Touker Suleyman And Steven Bartlett Clash In The Den | SEASON 19 | Dragons’ Den

Founder Caroline Kennedy-Alexander created a luxury lingerie brand with a difference after going through a double mastectomy, losing her sister to breast cancer, and finding a gap in the lingerie market. Along with her business partner Sarah Bell Jones, they’re next into The Den to explain why Love Rose Lingerie is unique. They’re seeking a £70,000 investment in exchange for 15% of their business.

Season 19, Episode 12.

An international sensation, Dragon’s Den features entrepreneurs pitching for investment in the Den from our Dragons, five venture capitalists willing to invest their own money in exchange for equity.

#DragonsDen #BusinessPitch #Lingerie

Next into the den a luxury lingerie brand with a Difference the brainchild of Edinburgh based Caroline Kennedy Alexander and Sarah Bell Jones who harnessed personal adversity and transformed it into the driving force behind their business emotionally it’s been a massive Journey for all of of our women who have been part of this process over the last three years of product

Developing it’s really important to highlight that a bra is not just a functional item it is an emotional support and that’s what we’re about we support our ladies in more ways than One hello Dragons I’m Caroline and I’m I’m Sarah and we are love Rose Lingerie today we are looking for £70,000 in exchange for 15% of our company love Rose is named in memory of my sister rose that I lost to breast cancer I watched another sister Mary go through

Breast cancer and then I got it twice I had a double masectomy with reconstruction and there’s not much I don’t know about how this makes a woman feel her confidence her femininity because it’s not just about the physical scars it’s about the emotional and the psychological scars too the postsurgery laundry Market in

The UK is currently worth 7 million pounds and it’s been cered for primarily by medical Brands which are functional but oldfashioned love Rose offers a luxury Choice which is thoughtfully designed and dare I say it sexy we’ve spent the last 3 years working closely with our focus groups to design and prototype our

Range of lingerie to see the different outcomes of surgery women like me had no choice in having breast surgery but we deserve a choice in our lingerie love Rose love yourself thank you thank you high-end lingerie intended to help post-operative breast cancer patients look and feel fantastic is the proposition from Caroline Kennedy

Alexander and Sarah B Jones can I ask um so how supportive is it not only is it really really supportive but also with the added excitement of being sexy again cuz I’ve got every right to be as well still the duo are asking for £70,000 in return for a 15% share of their

Company thank you so much girls thank you very much D Deborah Meen is first to quiz the entrepreneurs so I absolutely love this and I love everything about it I can see the difference you’ve made to to people’s lives but are you sure you’re not the

Only people doing it no there are some Independents but we’re the only ones that have the real luxury element to it and stretch so how many postsurgery brands are there because I think bra visimo do them as well um there’s a lot of High Street bras um but again it’s

Like um they’re all following the status quo of the design right so there are other people doing more entry level but but you’ve you’ve pH yourself right and price points how much do they sell for the bras range from 85 to 90 what are they costing you to make £29 to make now

In terms of the design what are the features so you’re holding our hey goodl looking bra all of our bras have fun names fun um so that is a pocketed bra for a woman who wears one PR or there’s your pocket so that’s that bit and then

What’s the purpose of this design so the hammock at the back that’s some of our engineering that’s how the breasts stay up in a soft bra so it adds structure because you you haven’t got the underwiring yes one question for you have you got any design protection in

There cuz this is clearly a very wellth thought out bra they’re registered we haven’t done IP because was in fashion as you know it’s it’s hard it’s hard no but I just wondered if there was any technical piece in there that you were able to protect we just have cleverly

Designed them you’ve just cleverly designed them the entrepreneurs bras may be ingeniously designed but their lack of patentable potential could create an early stumbling block to Dragon investment now fashion Tycoon 2 culan wants to know more about their company’s success to to date let’s just talk about the business

Mhm you’ve been going since when so we soft launched in September 2020 mid pandemic any sales yes 7,600 so it is small it’s very small we’re very modest I know this industry very well yeah building the passion brand it’s very difficult I know yeah your problem starts is that you’re trying to cater

For a very very very small Market however your cost of the product is high already for what it is and therefore you got one arm behind your back before you start you have 29 you know it’s it’s difficult but I’m going to change things for a second in my

Head you want to cater MH a product to women that have got needs MH and what I would have thought is if you’d come in here and said we are the brand that will help women in all these specialty bras which they require women who are pregnant want a pregnancy bra women who

Are breastfeeding want a breastfeeding bra women who have surgery want a surgery bra what I’m saying is to build a brand like this is very difficult cuz you have very small USP I think I think it’s the opposite I’ve got to be honest I think building a brand

When you have when you bu listen to me I’ve been at this for 45 years so don’t tell I’ve been I’ve been building the biggest brands in the world for the last exactly what I think and I’m telling you what I think you don’t want a super

Broad unemotional get with girls okay so love Rose has nothing to do with pregnancy if you want to build a brand amongst a small group of people a really clear powerful storyline founded by the loss of her sister targeting a niche audience who have a very big problem in

Their life with a clear emotional message I mean what else do you want but then invested it appears the challenges of building a brand in a hugely competitive market are enough to provoke Discord amongst even the dragons is an empathetic Sara Davies poised to restore a much-needed degree of Harmony to the

Dead that really spoke to me when you came in and pitched at the beginning I have friends who have had masectomy I can absolutely see how bringing a little bit of luxury and that feeling sexy back to that market is so important I think a lot of what Tu was

Pushing at was as an investor we want to understand the real scale of the opportunity so I was quite surprised when Deborah was familiar with another brand doing this and my concern is I wouldn’t spend 80 to 90 on a bra and I can afford to do that yeah you know I

Spend £30 but perhaps there a few if you were in in the situation where you had had a lifechanging operation and you needed to bring your sexy back you might do I completely understand that however My worry is you are not solving a problem for everyone no you are solving

A problem for a niche of that market who can afford to justify that spend on that luxury yeah it’s a luxury product and we chose that market to go into to start the brand because that was where the Gap in the market was but very soon we will

Be bringing in an entable product which will sit with sounds like that’s a more crowded market and such a difficult industry mhm and I always said I would never I wouldn’t take a gold cow and get involved in the launder Market okay so I’m sorry guys that’s okay wish you all

The best with the business if I can help in any way I’d love to but I’m out disappointment for Caroline and Sarah as a first dragon declined the deal Deborah Meen was perturbed by their product’s lack of protectability but has she seen sufficient opportunity in posttop longerie to table an Offer I don’t think I’ve ever sat here and wished that a market would shrink as much as I wish this Market would shrink I think it’s lovely but I think it is niche Niche to the point of it being very difficult for me to understand how I

Would get a return on my investment okay that’s fine um but I genuinely wish you all all the best of luck and I think they are lovely beautifully designed I’m out Caroline Sarah it’s great it’s inspiring and I have no doubt in my mind that you’ll have a great business out of

This but I think that this isn’t a type of business for me as an investor because I think that when you want to look to try and build a brand like this specifically in lingerie to be really exciting big business it takes Millions if not tens of millions okay so

I wish you the very best but it’s just not an investment for me today and I’m going to say I’m out um but good luck okay thank you ladies what can I say I I think building a brand especially a fashion brand it’s very difficult especially from the

Beginning you know trying to get your collection together get it made and then finding the factory to make your volumes because you haven’t got any sales so they charge you more so you’ve got to charge more to the consumer so it’s a vicious circle you know for that reason

You know surely as an investment I say I’m not going to invest in amount okay okay four dragons are now out only Steven Bartlet remains he’s helped build some of the biggest brands in British fashion so is he willing to add Caroline and Sarah’s Creations to his

Collection first of all thank you for such an inspiring presentation I think you have a great product I think you have a great brand story that I know is driven by two great entrepreneurs that are not going to give up regardless of how tough things get and I think from a marketing perspective

Having a clear USP and a clear audience to Target whether that’s with digital ads or with your your brand messaging is actually going to be the best chance you have of creating a customer base which you can then expand upon yes yeah I think you have demonstrated that this is a

Business but I don’t think you’ve demonstrated that it’s an investable business and for that reason unfortunately I’m going to have to say that I’m out thanks thanks Caroline thank you so much all the so much guys sadly for Caroline and Sarah they must leave empty-handed whilst the Duo’s aims were

Universally applauded their business couldn’t part the dragons from their cash disappointed but it’s not going to stop us we will just pick ourselves up and carry on wom been on a mission we’ll pick our boobs up and yeah bring it on