In the early 2000s, the Issa wrap dress became a shorthand for effortless sensuality - a piece that, like the finest lingerie, moved with the body rather than constraining it. Now, founder Daniella Helayel is reviving the label for a generation raised on Instagram nostalgia, debuting a resort collection inspired by her hometown of Rio de Janeiro. The relaunch, helmed through London's Rainbowwave showroom, offers a wardrobe of fluid wrap dresses, caftans, and kimonos that blur the line between daywear and the boudoir. It is a fitting return for a brand whose most famous moment - Kate Middleton's royal blue engagement dress in 2010 - proved that a draped silhouette could be both regal and intimately feminine, a quality long celebrated in lingerie design.
Issa's signature prints - gold chains, mushrooms, starry galaxies, and a wave pattern from a 16th-century map of Rio - echo the decorative traditions of corsetry and silk robes, where pattern and texture create a second skin. The new collection lowers prices to a range of £500 to £1,000, using silks and viscose, while offering men's silk twill pieces and accessories like bold jewelry and clutch bags. Helayel, who founded Issa in 2001, sold it, and later found herself buying back old styles online, has refined the prints to smaller proportions and introduced tailoring with a sash waist - reminiscent of the peignoir sets and dressing gowns that defined early 20th-century lingerie. For the Lingerie Museum, this revival is more than fashion history; it is a reminder that the wrap dress, like the chemise or the slip, is a foundation garment of the modern wardrobe - one that continues to drape, reveal, and empower.
Originally reported by WWD