We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Fernanda Lento. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Fernanda below.

Fernanda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The idea was actually born out of a discussion with my sister about the fashion industry. At the time, my younger sister was 45 kilos (almost 100 pounds) heavier than now. She would always complain about the lingerie industry, how difficult it was to find bras that fit properly without the breast escaping on the sides, or the straps hurting your shoulders, or even the heavy weight of the breasts not being supported and therefore causing back pain.
As a fashion designer, I refused to believe there was no solution for that and decided to study lingerie, initially for fun.
What I learned is not only that the massification of bra patterns makes it difficult for you to find something perfect for your body type, but also that most women don’t relate well to their undergarments. By that I mean that lingerie on average causes more issues than happiness to women. Women have a tough time not only finding a good fit, but also feeling sexy and powerful while wearing underwear. Lingerie is more of a necessary hazard than a tool to bring your true self to life.
I understood lingerie occupied a special place in the fashion industry. We normally wear clothes or shoes that hurt us, annoy us during the day, or don’t feel comfortable at all, simply because they are beautiful, trendy or people will look at us differently if we have these fashion items. Lingerie is different, lingerie is real. You wear panties that you like. It does not matter that all influencers are posting thongs, if you prefer high waisted panties, you will buy them and not the trendy thongs.
That realization sort of broke my brain. It was the first time in the fashion industry that I saw a product that was real, a product that was purchased because of the true love for that product and what the product could do for your body and not for your status, not for showing off. It was the first time I realized there was a product in the fashion industry that people were buying for the real reasons why I became a fashion designer: to improve their lives, their confidence, their day to day comfort.
When I realized that, I made it my mission to understand how I could translate emotions into underwear, how could I make a woman feel beautiful, supported and sexy by using fabrics and fits.
It is not called intimates for no reason, it is something you will have an intimate relationship with, that’s when my brand was born: Let It Be Intimate

Fernanda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Fernanda Lento and I own Let It Be Intimate, a luxury underwear brand that decided to do underwear differently.
We decided we would let women know there is nothing the fashion industry can do for you, if you can’t accept your body.
That does not mean you should wear boring underwear. We decided to make all of those very fancy, very elaborate lingerie looks into the most comfortable, well-fitted pieces you can think of.
Our workspace hosts fittings for 7 to 9 months, on average, before we launch a piece on our website.
We have 40 different body types over in our atelier before we actually allow a piece to be displayed to the public. they have to be perfect, they have to fit perfectly.
I am very proud of building a safe space for women and also a brand that they know they can buy with no fear, no insecurities, cause somebody really thought it all through for them.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

This story was initially not aimed as a marketing strategy, but it turned out to be incredibly important for the image of our brand.

A few years ago we were contacted by one of our customers, that always bought our pieces and had gone through breast cancer and had one of their breasts removed surgically. She wanted to know how to wear our bras, considering one of her breasts was gone.
That really got me thinking. Could I possibly develop a product for breasts for a woman with no breasts?
So we decided to partner up with her and designed a full collection for breast cancer survivors, one you could fit a prosthetic breast, or a pouch that simulates the shape of a breast, etc.

This was such a rich experience, not only from the fashion designer perspective, cause I had to learn a lot more about patterns and fits, but mostly, it was a really rich experience from a human perspective. It is amazing how much breasts represent for the feminine body, how less feminine a woman feels when she goes through chemotherapy. She not only loses her hair, her eyelashes, her breasts, she loses part of who she was as a woman. And being able to give back to them a little bit of their sensuality, their sexiness, their pride of being women, was absolutely amazing.

We decided to donate all the profits of this collection to a cancer hospital and we shared the stories of these women on social media. What this did to us is, even though most of our customers are not survivors of breast cancer, they could 100% relate and feel the pain of those women and understand how much lingerie could play a part of your body acceptance and your self love.

I believe this humanized our brand. We are a brand of women for women and we understand each other. This really strengthened our relationship to the community and has really propelled us to be more bold and confident in our designs.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Currently we have over 400 thousand followers on our social media accounts combined. We never paid a penny in marketing and all of that came through just being honest.
10 years ago, no brands shared their customers wearing their pieces, we did.
10 years ago, nobody allowed their customers to participate on the design process, we did. We accepted suggestions, drawings, calls, meetings, anything that would connect us to the real women that were buying our pieces.
When you are honest and consistent, nothing can stand in your way. It is not easy and definitely social media has changed a lot in the last decade. Algorithms have surfaced and changed the game. What we can tell to new entrepreneurs is to be true to your message and careful with who you associate yourself with. Sometimes an influencer may have a huge following and accept to post something for free for you, but you will attract a different kind of follower, which means, you really have to analyze if this is what you want for your brand.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.letitbeintimate.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letitbeintimate/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/letitbeintimate2/?hl=en

Image Credits

Please tag both of our instagram accounts on all pictures: @letitbeintimate and @letitbeintimate2

Extra credits:
Photo 2: @tellmemirror
Photos 4 and 5: @healthyamandita clicked by @msilveiraph