WITH fashion royalty Vivienne Westwood for a mum, it is no surprise that Joseph Corre made his mark in the industry.
As co-founder of rebellious lingerie brand Agent Provocateur, the 56-year-old has helped transform what women aspire to when it comes to underwear.
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He was spurred into action after being unimpressed with the drab knickers being flogged in London’s high streets.
So in 1994, he and then-wife Serena Rees launched their first boudoir-style shop in the heart of Soho, an area with a reputation for sex and scandal that was the perfect backdrop for their daring designs.
As the luxury brand celebrates its 30th birthday, women across the globe will pay homage to its iconic undies.
From supermodels to Z-list wannabes, everyone wanted to be snapped in a pair of AP knickers — after a little help from Britain’s favourite paper.
“The Sun made us famous,” AP’s creative director Sarah Shotton told me at a Killing Kittens event at the Soho store.
“Katie Price was always getting snapped out and about in our undies and getting on the front pages of the paper.”
From the start, AP’s designs were a statement of power, success and seduction.
Sarah said in another interview: “Agent Provocateur has always been about the woman being in control.”
Over the years the retailer’s risqué shoots have featured supermodels Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Daisy Lowe and Abbey Clancy — and have stirred up some controversy.
Screaming in ecstasy
“You have to shake things up a bit, even if it means offending the odd customer,” founder Joseph previously said.
“I mean, what’s the bloody point if you don’t offend somebody?”
In 2001, a saucy ad featuring Kylie Minogue was deemed too sexual for telly and banned.
In the X-rated video, the pop star rides a red velvet mechanical bull in lacy stockings and suspenders while screaming in ecstasy.
“Will all the men stand up?” Kylie asks at the end of the video, before calling the brand “the world’s most erotic lingerie”.
It went on to be one of the most viewed videos of all time online.
A decade later, AP found itself in trouble again.
A 2012 advert showed models in peephole bras and suspenders “kidnapping” a woman.
With pounding music, the woman runs in a desperate bid to escape the intruders, before being converted by the models and emerging in a sexy ivory underwear set.
The two-minute video to promote the brand’s Soiree Gold collection was deemed “misogynistic and disturbing” by one complainant.
But the Advertising Standards Authority cleared it to be aired.
The controversies did not seem to bother Joseph, who, by his own admission, is “not your average businessman”.
His late dad Malcolm McLaren managed the Sex Pistols, and Joseph reportedly threw a punch at the father of the bride at Blur bassist Alex James’s wedding.
“The so-called rules of business have always sounded like a load of old crap to me,” he shrugged in one interview.
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After its launch in 1994, Agent Provocateur quickly became known for epitomising a particular brand of feminism, where women reclaim authority by embracing symbols previously used to objectify them.
As Joseph once put it: “Agent Provocateur is about an attitude, about empowerment.”
And the glamorous Agents who work in the brand’s shops have to embody those values.
They were “like a big girl gang”, according to Denna Cartamkhoob, who worked at the Soho store in the Nineties and later made a film, Rising From The Gusset, about her experiences.
She said: “They are all unashamedly open about sex and being promiscuous and manipulative with their sexuality, like in terms of selling expensive underwear and getting money out of men.
“Day to day there was just so much humour, but overall it was this amazing education in people — what they got up to and what they didn’t want their wives to know.
“I saw the most vulnerable sides of people, too.
“The experience was formative for me, it gave me a lot of wisdom, which education and life hadn’t given me.”
Singer Paloma Faith is another former Agent who has spoken about the confidence she gained from working at AP’s Soho store in the early Noughties.
It’s an amazing honour that so many incredible women wear Agent Provocateur
Sarah Shotton
The Brit Award winner went on to be the face of an AP campaign, posing in lingerie in sultry snaps.
Recalling her shop days, Paloma, 42, once said: “It was more than just underwear for me.
“When I first came here it represented something about independence to me, and something about female empowerment.
“I found it really inspiring and it definitely was a catalyst for a lot of my work after that.”
The Agents working in the boutiques wear pink uniforms designed by the late Vivienne Westwood that creative director Sarah says “became a bit of an icon in itself”.
She added: “Women couldn’t get enough of the brand and men couldn’t stop buying it for their girlfriends and wives.
“If you receive a pink Agent Provocateur box, you know your partner has excellent taste in lingerie.”
Following the success of the Soho store, AP expanded, opening its first shop in America in 2000.
In 2006, nine shops opened across Europe and America.
Another ten followed in 2007.
Nipple tassels
In 2017, Beyonce revealed her pregnancy with twins while wearing a burgundy Agent Provocateur bra in an iconic pregnancy shoot.
And one of the brand’s Noughties ads, set in a forest, depicted a world where “women are bold, fearless and liberated and men enslaved to attend to their every whim”.
In the advert, supermodel Karen Elson wears ribbed white suspenders and is seen subduing a knight.
In another scene, the model pins a hapless man to the floor with her stilettos while she is crowned with a thorn wreath.
By the mid-Noughties, Agent Provocateur had cemented its position as the risqué retailer for high-end lingerie and sexy products such as masks, massage oils, whips and nipple tassels.
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Joseph and Serena were both awarded MBEs for their services to the fashion industry in 2007.
But Joseph rejected his, accusing then-Prime Minister Tony Blair of being “morally corrupt”.
He and Serena split in 2007 after she left him for punk legend Paul Simonon, one-time bassist for the Clash.
Soon after, private equity company 3i Group snapped up AP for a reported £60million.
The former couple retained a share of the business, though Serena left the company.
Joseph stayed on as a creative director before quitting in 2009 to focus on music and his menswear label Child Of The Jago.
Agent Provocateur weathered the 2009 recession, reporting an eight per cent rise in sales, with dozens of stores in 14 countries.
But over the next decade it was plagued with financial struggles amid a slowdown in luxury high street spending.
In 2014 3i Group tried to offload its stake for £250million but no buyer was found.
Two years later 3i admitted it had been forced to write down the value of the business by £39million.
You have to shake things up… whats the bloody point if you don’t offend somebody!
Joseph Corre
In 2017, the firm entered administration and was snapped up by Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley’s firm Four Holdings for around £25million.
The controversial entrepreneur came under fire for allowing the firm to continue sales in three stores in Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine.
Yet, despite the ups and downs, AP has maintained its reputation as a rebellious, sexually empowering female brand.
But the underwear does not come cheap.
A basque will set you back well over £1,000 and the average price of a bra is a couple of hundred . . . plus.
Beyonce wore the brand on her Renaissance World Tour last year, while Billie Eilish put on garments for a recent Vogue cover.
“It’s an amazing honour that so many incredible women wear Agent Provocateur,” said Sarah.
“Ultimately, our dream AP woman is strong, intelligent and knows what they want.
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“We feel every woman has a bit of Agent Provocateur in her.”
If only we could afford it . . .
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