Billionaire retailer Brett Blundy launches lingerie brand Leays

Billionaire retailer Brett Blundy has launched his new sleepwear, lingerie and beauty brand Léays with a catwalk at the Sydney Opera House steps.

Billionaire Brett Blundy’s latest lingerie brand Léays was unveiled at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday night.

Lingerie models strutted down the steps of the Opera House on Wednesday night to officially launch new sleepwear, lingerie and beauty label Léays, showing off the latest start-up from retail billionaire Brett Blundy but also firing a warning shot to others that a new fashion queen was in town.

“It’s modern, fresh, premium, today, and we have elements that are very different, we have beauty [lines] which really hasn’t been seen in lingerie as a concept,” Mr Blundy, who started his first lingerie brand 40 years ago, told The Australian on Wednesday night at the launch party held at prestigious waterfront Sydney restaurant Aria.

“We are going everywhere from basics and functional, but with the most up-to-date fabrics, fashionable. Women and lingerie is a matter of functionality and mood that you are in.”

Some of the lingerie range for Léays would also include in-built moisturiser, described by Mr Blundy as “body fusion”.

“Body fusion is very different and new to the market, which is ­really going to be the key driver … and there will be more releases in this category,” he said. “It’s not only beautiful but working for you at the same time.”

Mr Blundy said there was a gap in the Australian market for Léays but it wasn’t “just an Australian brand” as it also had a global positioning as well.

“Our brand is aspirational. We launched last week in the UK online, it’s a global launch,” he said.

With a deep pedigree in founding underwear brands and other retail chains, The Monaco-based Mr Blundy, who founded Bras N Things before selling it for $500m, has also brought on board some hired guns. Adding firepower to his latest fashion venture is Mark McInnes, the former boss of fellow billionaire Solomon Lew’s portfolio of fashion and apparel brands once part of his Premier Investments vehicle, and who now is working for Mr Blundy’s global BBRC empire.

Mr McInnes is believed to have helped lure former Premier Investments executive Linda Whitehead as Léays’ maiden CEO. She formerly ran Mr Lew’s fashion label Jay Jays.

Mark McInnes, Brett Blundy and retailer Ray Itaoui at Sydney’s Aria restaurant. Picture: John Feder

“Léays’ mission is to set a new global benchmark for lingerie, sleepwear and beauty,” Ms Whitehead said. “This brand has been crafted by women, for women to deliver effortless comfort, elevated design and pure self-care.”

Léays has already opened four stores: at Westfield in Parramatta, Sydney; Mt Gravatt in Brisbane; at Stockland Green Hills, East Maitland, NSW; and in Pacific Werribee in Melbourne. It signed another eight stores, with the brand ­believed to be aiming to have 20 locations by Christmas.

“The opportunity is in elevated fashion lingerie at accessible prices,” Mr McInnes told The Australian at the launch party.

“A comfortable and designer range at great value and we have an innovative body fusion range infused with almond oil and aloe vera for everyday wear and we have got a beauty range and a sleepwear range – all at accessible prices.”

Mr McInnes, who also once ran David Jones, said department stores had “walked away” from staff service, especially in the lingerie department, and Léays would have a specialty service model to take care of customers as they walked in the door.

Mr Blundy, ranked the nation’s 64th wealthiest person on The Australian’s The List with a personal wealth of $2.52bn, these days calls Monaco home but sees himself as a global entrepreneur who is searching for retail ideas with truly worldwide potential.

Through his private investment vehicle BBRC Worldwide and through decades of personal investment he has collected around him a bulging portfolio of retail brands which started with his creation of Bras N Things in the 1980s and that was later sold for $500m to US apparel giant HanesBrands Inc in 2018.

Mr Blundy has shown a penchant for investing in and creating underwear, sleepwear and lingerie brands such as Bras N Things and was also a major shareholder in Honey Birdette before it was sold to Playboy and is a major shareholder in global lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret.

He has also bought in and out of a range of other retailers such as Adairs, Universal Store and Accent Group and is the founder and chairman of Lovisa, that has become a hit among teens with its “cheap and cheerful” jewellery and has more than 1000 stores across the world. He floated discount general merchandise store Best & Less in 2021 to then turn around a few years later to take it private.

Originally published as Billionaire retailer Brett Blundy launches lingerie brand Leays