Agent Provocateur has been an iconic brand in the collective imagination for more than 20 years now. I love that we have the same birth year. Known for being truly creative, borderline subversive, feminist. Well, actually, for the past years, it’s been harder and harder to see their feminist spirit, and their campaigns have been clearly focused on the male gaze.

[Agent Provocateur “The Season of the Witch” 2008 campaign ]

As much as I thought of them with sparkles in my eyes as a 16 years old, at 22, I was fully bored and unimpressed already. While everybody else started increasing their size range and getting more and more creative, the brand seemed to regress. Their campaigns becoming harder and harder to watch. Their online customer service is also legendarily awful and their quality and sizing very inconsistent.  Truly disappointing considering that their prices aren’t getting any lower.

[Agent Provocateur “The Season of the Witch” 2008 campaign ]

I have been able to try some of their lingerie when they still had a Montreal store. Although I loved the aesthetic of the stores, their salespersons were very snob and honestly bad with lingerie fitting. Besides, they didn’t make my size and didn’t seem to have a consistent size range within their current offer.

We do have a lingerie community on Instagram and some of its members are die-hard AP addicts. Even they are complaining that they can’t always order the same size in every range and that their orders often arrive incomplete during sales seasons, with no possibility of rectifying things since their online customer service is pretty inexistent. Anyway…

[ Agent Provocateur Valentine’s 2018 campaign]

This month, Agent Provocateur launched a diffusion line that they wrongly advertise as them expanding their size range. Agent Provocateur All hours is supposed to be “super sexy, make their (women) bodies feel great. It’s iconic, it’s AP, it’s supportive, it’s functional, and it’s making you feel amazing every day“. ” You can be an A cup or a G cup and wear the same style of bra“. I also love the comment about knickers sucking the tummy in…

The look

Now, for those who haven’t seen this promotional video… Let’s take a look at this iconic range…

[Left : All Hours Lucky 125USD, Right : Gossard Glossies 44 USD]

[Left : All Hours Lucky(padded) 125 USD , Right : Gossard Glossies High apex (padded) 50USD]

[Left : All Hours Paige 125 USD $ , Middle : Gossard Retrolution (discontinued – was worth roughly 70USD), Right: Luxy Aimée Lucie genuine leather bra 153 USD]

[Up left : All Hours Leni 145 USD , Bottom left: Simone Pérèle Caresse 92USD, Right: Montelle Pure Plus Full Coverage T-Shirt Bra 50 USD ]

 

[Left : All Hours Ginah 180 USD  ,  Right: Adina Reay Jo (discontinued ) 125 USD ]

Alright, now that we have aknowledge the lack of creativity and literally the fact that this collection has brough NOTHING to the lingerie industry, let’s talk about that supposedly inclusive size range.

The sizing

Agent Provocateur All hours, only offers 3 styles up to a 38G cup (Paige, Leni, and Bridgette), but it’s important to note that they don’t offer FF cups. Now, does it mean that their F run large, like a French F cup, or does their G cup run small like a FF cup? I will not buy to check this information but if anyone knows about it, please share!

Nonetheless, the AP fans seem to have rewarded the company for this launch, as lots of sizes are already almost sold out. Now I have no idea if they made a very small batch for this launch which could also explain the situation.

[Edit: I was told that apparently they only had a couple of items in the bigger/deeper sizes for each product. No wonder why they were sold out so fast. I overestimated people’s love for the brand, and I am happy to know that!] I am just hoping this whole mess leads them to actually expand their size range in actually interesting styles.

The fact that this utterly uninspired launch managed to get almost sold out so quickly, shows me once again that people still will support huge brands for the name of them despite their mediocrity. Secondly, people with breasts don’t know where to find good lingerie in 2021.

If you have Twitter please read this excellent thread by Sweet Nothings. She gives a very very good idea of the number of luxury and mid-range brands that already have been doing way better than AP for YEARS. These brands keep getting more and more creative each season.

Oh I have so many opinions about this range. It is so wildly overpriced. And you know I don’t mind paying for good lingerie but this? 180 USD for a bra you can now find everywhere because every luxury or cheap brand has done some (better) version of it for cheaper? It’s a no for me.

I guess my opinion doesn’t count much since these styles are selling fast, but I am just amazed by the low standard AP holds for itself in 2021. It’s all performative progress.

Please let me know your opinion. Who hasn’t wish very strongly that one day, styles like Kenzie and Lorna would be made in fuller bust sizes? Instead, we get boring t-shirt bras and copies of other brands’ iconic designs for a luxury price.

[ Left: AP Kenzie, Right : AP Lorna]

The good news is that, since they took so long to improve themselves (or should I say, are taking so long…still have not achieved it), other brands have already done the work.

[ Adina Reay Greta and Lyla ]

[ Edge O’ Beyond Marinette and Marilyn ]

[ Harlow and Fox x Karolina Laskowska Aurora and Alycya ]

I honestly think there are more deserving brands out there that will happily serve your needs if you give them your money. At this point, with all the innovation going on in this industry, there is no reason to ruin yourself buying products like these ones. If you really love them, then know that you can get them for half the price and for probably the very same quality somewhere else on the internet!

Let me know your thoughts!

Peace!
Wen