Inside Wacoal’s acquisition of Glamorise

Wacoal, the intimate apparel brand known for its custom fits with presence across US department stores, is in its era of change.

After acquiring New York-based innerwear brand Glamorise in early April, Wacoal, which was founded in Japan in 1949, has also announced an executive shift. CEO Mitchell Kauffman is set to retire after six years.

Days before the change was made official, however, Kauffman, who remains onboard in an advisory capacity, told Retail Brew why the retailer is choosing to expand with the Glamorise acquisition in particular.

For starters, he had been in talks with Glamorise for a couple of years about a potential deal, Kauffman said, adding that for Wacoal, with its significant presence in the “full-figure market,” bringing on a brand with strong e-commerce capabilities built on that strength.

“Our product is really focused,” Kauffman said. “We’re primarily a brick-and-mortar-established brand, and our product is mostly seamless molded products, and mostly for women who are large bust size, and not necessarily large back size.”

Glamorise had no physical stores, and its product was geared “more towards large back size and large bust size, so there’s not a lot of overlap in the size configuration of our products,” he added.

“Their construction of their products is very different,” Kauffman said. “It’s a very basic type of product, not a lot of bells and whistles or fancy. From an aesthetic standpoint, it’s extremely functional, so it’s very differentiated.”

Beyond the product differentiation, Glamorise’s price point is also 25%–30% lower than Wacoal’s, opening it up to a wider range of customers. The brand is also hoping to leverage its product development and proprietary software capabilities as it aims to capture a larger share of the lucrative intimates category.

Per Grand View Research, the US lingerie market was valued at $17.11 billion in 2024 and is likely to hit $31.40 billion by 2033.

But Wacoal is confident of its unique positioning in the market as a more of a functional lingerie brand catering to real sizing issues than the likes of Savage Fenty and ThirdLove, which Kauffman categorized as more “fashion-oriented” labels.

“We’re about function,” he said, “problem solutions.”