Olivia Rodrigo says it’s the end of her Guts era; Chappell Roan teases a new album, says it’s “time to welcome a hot new bombshell into the villa”; and Gen Alpha keeps tripping and falling over their own Crocs, so schools are banning the shoes over safety concerns.
Today, Cami Téllez, the Gen Z whisperer behind the beloved direct-to-consumer lingerie brand Parade, is back with a relaunch of an iconic legacy brand. I love Cami, I love tights, and I’m genuinely so excited about this news.
Since leaving Parade, Cami has been quietly building Cultural Ubiquity, working on investments and technology incubations (she can’t share too much yet, but says that they’re “meditating on devotion as the sacred resource powering the next generation of consumer brands”). When Bill Sweedler, a private equity investor and Cami’s longtime mentor, approached her earlier this year about buying L’eggs from Hanes, she “couldn’t say no.”
Cami was kind of enough to chat with me about microtrend cycles, Gen Z marketing strategies, and whether the classic plastic, egg-shaped packaging will make a comeback (“next year!”).
I have a lot of memories associated with L'eggs as a millennial, but I'm curious to know your feelings both as a Gen Zer and, separately, a brand leader working in this space?
It’s exhilarating to work on a brand that’s part of the American cultural memory. Everyone comes to L’eggs with different recollections: They can visualize the sculptural logo and the high-energy TV ads (“Nothing beats a great pair of L’eggs!”), they remember the iconic egg packaging in their mom’s purse, or maybe — more likely with Gen Z — they’ve purchased our tights at a drugstore before.
A big part of the experience of being in the archive has really been to put myself in the shoes of women in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Imagine the fearlessness required to be the first women ever to join the workforce! I recently found an incredible Seventeen Magazine ad that L’eggs ran that showed a young woman on a motorcycle wearing bright yellow ballet flats — which would be perfectly in style today — and the caption “Your L’eggs can take you where you’ve never gone before.” It’s wild to think in many ways that was true.
It’s a brand with an important design archive, and most importantly, it’s a real business. We already have awareness in 60% of women in the US and we’re carried in close to 30,000 stores across America.
The original L'eggs wordmark, designed by Roger Ferriter, is a now-legendary piece of sculptural typography. The clever ligatures, tight kerning, bold lettering, and chicklets-as-lowercase-Gs create a mark that sparks joy. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. I brought in an iconic team of designers — Britt Cobb from CobbCo and Diego Segura from Family Office, alongside Eliz Akgun, Jonny Sikov, and Christian Schwartz — to update it while protecting the beauty of the mark.
Ultimately, modernizing L'eggs wasn’t about rewriting its story but actually about reconnecting with the essence that first defined it. In every stitch, every curve, we found the brand’s original intent — bold design, democratized accessibility, supporting women, and innovative product — waiting to be revived.
In 2020 and 2021, no one was wearing anything but leggings and sweats. It was a tough time for not just hosiery but also jeans (or any sort of "hard pant," if you will) and any dress that wasn't, like, a nap dress. And then in the last two fall seasons, we've seen denim really take hold again — it's even bigger this year than last — which makes me think that skirts and dresses and, thus, tights, will be on the rise, if they aren't already. This also is consistent with 2010s Gossip Girl-era fashion having a return. How do you think about legwear, as both a category and a trend?
We’re seeing a double-digit increase in tights sales for 18-24 year olds this year alone. I also did some interesting consumer insights at the start of the year. More than 50% of women are inspired by trends on social media and apply them to legwear and 45% of women plan to wear more colored and patterned tights this year than years prior — and this is across all generations, which is incredible.
Today, tights have evolved into a powerful form of self-expression and fashion. We’re seeing it on the runway at Miu Miu, Fendi, Blumarine, Sandy Liang. It’s also serving as a connective layer that offers not only style but functional benefits like shaping and compression.
How are you thinking about your target audience for this? All ages? And can you talk a little bit about your marketing strategy?
As a Gen Z creative director (I’m 27!), I think Gen Z has become increasingly disillusioned with fleeting trends and disposable culture, they’re seeking deeper, lasting connections with brands that have real stories to tell, and L’eggs has been beating the same drum for 55 years. We're investing in solutions and sustainability that resonate with Gen Z’s desire for moral consumption with the brands they love, but at prices, they can afford in places they’re already shopping.
L’eggs has always had deep roots in solutions. We democratized the control top and graduated compression. The consumer insight that really stood out to me was that 80% of women feel most confident when they’re being “shaped,” so for this relaunch, we designed a completely new product. We worked with the world’s most innovative hosiery factories to knit the softest sustainable fibers into panels that tuck your waist, smooth your tummy, and lift your butt. I’ve been wearing them for the last 6 months and I really do think it’s the best product on the market — and they start at just $12!!!
Much has been written about the rise of corpcore, a popular trend among Gen Z and one that often incorporates legwear. As a Gen Zer, how do you think about microtrends as they relate to a business like L'Eggs? One example of this, I think, is the crew sock craze and how that has made brands like Bomba see sales double.
We look at the nexus of trend and timelessness, which is obviously a narrow window that allows us to create with a focused purpose. Yes, we’ll do a leopard tight, but it will be inspired by D&G’s S/S 2000 show and Alaia photoshoots in 1991. If it’s a red, we’ll look at Tom Ford’s Gucci and Betsey Johnson in 1999. We have the game ball — there’s no reason for us to veer off course after 55 years of measured, thoughtful creations.
I track trends in the newsletter, and last Christmas, red tights were extremely popular. What are we going to see this winter?
Look out for the suiting stripe, balancing the sensual lines on the body with corporate precision.
HOW COMIC SANS BECAME THE CROCS OF FONTS, fastco
As it approaches its 30th birthday, the font is so bad that it’s cool again, according to design experts, “in the way that ’90s clothing is back in style,” says creative type director Terrance Weinzierl. Case in point: Gen Z pop star Chappell Roan used a sparkly Comic Sans in her vintage-oozing lyric video for “Good Luck, Babe!” I’m fascinated by the cool-to-cheugy-to-cool pipeline.
GEN Z TURNS TO TIKTOK TO FIND THE PERFECT SCHOOL. SOME COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE CASHING IN., businessinsider
Instead of the typical campus tour hosted by a college brand ambassador and led along a curated map of the school's most attractive amenities, Gen Zers have multiple feeds through which they can examine a campus' vibe. And unlike the 15-minute promo videos produced by schools, much of what's featured on social media is coming from people they can relate to. As of October 29, there were 2.3 million TikTok videos under the hashtag "college life,” totaling more than 30 billion views.
YOUNG WOMEN ARE CHALLENGING THE STIGMA OF SEX AND LOVE ADDICTION SUPPORT GROUPS, npr
Young women are using TikTok to share how groups like Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous help them manage behaviors they view as unhealthy. Ethlie Ann Vare, author of Love Addict: Sex, Romance and Other Dangerous Drugs, says many younger people may be drawn to these groups because of the avalanche of apps that enable addictive behavior. “They literally designed Tinder to mimic slot machines,” she said. “That’s the interface.”
GEN Z IS LISTENING TO THE TRUMP ACCESS HOLLYWOOD TAPE ON TIKTOK FOR THE FIRST TIME, teenvogue
In 2024, as Trump runs for president for a third time, some voters — the youngest of whom were only 10 years old when the infamous “grab 'em by the p*ssy” Access Hollywood tape first broke — are stumbling across it for the first time. Sometimes I really do feel as though we’re living in the Twilight Zone.
AMERICA'S YOUNGEST VOTERS BECOME MAJOR ELECTION LIARS, axios
Half of Gen Z voters — and 1 in 4 U.S. voters overall — have lied to people close to them about who they're voting for, according to the latest Axios survey by The Harris Poll. Interestingly, men (30%) were nearly twice as likely to say they lied about how they voted as women (17%).
One last thought:
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I’m laughing at the comment, “Did he just…finance bro fashion?”
Thank you Casey love you!!!!!