Section I ◆ The Business
A bra company that hired a hundred engineers
What Adore Me actually does, and why the answer is longer than "sells lingerie."
The origin story is small enough to fit on a napkin. In 2010, Morgan Hermand-Waiche was a second-year MBA student at Harvard Business School and a former McKinsey consultant. He went looking for an anniversary gift and found what a lot of people find: the lingerie he wanted cost more than he had, and the lingerie he could afford was not worth buying. He has described the gap plainly - there weren't many brands as nice as what he wanted for her but in the price range of his broke student budget.
Most people file that away. He wrote a plan, incorporated Adore Me in New York in 2011, and put adoreme.com live in March 2012. About 100,000 items sold in the first year.
The part that matters is not that he made lingerie cheaper. It is that he attacked the reason it was expensive. Traditional intimates ran through a wholesale layer that roughly doubled the shelf price before a customer saw it. Adore Me designed in-house, sourced directly, and sold direct - and put the savings into two things the category was short on: size range and speed of assortment turn.
Bras run 30 to 46 in the band and A through I in the cup. The brand marketed the range as 67-plus sizes; its 2022 B Corp announcement counted 77. Around that core sit panties and sets, sleepwear and loungewear, activewear, swim, maternity and nursing intimates, and period underwear - most of which arrived through small acquisitions rather than internal launches.
Then there is the part nobody expects from an intimates label. Adore Me built an engineering organisation of roughly 100 people split between New York and Bucharest, and in December 2021 gave it a public identity: Adore Me Tech, wrapped around what the company called the Adore Me Operating Platform - an ecosystem of roughly 15 internal tools. Procurement and inventory management. Product ordering with advance shipping notices. A product-creation tool for designers. An algorithm that decided which items went into a customer's try-on box. A self-serve platform for influencer campaigns. The company was an early adopter of Angular and Kubernetes, and it used machine learning to mine customer reviews for fit signal that then fed back into design.
That is unusual. Most retailers of that size buy this software. Adore Me built it, and the deal documents suggest the buyer noticed - Victoria's Secret & Co. named technology first in its list of what it was acquiring.
"We have significantly grown our business over the past decade, and are excited to bring our technology, purchase experiences, inclusive assortment, brand and team to join the next phase of Victoria's Secret's growth."
Morgan Hermand, Founder & CEO, Adore Me ◆ 1 November 2022
Section II ◆ The Customer
Who buys it, and what was broken
1.2 million active customers, and the three specific frictions the company was built to remove.
Price without a reason
Well-constructed bras carried department-store markups because they travelled through wholesale. Selling direct removed that layer. Members paid a set discounted price; non-members paid list.
Sizes that did not exist
Larger cups, larger bands, nursing and maternity, and period underwear were routinely treated as specialty categories with specialty pricing. Adore Me put them in the main assortment.
You cannot try on a website
Bra fit is the highest-stakes online purchase in apparel. The Elite Box moved the fitting room into the customer's home: 3 to 5 curated pieces, seven days, free returns.
Who they are
At acquisition, Adore Me reported more than 1.2 million active customers. The base skewed heavily mobile - roughly 80% of site traffic by 2017 - and skewed toward women the mainstream intimates market had priced or sized out. By 2017 the company described a cumulative customer base of more than 11 million women.
A second, more value-oriented customer arrived through a different door. In fall 2022 the company launched Adored by Adore Me, a Walmart-exclusive line produced with the manufacturer Gelmart, priced from $11.98 to $29.98 and distributed to roughly 2,000 Walmart stores. Same fit expertise, entirely different shelf.
Marketed as 67+ sizes; the September 2022 B Corp announcement counted 77 across cups A through I and bands 30 through 46.
A mobile-first customer base is why the app, the style quiz and the box-curation algorithm mattered more than the store fleet ever did.
Section III ◆ Products & Services
The catalogue, and the machinery under it
Twelve things Adore Me sold or ran. Two of them defined the company.
Bras, panties and sets
Wired, wireless, push-up, full coverage and bralettes across 30-46 bands and A-I cups. The assortment turned fast, in the fast-fashion pattern the founder brought over from apparel.
VIP Membership
$39.95 charged on the 5th of each month unless you bought something or clicked "Skip the Month." Unused charges became store credit. Perks: $10 off every set, a free set after five, free shipping and returns over $49. Retired 28 February 2026.
Elite Box (Home Try-On)
Style quiz, then a curated box of 3-5 items for a $20 styling fee credited against anything kept. Seven days to decide, free shipping both ways. The curation ran on an internal algorithm, not a spreadsheet.
Maternity, legwear, period underwear
Entered by acquisition rather than launch: Belabumbum (Feb 2019, maternity and nursing), Walkpop (Jun 2019, legwear), Joyja (Jan 2020, period underwear).
Adored by Adore Me
Walmart-exclusive line made with Gelmart. $11.98 to $29.98, roughly 2,000 doors. A deliberate second price tier under a second name.
AM by You
Launched 9 May 2024. Describe a print in words; a generative model produces it; a human moderates it; it prints on demand onto a bralette and panty set from $54.95. The on-demand printing, run with manufacturing partner MAS, is reported to use 99% less water and produces no dead stock.
Adore Me Tech
Roughly 15 internal tools covering procurement, inventory, designer product creation, try-at-home box assembly and influencer campaigns. Around 100 engineers in New York and Bucharest.
Physical stores
First permanent store: Staten Island Mall, June 2018, 3,000 sq ft, RFID smart fitting rooms. Then Bridgewater NJ, Providence RI, Willowbrook NJ. The company once spoke of 300 stores in five years; five were operating as of May 2025.
DailyLook
Los Angeles personal styling subscription, acquired in 2022. Placed under strategic review by Victoria's Secret & Co. in March 2026.
Adore Me Services
Automated distribution centre in Secaucus, New Jersey, with high-density robotic storage, automated put walls and conveyors - built in-house rather than outsourced to a 3PL.
Section IV ◆ Business Model
$39.95 a month, whether you shopped or not
The mechanic that made the company valuable, and the same mechanic that got it fined twice.
Adore Me ran a two-tier price structure. Non-members paid list. Members paid a lower set price - and membership was a negative-option subscription. On the 5th of each month, if a customer had not purchased and had not clicked "Skip the Month," $39.95 was charged and banked as store credit against future orders.
Commercially, this works extraordinarily well. It converts browsing into a recurring revenue line, it produces retention numbers that look more like software than apparel, and it gives merchandisers a demand signal months ahead of the season. Victoria's Secret & Co. said as much: the November 2022 announcement singled out the subscription and Home Try-On options as the reason the platform was worth buying.
It also drew regulators. In November 2017 the Federal Trade Commission secured a stipulated order including a judgment of $1,378,654, alleging that the memberships were difficult to cancel, that cancellation was effectively phone-only, that customer service capacity was constrained, and that a store-credit forfeiture policy sat more than a thousand words into the terms while marketing described credits as usable at any time. The FTC found more than $1.8 million in credits forfeited between January 2012 and May 2016; the practice was discontinued in May 2016. In June 2023 the company settled with 31 states and the District of Columbia for $2.35 million over related disclosure issues.
On 28 February 2026, under Victoria's Secret ownership, the VIP Membership ended for US customers and was converted into a conventional loyalty program. The mechanic that justified a $400 million price tag did not survive its third year inside the acquirer.
Section V ◆ Position
Where it sits, and who it sits against
The intimates market fragmented. Adore Me was one of the fragments - until it was bought by the thing it fragmented.
The competitive set is crowded and recent. ThirdLove built on fit data and half-cup sizing. Savage X Fenty built on celebrity and casting. Aerie built on retail footprint and a no-retouching promise. Skims built on shapewear and scale. Lively, Cuup, Parade, True&Co and Knix each took a slice. On the value end, the Walmart line competes with Hanes, Maidenform and Gelmart's other private-label programs.
What separated Adore Me from that group was not the marketing position - size inclusivity and body positivity were table stakes by 2018 - but the operating stack underneath it. Very few brands of comparable size owned their own distribution centre, their own merchandising software, their own try-on curation algorithm and their own manufacturing relationships at once. That vertical integration is why the acquisition was framed around technology rather than around brand equity.
The context matters. Victoria's Secret held roughly 34% of the US lingerie segment in 2016. By the time of the deal, analyst estimates put it closer to 18%. It did not lose that share to one rival. It lost it in slices, to a dozen companies each serving a customer it had decided not to serve. Buying Adore Me was, among other things, an attempt to buy several of those slices back at once - and to acquire a digital operating model that a mall-native retailer could not build quickly.
Owned software
Roughly 15 internal tools and ~100 engineers. Peers of similar revenue typically license this stack.
Owned logistics
An automated DC in Secaucus with robotic storage and put walls, opened January 2019.
Structural commitments
Public Benefit Corporation in 2021, B Corp in 2022 at 107.1, GRI-referenced ESG reports from July 2022.
Section VI ◆ Expertise & Culture
Two companies in one building
A fashion house in Tribeca and a software shop in Bucharest, arguing productively.
Adore Me's headquarters at 401 Broadway in Tribeca doubled as its first retail showroom when that opened in April 2016. Its second centre of gravity was Bucharest, where the engineering organisation recruited on its own careers site and its own terms. The founder also started New York Hearts Tech, a developer community, out of the New York office - an odd thing for a lingerie CEO to do, and a reasonable signal of where he thought the durable advantage was.
The company's public commitments were made structurally rather than rhetorically. It converted to a Public Benefit Corporation in 2021, which changes the fiduciary standard rather than the marketing copy. It certified as a B Corporation in September 2022 with a B Impact Assessment score of 107.1 against a passing threshold of 80, reported as the only US lingerie brand to hold the certification. The sustainability work, consolidated under the Adore Me Cares program, had started in 2019 with unglamorous things: switching mailers and packaging to recyclable cardboard and poly bags.
The reporting is worth reading precisely because the numbers are modest. The second annual ESG report, published 6 July 2023 and referenced to GRI standards, disclosed a 5.45% reduction in average product carbon footprint from 2021 to 2022, and that 24% of 2022 products met the company's internal sustainability standard. Twenty-four percent is not a number a marketing department invents. The company also ran anti-greenwashing training for staff and partnered with Carbonfact on product-level carbon accounting.
"In the same way Adore Me helped push our industry towards inclusivity in sizing, we're on a mission to make shopping more sustainably more accessible to all consumers."
Morgan Hermand ◆ B Corp certification announcement, September 2022
"We hypothesize that as the world around us continues to change, we'll need to change the way we approach our planning, automation, and policies."
Romain Liot, Co-Founder & COO ◆ Adore Me Tech launch, December 2021
Section VII ◆ Capital
Roughly $11 million in, $400 million out
Adore Me raised twice, then largely stopped - unusual for a DTC brand of its era.
| Date | Event | Amount | Backers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2012 | Seed / Series A | $2.5M | Redhills Ventures, Jaina Capital, Ventech Capital; angels Fabrice Grinda, José Marín |
| Jul 2013 | Series B | $8.5M | Led by Upfront Ventures, with Mousse Partners and Redhills Ventures |
| Nov 2022 | Acquisition announced | $400M cash upfront, plus fixed and performance-based consideration over two years | Victoria's Secret & Co. |
| Jan 2023 | Acquisition closed | — | Completed 3 January 2023 |
Disclosed venture funding totals approximately $11 million across the two priced rounds. Private-market data providers list higher cumulative figures - PitchBook around $53.5M, CB Insights around $54.8M - which appear to include undisclosed and debt instruments; treat those as approximate. Named investors across aggregators also include Kortschak Investments, Otium Capital, White Star Capital and SOSV.
Section VIII ◆ Chronology
Sixteen years, earliest to latest
From a business school assignment to a $120 million writedown.
- 2010
The idea at Harvard Business School
Morgan Hermand-Waiche, a second-year MBA and former McKinsey consultant, fails to find lingerie that is both well made and affordable, and writes a plan to build it.
- 2011
Adore Me is founded in New York
Incorporated with co-founders including Romain Liot, Gary Bravard and Eugen Neiculescu.
- 2012
Website launches; first funding arrives
Adoreme.com goes live in March and sells roughly 100,000 items in year one; $2.5 million is raised in June.
- 2013
$8.5 million Series B
Upfront Ventures leads, joined by Mousse Partners and Redhills Ventures, funding in-house design and faster assortment turns.
- 2015
Second-fastest-growing US retailer
The Inc. 5000 ranks Adore Me #2 in retail by growth - the first of three appearances in four years.
- 2016
The offline experiments begin
A showroom opens at 401 Broadway in April, Nordstrom follows in June and Lord & Taylor in October. Revenue reaches $83.9 million.
- 2017
Profitability, and an FTC settlement
The company reports reaching profitability. In November it agrees a stipulated FTC order including a $1,378,654 judgment over the VIP program's disclosure and cancellation practices.
- 2018
First permanent store opens
A 3,000 sq ft store with RFID smart fitting rooms opens at the Staten Island Mall in June; Bridgewater Commons, New Jersey follows in November.
- 2019
Automation and category acquisitions
An automated distribution centre opens in Secaucus. Belabumbum brings maternity and nursing in February; Walkpop adds legwear in June.
- 2020
Period underwear added
The Joyja acquisition extends the assortment into period underwear.
- 2021
Public Benefit Corporation and Adore Me Tech
The company converts to a PBC and in December launches Adore Me Tech around its internal platform of roughly 15 tools.
- 2022
B Corp, Walmart, and a $400 million deal
Certified as a B Corporation in September at 107.1. Adored by Adore Me launches at Walmart in the fall. On 1 November, Victoria's Secret & Co. agrees to acquire the company on an estimated $250 million of sales.
- 2023
The acquisition closes
Completed 3 January. In June, a $2.35 million settlement with 31 states and DC over the VIP program. In July, the second annual ESG report.
- 2024
AM by You launches
On 9 May, a generative-AI design studio begins producing custom-printed bralette and panty sets on demand from text prompts.
- 2025
Fashion week show, then the founder exit
A cabaret-themed NYFW runway show runs at Sony Hall in February. In August, Morgan Hermand-Waiche departs and Christine Vellani is named President, with five stores operating.
- 2026
Subscription ends; a writedown lands
The VIP Membership closes on 28 February and becomes a loyalty program. In March, Victoria's Secret & Co. reports a $120 million pre-tax Adore Me impairment, exits the Mexico distribution centre and opens a strategic review of DailyLook.
Section IX ◆ Practical
What a customer can actually do with it
Stripped of the strategy, here is the product surface as it stands.
Shop a genuinely wide size range
Bras from a 30 band to a 46 band, A through I cups, in the main assortment rather than a separate "extended" catalogue at a separate price.
Order a box before you commit
Take the style quiz, pay a $20 styling fee, get 3-5 curated pieces at home for seven days. The fee comes off anything you keep; returns are free.
Design your own print
AM by You turns a written description into a printed bralette and panty set, made to order from $54.95, with a human checking the design before it goes to print.
Buy the value line at Walmart
Adored by Adore Me sits in roughly 2,000 Walmart stores between $11.98 and $29.98 for shoppers who want the fit thinking at a mass price.
Get fitted in person
A small store fleet - five locations as of May 2025 - offers in-person fitting, with RFID fitting rooms at the original Staten Island location.
The membership is gone
As of 28 February 2026 the $39.95 VIP Membership no longer operates in the US. It has been replaced by a loyalty program, so there is no recurring monthly charge to manage.
Section X ◆ Questions
The five things people ask
Short answers, sourced below.
Who owns Adore Me?
Victoria's Secret & Co. The acquisition was agreed on 1 November 2022 for $400 million cash upfront plus additional fixed and performance-based consideration over two years, and closed on 3 January 2023. Adore Me continues to operate as a distinct brand.
What sizes does Adore Me carry?
Bras run 30 to 46 in the band and A through I in the cup. The brand markets 67-plus sizes across the assortment; its 2022 B Corp announcement counted 77. Apparel and sleepwear extend into plus sizes.
Does Adore Me still have a subscription?
No. The VIP Membership - $39.95 charged monthly unless you purchased or clicked "Skip the Month" - ended for US customers on 28 February 2026 and was replaced by a loyalty program.
What was the Elite Box?
A home try-on service. Customers took a style quiz, paid a $20 styling fee, and received 3 to 5 curated pieces to try for seven days. The fee was credited toward anything kept, and shipping and returns were free.
Why did Adore Me face regulatory action?
Because the VIP program was a negative-option subscription. In November 2017 the FTC secured a stipulated order including a $1,378,654 judgment over cancellation friction and forfeited store credit. In June 2023 the company agreed a $2.35 million settlement with 31 states and the District of Columbia over related disclosure issues.
Watch
Interviews and demonstrations
Founder interviews, a runway show and product footage - all on YouTube.
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Where to find Adore Me
Official channels, then the reporting this profile draws on.
Reporting and primary sources
Company contact: 401 Broadway, New York, NY 10013 ◆ +1 800-433-2367 ◆ adoreme.com
Figures in this profile are drawn from company announcements, regulatory filings and published reporting; revenue for fiscal 2022 is an estimate published by Victoria's Secret & Co. Private-market funding totals vary by data provider and are noted as approximate where they do.