From its London base, Coco de Mer has spent over 20 years redefining pleasure through the lens of luxury, empowerment and conscious creation. Celebrated for its exquisite designs and fearless advocacy for women’s rights, the brand is proving that luxury can be both beautiful and purposeful. In this edition of Behind the Butterfly, CEO Lucy Litwack, shares how Coco de Mer is using its platform to champion female pleasure, challenge taboos and lead meaningful change in the world of luxury – including its mission to help end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) globally.
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Hi Lucy! Can you tell us about Coco de Mer and the brand’s ethos?
With pleasure! Coco de Mer exists to shine a light on the extraordinary power, potential and importance of female pleasure and sensuality. For over 20 years we have been building a true icon of pleasure in luxury, occupying the intersection of style, luxury and pleasure – creating the world’s finest range of luxury lingerie, toys and accessories. I joined 11 years ago and completed an MBO in 2017, so have been the proud owner of Coco de Mer ever since. Celebrating and championing female pleasure in all its forms is at the heart of everything we do and it has been since its inception in 2001. We have always delivered disruptive and beautiful ranges and campaigns, chipping away at the longstanding taboos around sexuality, because knowing and owning female pleasure and sensuality can be life-changing.
What does sustainability mean to Coco de Mer, and how is it embedded in your overall brand strategy?
For us, being sustainable goes beyond the three pillars – it’s about our legacy as well. We want to be of service to both society and the planet, leaving the most considered footprint we can, paving the way for true empowerment in a way that is joyful and beautiful. We want to be part of leading the way in the luxury world, showing that not only should it be the norm for us to set the example, but we can pave the way with beauty, integrity and innovation, making it an irresistible option. When it comes to embedding this in our brand strategy, for us, we are a small, close-knit team, and it works for us to weave our approach, commitments, targets and aspirations into the day to day. This ensures incremental – and real – progress, and stops it becoming one person’s responsibility. We like to think of it as tending to Mother Earth and female pleasure in equal measure.
Coco de Mer has long championed women’s empowerment. Can you share more about your initiatives to combat FGM and how these align with your brand’s values?
Absolutely! Given the company offering and our commitment to female equality, we identify and measure our social purpose and activity in line with Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and women’s equality and empowerment. These matters feel intrinsically linked to the core of Coco de Mer, and we believe that we will be able to help break down the taboos of female pleasure, to encourage a more open conversation and healthier relationships with, and increased respect for, the female body. Female pleasure is not a luxury; it is a fundamental human right. Every seven seconds, a girl is at risk of FGM, and it can cause life-threatening conditions. It is not religious. It is not a medical practice. It is gender inequality. We are female-founded and female-owned, run by a team of phenomenal women. We care about women’s rights and we want to reach as many people as possible with our message – to shine a light on the importance of female pleasure. FGM is a direct disabler of that pleasure, so we really take it to heart. No religious texts support FGM. There is no science to bolster any benefits, purely the horrendous impact. Health risks and consequences are ignored; FGM is about dismantling a built-in human experience, which is deemed unsuitable for the recipient of this mutilation. FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1985, and since 2003 it has been illegal to take a UK National out of the country for FGM. And yet, 21 out of every 1000 women in London are victims of FGM.
I am very proud to be the Chair of Trustees for The Five Foundation, so I make sure I am always there for trustee meetings to support our progress and needs, along with attendance and support at regular fundraising events. Their work is so inspiring and it is such a privilege to help wave that flag, and do what I can to end such a barbaric act. When it comes to our initiatives, we are firm supporters of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and we are proudly aligned with Goals 5, 12 and 16, which feel so naturally aligned with our values and purpose, helping us to focus our efforts and make our initiatives as smart as possible. There are over 1.1 billion girls poised to take on the future we are creating. We want to do everything in our power to help support and empower them in any way we can.
Beyond your work to combat FGM, are there other initiatives or community partnerships that Coco de Mer is involved in to support women and marginalised communities more broadly?
We take a hands-on approach to our partnerships – it feels as though it gives a truer, personal connection and really shows our care, along with a tangible and authentic presence in raising awareness and creating impact. But we take pride in our ability to raise awareness for others and know what a difference sharing our online platforms can make, so we take part in digital events and campaigns, sharing our audience with charities, organisations and topics that are aligned with our core values, and fundraising ourselves. For the past three years we have partnered with Beam, an online integration that helps to reinforce our social impact – a simple way to enable tangible choice with a purpose. At the checkout at coco-de-mer.com, we have created the option to donate 1% of every purchase made to a charity of the customer’s choice, at no additional cost to them. We chose four charities that feel aligned to our core belief in creating genuine, empowered equality: The Five Foundation, Equality Now, The Wow Foundation and Wellbeing of Women. Once a customer makes their choice, they are then able to follow the journey of our commitment, and see their role in this. I am also a mentor for young female entrepreneurs looking for business support and advice as well as for lingerie design students and graduates who need help and encouragement in starting their careers. It is important for me to support women close to home as well as through our global partnerships.
Looking forward, what is your immediate focus for creating positive change as a brand?
Our social impact will always be a core part of our efforts. We will continue to raise awareness for inequalities and injustices against women, in particular striving to end the antiquated, barbaric use of FGM. We will continue to use our platform to highlight and educate on the need for gender equality. We are looking at ways to bring more joy to the conversation surrounding equality and empowerment – it feels increasingly important to bridge the divides, and we want to do our part to help make the right shifts happen. Pleasure is power, and knowledge is imperative – and we want to bring that combination further into the mix.
Finally, how has working with Positive Luxury and earning Butterfly Mark certification changed or informed your approach to your sustainability journey?
When we started working on the Positive Luxury assessment we were very open minded about adapting to get to the esteemed position of achieving the Butterfly Mark, and we found that by bringing everyone along in the process, the awareness of different team members and different departments began to increase, and we could weave the evolution into every aspect of our conversations. It’s an approach we’ve continued to use, which has made our steps feel really genuine and meaningful. As a small business which wants to go the extra mile to positively impact our planet, the Positive Luxury team and assessment have been equally invaluable, helping us shape a more sustainable future, incorporating industry leading actions in a sustainable way, for our business and our environment. The assessment really encouraged us to raise our game and look at the ways we can futureproof the business as a force for good, building a transparent brand that supports responsible practices and uses its platform to champion social justice in the world. We’re now in such a good position for when we begin our reassessment, which gives me immense pride.
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