was a combination of their top doors and markets we know we perform very well,” said Super, who joined the company last year.
In New York City, Nordstrom will be Savage x Fenty’s only physical point of distribution. The brand has stores in Roosevelt Field in Garden City, N.Y., and Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers, N.Y. Its freestanding stores average about 3,500 square feet.
In addition to further developing the men’s business, Super said, “One of the big things we’re doing is creating a cohesion across all of our categories where we feel it all layers and goes together. We’re very interested in the total look. You’ll see it in our fall campaign, where you’ll see the lounge layered with the intimates, layered with the sport, as one total point of view, where we haven’t been doing before.” The ad campaign breaks Thursday.
Men’s won’t be carried at Nordstrom, “but that’s definitely in the future,” Super said.
Turning to other marketing initiatives this fall, Super said it is doing an event at Selfridges in September, and will be doing a lot of out-of-home, as well.
According to Super, Savage x Fenty has come to be known as a fashion-forward, sexy, occasion-based lingerie business. “But we also realize as we evolve and Rihanna evolves, there are many more aspects to life we can serve. She’s become a mother of two, juggling all the things she juggles, and she has these needs,” Super said. The company has started to talk about a sensual ease.
In developing Soft N’ Savage the past two years, Super said, “This collection is the softest, most yummy, marshmallow-padded line you can ever image. It’s soft and sexy and bold and something you can wear every day. We fit on five different sizes to perfect the fit, and that’s something many of our competitors do not do.” The collection is offered in bras and panties and five colors. Styles include the Soft N’ Savage Padded Demi Bra, Thong and Cheeky.
In their own distribution channels, there are also sleepwear and loungewear lines that surround it and have the same point of view.
Nordstrom’s Crandall said that since Savage x Fenty launched, it has been tracking it. “The brand’s DNA, inclusivity, body empowerment and confidence, really translates well for our Nordstrom customer. We always talk about our purpose is to make customers feel good and look their best. The two brand philosophies seem so aligned,” she said.
“To offer the quality and the accessible price point is also really compelling. It will be a great addition to our mix,” Crandall said.
With the size range that Savage x Fenty offers, she feels that there’s a customer whom it hasn’t been able to service before. “It will also bring a new and younger customer into our store and online. We’re excited to see how it attracts a younger demographic as well,” Crandall said.
Crandall said it had plus-sizes previously, but not as vast an assortment that Savage x Fenty offers. She said she was excited about the animal print and the laces it offers “that are comfortable and every day sexy.”
Nordstrom will carry “a bit of their best. We’ll see what our customer responds and we’ll go from there as to how we adjust the assortment.”
Asked what makes it different from everything it carries, she said it’s the inclusivity, the price point is lower than the bulk of its assortment, “and the sexy factor.
“It’s sexy in an approachable way,” she said.
At Nordstrom, Savage x Fenty will be housed next to Skims and near some younger brands, such as Etam, a French brand that attracts a younger customer. “We’ve always had a really high market share in our lingerie business. We’ve had the big foundational brands such as Natori, Wacoal and Chantelle. What we have been growing is this additional assortment that appeals to the younger customer,” she said.
“We’ll start with [Savage x Fenty] lingerie in the fall, and we’ll have the sleepwear in the holiday time frame,” Crandall said.