How Liz Yeo is empowering women with her body positive lingerie brand Secret Societe

Secret Societe’s mission to remove unrealistic standards of beauty in society.

With a dream of changing the lingerie experience for women, Liz Yeo created Secret Societe.

“Secret Societe was born from a need I perceived in the market for lingerie that made women feel confident, comfortable and sexy. Our focus is to make lingerie accessible to all women, through affordable pricing, inclusive sizing and body positivity.”

“It was important to me to make Secret Societe inclusive to all shapes and sizes, because I felt like so much of the lingerie industry marginalizes women who do not fit into society’s idea of a ‘good body’.”

Launched in 2019, Secret Societe is an Australian based company that sells a range of lingerie styles, from comfortable basics and bralettes, to risqué occasion lingerie. 

“We have two ranges of lingerie in Secret Societe. The first being Occasion Lingerie, which focuses on more detailing, trending styles and colors, it’s lingerie that feels like an event in itself when you wear it,” Liz says.

“Our second range is our Basics Lingerie, which features bras and panties that are for everyday wear. Within this range, we have a lot of seamless products, which focus on comfort, and practicality, especially for the dreaded VPL (visible panty line).”

With a focus on being inclusive and promoting self-love, they currently stock sizes small to 6XL, in an effort to provide a lingerie experience that is positive and luxurious. 

“I want to make lingerie a body positive experience, where women with different body sizes and shapes feel excited shopping and wearing lingerie, not necessarily for their partners, but in celebration of their bodies,” Liz explains.

“We live in a society that often measures a woman’s worth by her appearance, and places unrealistic beauty expectations on women. I want to create a community and brand that helps women feel positive about themselves and their bodies.”

When creating their products, Secret Societe mainly focuses on aesthetics and comfort. “We place a lot of emphasis on comfort and stretch when we initially begin putting a collection or range together, because we believe that comfort is important to a woman’s confidence.”

“We use a mixture of different fabrics like cotton, polyester, nylon and elastane. Each product varies in its make, depending on what the style serves, for example, the majority of our lingerie have high percentages of elastane to make them extremely stretchy and comfortable, or nylon in our basic underwear for its low moisture absorbency.”

In regards to the design process, Secret Society relies on feedback and collaboration from their customers. “We find it extremely helpful when women of different shapes and sizes give us feedback specific to their experiences with our product. We also really value feedback from potential customers who have specific requests for lingerie that they need, but are unable to find in the market. This really helps us with our development for future products and collections.” 

Getting samples of their designs is an exciting part of the process for Liz. “It can be challenging at times, especially when dealing with overseas manufacturers, but seeing the products in person is such an exciting time for us, and really helps us to understand the products when we test them to make sure they’re right for our customers.”

Through their website and social media, Secret Societe is very vocal about their stance on body positivity.

“We hope to remind women everyday that beauty is not a predetermined size or body shape. We often post about issues concerning diet-culture, body image issues, self-love and other related topics.”

One of the really interesting things Liz decided to do for Secret Societe was not use models for their branding and website imagery. 

“Instead we featured beautiful women from my life (my friends), who like all women have had body image and confidence issues, and who are learning to overcome these. These photoshoots were particularly meaningful to me, as it allowed these women that I know and adore to try something new, step out of their comfort zone, and see themselves in a new light and celebrate their bodies,” Liz says.

“By seeing ordinary women featured more in media, advertizing, branding, especially in the lingerie industry, we’re creating a discussion around representation of beauty. We also believe in showing women’s bodies as they are, instead embracing women’s bodies – scars, stretch marks, cellulite, whatever it may be.”

Secret Societe is a passion project for Liz and combines her love of lingerie with her love for body positivity and the self-love movement.

“Like most women, I grew up plagued with body image insecurities. Always trying to squeeze into a smaller size, or constantly preoccupied with losing weight. Trying to fit into society’s expectations of beauty and body was something that continued from my childhood into adulthood,” Liz explains.

“When shopping for lingerie, I often found a lot of lingerie not being stocked in my size at all, which was extremely disheartening and often made me feel that lingerie was not made for me, or that my body was not worthy of wearing lingerie, which is completely untrue, and I want others to know that. I avoided shopping-in-store, surrounded my images of perfect glamazonian models, and having run-ins with awkward or judgemental sales assistants.” 

“I hope that through our lingerie and values, Secret Societe is able to spread the body positivity message and help women feel beautiful in their own bodies.”

So, what’s next for Secret Societe? Liz wants the company to expand their range, and develop lingerie for underserved body shapes and sizes. 

“I want Secret Societe to become more than just a brand, and be more than just a retailer. I want to make a difference for women and the way women see themselves, and to help shift societal standards of beauty to be more accepting and loving, which I hope in turn will help break the cycle for future generations.” 

Images provided by Secret Societe