Fashion Nova

Fashion Nova is a Los Angeles fast-fashion retailer founded in 2006 by Richard Saghian, who opened its first store in the Panorama Mall in Panorama City, in the San Fernando Valley, selling affordable clubwear. It went online in 2013 and grew into one of the defining brands of the Instagram era, built on paid and gifted posts from influencers and celebrities rather than on catalogs or department-store distribution. Lingerie and swimwear are a side of its business, sold in the same body-conscious, going-out style as its dresses and jeans. The company is privately held and runs five physical stores.

A clubwear shop in a Valley mall

Saghian learned retail in his father's clothing boutique in Los Angeles before starting Fashion Nova. The first store sold inexpensive clubwear to a local customer, and for its first years the business was a bricks-and-mortar operation. The change came in 2013, when it launched e-commerce and began using Instagram, then still a young platform, as its main sales channel.

The method was simple and relentless. Fashion Nova sent clothes to influencers, models and later to celebrities, and paid for many of the posts. The feeds filled with fitted dresses, stretch jeans and bodysuits, tagged and linked. By mid-2018 the analytics cited by Quartz found it was the most-mentioned fashion brand on Instagram for the first half of the year. Much of the clothing was sewn by contract factories in Los Angeles, close enough to restock quickly when a post took off.

Curve, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion

In 2016 the company launched its Curve Collection, extending its sizes for fuller figures. That move matters for its lingerie, which is cut for the same customer: curvy, body-conscious and willing to buy trend pieces often. A men's line followed in 2018, and a beauty brand, Maven Beauty, in 2020.

Celebrity collaborations brought the largest spikes. Cardi B released a collection with Fashion Nova in November 2018. Megan Thee Stallion followed in November 2020, and her collection reportedly sold 1.2 million dollars' worth of clothes in its first 24 hours. In June 2021 she launched a swimwear line with the company, which pushed Fashion Nova further into swim, a category where its high-cut and cutout styles fit naturally.

Lingerie at Fashion Nova

Fashion Nova does not present lingerie as a separate brand, and Wikipedia's account of the company does not mention it at all. What the brand sells under the heading typically follows the rest of the catalog: lace bodysuits, corset tops worn as outerwear, matching bra and thong sets, sheer mesh pieces and costume-adjacent outfits. The line between lingerie, partywear and Halloween costume is thin here, and in one case it drew a lawsuit. Playboy sued over a bunny costume line, citing the trademarked bunny ears, tail, ribbon name tag, wrist cuffs, corset and bowtie collar, and the case was settled.

The products are priced for volume, sized in letter fits and stretch fabrics, and made to photograph well on a phone screen. That is a different business from fitted lingerie. A Fashion Nova bodysuit is meant to be seen, often over jeans, and the brand's success with it shows how far lingerie styling moved into everyday clothes during the 2010s.

Wage claims and blocked reviews

Fast growth through contractors brought scrutiny. In December 2019 a US Department of Labor investigation found that some Los Angeles workers sewing Fashion Nova garments had been paid as little as 2.77 dollars an hour, and the department said about 3.8 million dollars in back wages was owed by contractors that had worked on the brand's clothes. In January 2022 Fashion Nova agreed to pay 4.2 million dollars to settle charges from the Federal Trade Commission that it had inflated its product ratings by blocking negative reviews from appearing on its website.

Both cases point to the same pressure. A brand selling a constant stream of new styles on the strength of social proof needs cheap, fast production and a spotless rating, and Fashion Nova was found to have cut corners on both. It remains a private Los Angeles company, with five shops and a vast online catalog, and the intimates in this encyclopedia, almost 370 of them, are a fair sample of what Instagram lingerie looked like at its peak.

Last updated October 7, 2026