Livy

Founded in Paris in 2017 by designer Lisa Chavy, Livy is a French lingerie label that mixes Calais lace with laser-cut and heat-bonded technical fabrics, backed from day one by the Etam group and the Vog group. It sits at the luxury end of the market and now runs its own boutiques in resort towns from Saint-Tropez to Marbella.

Lisa Chavy before Livy

Chavy came to her own brand after roughly 15 years in lingerie and fashion. Five of those were spent with luxury houses including Kenzo, Christian Lacroix and John Galliano, and she also worked as creative director of Undiz, the younger, cheaper lingerie chain inside the Etam group. That mix of couture training and high-street volume shows in Livy: the pieces are expensive and detailed, but they are designed in collections and sold at scale rather than made to order.

The brand name comes from her own name. It is short, easy to say in English, and does not read as obviously French, which suited a label aimed at department stores in New York as much as in Paris.

Etam money, Calais lace

Livy is unusual among young Paris labels in having had a large shareholder from the start. Chavy launched it with Dan Arrouas, owner of the Vog group, and with Groupe Etam, the French high-street lingerie leader. Etam says it holds 43.9 percent and books Livy as an associate rather than a subsidiary. In practice that gave Livy access to sourcing and industrial know-how that a start-up would normally spend years acquiring, while leaving the brand its own management.

What a Livy piece looks like

The house style is built on contrast. Etam describes the brand's materials as Calais lace combined with microfiber, thermofusion bonding and laser-cut edges, a pairing of nineteenth-century lace-making with modern finishing. Recurring signatures include:

• sheer panels printed or embroidered to look like tattoos on the skin
• underwired pieces worn as jewelry, with fine metal hardware
• strong lines and unusual necklines and backs
• heavy use of transparency, often in mesh and tulle

Early collections were split into three lines named Paris, New York and L.A., described respectively as chic and sexy, graphic, and relaxed. The idea was a single French label that could be bought by a customer in any of those cities.

Victoria's Secret comes calling

Within two years Livy was on the shelves of Le Bon Marché, Galeries Lafayette, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. In February 2019 it went further: Victoria's Secret began stocking the label, starting at its Fifth Avenue flagship in New York. For the American chain, then losing customers to younger and more inclusive brands, a Paris designer label was an attempt to look more fashionable. For Livy it was a large audience very quickly. Chavy put it plainly at the time: after joining forces with France's national lingerie leader, she said, the market's world leader now believed in the brand too.

A turn toward the Riviera

By the mid-2020s Livy had widened from lingerie into glamorous ready-to-wear, swimwear and lifestyle goods, and was selling through its own shops. In November 2025 the company announced that Chavy would take the managing director role herself, after her predecessor, Julie Pellet, a former Meta executive, left after less than a year. The brand hired Audrey Azria from Agent Provocateur's western European business to run retail.

The same announcement set out where the money was. Livy expected gross revenue above 24 million euros for the year. It had closed two Paris boutiques, in Beaugrenelle and Passy, while its strongest shops were in Monte Carlo, Nice, Saint-Tropez and Marbella; the Saint-Tropez store had grown revenue about two and a half times year on year. A Courchevel store was due for the winter, with a second London shop and new boutiques in Milan and Rome planned.

That map tells the story of the label's current position. A brand that started out selling a three-city idea of Paris, New York and Los Angeles now does its best business in the beach and ski resorts of rich European holidaymakers.

Last updated October 1, 2026