Evangelista Enters the Luxury Lingerie Market

After years of working as an actress on hit shows like “The Walking Dead” and “The Arrangement,” American actress Christine Evangelista is embarking on a new creative chapter of storytelling with her debut luxury lingerie brand, Evangelista.

The brand, which launched Friday, features Italian-made lingerie and loungewear in rare Leavers lace, Italian silks and bespoke gilded hardware, and explores what Evangelista exclusively told WWD is the duality and many dimensions of womanhood through thoughtful design and heritage craftsmanship.

“I call it the reclamation of the divine feminine. It’s really about honoring and celebrating the wholeness of femininity. I believe we are both things: maternal and erotic, soft and strong. I take a lot of references throughout history through various religions, especially Catholicism with some of its iconography and symbolism, which is the foundational element in telling this story,” the creative director and cousin of Linda Evangelista said.

She noted that throughout her 20-year career as an actress, her core is being a storyteller. She wanted to bring forth history and passion to lingerie, which she considers the most intimate and emotional garment. “I was really fascinated with the psychology about how it changes and evolves with our bodies, our sexuality and where we are in our lives. I really wanted to honor that and honor the complexities of what it means to be a woman,” she said.

As a born and bred Long Island New Yorker, the actress and creative director explained that both her experiences of studying fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology and working alongside costume designers for her characters’ wardrobes fueled her curiosity around design, specifically of “what we wear underneath,” she said.

This first culminated in 2020, when she launched and hosted a weekly podcast, “Half Naked With Christine Evangelista,” that homed in on exploring the intimates industry and expanded into her guests’ — ranging from costume designers to actresses — relationship with intimacy.

“I found that talking about our underwear was a gateway to a more revealing conversation about ourselves,” Evangelista said. Furthermore, she saw a gap in the intimates market for a more “couture level” of lingerie that had not only versatility and modernity, but also a sense of youthfulness.

“I think a lot of lingerie brands are focused either on the seduction, the eroticism, or the everyday basics, so I wanted something that had emotion, artistry but also a youthfulness with pieces to take you from day to night,” she said.

From here, Evangelista said she was on her own personal journey of finding herself, traveling the world to learn not only about Buddhism before landing in Italy for a deep dive in Catholicism, but also the textile heritage and century-old techniques used by the Italian manufacturers and ateliers.

“While there, I set off on another pilgrimage of learning about these factories. It wasn’t until I was there, really boots on the ground, that I started to see the history and learned more about these materials that are rare and dying,” she said of discovering authentic Leavers lace, one of the oldest and most labor-intensive forms of lace making still practiced today.

“The families that have devoted their lives and lineages to these companies, and the incredible heritage brands that they have been working alongside so long. It was being there, befriending them, learning and then seeing all these craft women’s vocations. They bring so much passion and devotion to what they do, and I really wanted to create something that honored that and showcase their work as much as mine,” she added of meeting with Pizval and Davos, both of whom are Evangelista’s partners.

To honor the heritage craft, Evangelista’s first collection features a carefully edited assortment of striking intimates and loungewear produced in Italy in small batches and blend comfort with structure. Styles — available in neutral black and white, as well as Renaissance-inspired, moody hues — include Leavers lace sleepwear, lingerie, silk jacquard separates, slipdresses and sculptural accessories. Evangelista noted the brand’s sizing currently ranges from XS to XL for luxe loungewear and 34A to 36D standard sizes for bras, with expansive sizing in the works.

Her key styles include a striking black lace corset; a playful and erotic set with removable bra, harness, underwear and more, and soft silk pajamas featuring custom abstracted feminine silhouette artwork and also feature custom hardware. These buttons, closures and hardware elements range from motifs of Mary Magdalene and a safety pin to a pearl for the Birth of Venus, a Sacred Heart and even a vagina.

“A lot of the collection is really designed to sort of pair and wear things together. I really wanted a versatility and a longevity component to it, for day to night and with a timelessness,” she said, pulling on Evangelista’s chic jacket over her black bustier top. It was a striking look that stood out for its balance of soft and structure, with seams bound in silk and scalloped eyelash trims, all of which played into to her brand’s elevated stance in the lingerie market.

Evangelista’s first collection drop, priced $95 to $2,200, is available to shop via the brand’s e-commerce and with exclusive retail partner Moda Operandi.

“Evangelista represents a fresh approach to the category, pairing a bold, unapologetic femininity with immaculate craftsmanship. As sheer fabrics and lace dominate eveningwear and the line between innerwear and outerwear continues to blur, we see a natural opportunity in elevated intimates,” Marc Rofsky, Moda Operandi’s vice president of merchandising, ready-to-wear, told WWD.

Going forward, the creative director said she will focus on direct-to-consumer events centered around creating space to honor womanhood, which could span from speaker-led events to trunk shows. She will also be approaching collections as organic drops to test the market and respond to her customer’s desired directions.

“We’ll certainly be leaning into inner-meets-outerwear pieces, and we’re also developing swimwear and bridal, which I’m very excited about. We’ll have bridal before spring, around February, and then soon after that, we’ll have swim for summer, and another lingerie collection after that,” she said of future collections, which will likely introduce new luxe materials — perhaps cashmere or elevated, organic materials for breathability, she said — that continue Evangelista’s ethos of elevated everyday.