Tips from the High Street ‘Knicker Queen of Britain’
Janie Schaffer’s gesture of goodwill literally blew up in her face. Or rather, in front of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s residence at No. 10, Downing Street, orchestrated by her security. She was slightly mystified; they were only blue silk roses after all. Although maybe-just maybe-the fact they were made from underwear material might have had something to do with it. “Honestly though,” she laughs. “What on earth did they think was in them?”
Pic by Mangala Weerasekera
The High Street ‘Knicker Queen of Britain’ was in the country last week as a speaker at the just concluded Sri Lanka Design Festival organised by the Academy of Design. The former is certainly not a self-styled title-it’s a reputation she’s acquired over the years as the former Creative Chief of Victoria’s Secret and as the founder of multi-million dollar business Knickerbox. Yet despite this all, Janie Schaffer remains refreshingly down to earth; that’s why she still laughs uproariously while recounting the Thatcher fiasco.
The 52-year-old started off as a buyer for Marks and Spencer aged 22. That wasn’t how it was meant to be though; Schaffer went to the London School of Fashion with big dreams of becoming a fashion designer. A few years later she was disheartened-“I realised that you needed to be quite arty and non-commercial to be a respected fashion designer. And I was definitely not willing to give up on the ‘commercial’,” she grins. During her time with M&S she realised that underwear was where the word was at. Even at the time it was a massive industry and British manufacturing was in a good place. “There was this great promise of quality and obtainability,” she remembers.
She had met ex-husband Stephen Schaffer by then, and the pair opened their first Knickerbox store in 1986. “I couldn’t have picked a better time,” says Schaffer. “You had Madonna wearing her conical bras as outer garments, so underwear was sort of the in-thing to have.” Once they’d convinced their landlord that they weren’t ‘up to anything seedy’, Knickerbox was quick to gain popularity with its bold concept capturing many an imagination. Only a few years down the line the brand had over 140 stores worldwide.
Things changed when the designer had triplets in the early ’90s. She returned to work seemingly seamlessly for a while, becoming an icon for working mothers everywhere. But privately, it was taking its toll. “By the time they were pushing two I was exhausted,” she says. “I was ready to say ‘look I’ve done my bit’ and skip away into the sunlight.” It was a lot easier taking a break than dealing with people’s reactions, she smiles. “But it was time to let go. You love something, you build it up into a certain thing and then you need to be able to move on.” The duo decided to sell off in 1995.
In the latter part of the last decade she was approached by US retailer Victoria’s Secret to cross the Atlantic and take up a role as their Chief Creative Officer. It was a monumental decision for Schaffer who was reluctant to crossover. Once she did, though, she absolutely revelled in being back fully-fledged in the business. It’s an extremely intense experience being in the industry, she says. “I completely immersed myself in it.” She was with Victoria’s Secret from 2008 until she returned to England to take up a new role this year.
During this time she travelled quite extensively to Sri Lanka on a business level. “It’s a pleasure to be back without jet lag hanging over like a cloud,” she grins. She speaks with great warmth of her time working with MAS and Mahesh Amalean, saying the latter would show great enthusiasm for ‘the wildest ideas’-“that’s not something you encounter every day!”
From her previous visits she’s quite familiar with the country’s strong cultural heritage and garment manufacturing industry. Sri Lanka, she says, has been a huge inspiration for her as a designer. “You have a story to tell, with Sri Lankan garments. And that’s the important thing for any business- to be able to tell a story about your product.” At the SLDF session she was to speak about creative entrepreneurship and says that this is not something you learn off a textbook. “I really want to encourage young kids to go into entrepreneurship,” she says. “If they can learn anything from my story that’ll be enough.”
And as for one final piece of advice-well, that’s definitely to be learned from her story. “If you want to be successful you need to consistently push boundaries. Don’t stop just because you’ve reached a certain level. Keep pushing.” For goodness’ sake, she grins, “don’t be a fat cat!”
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