Looking Behind the Colours: My Interview with Suwen

In July, after separate conversations with Cecilia and Zuleika, I realised that speaking directly with people working within the industry could help me understand my research from a different perspective. I also recognised that these conversations could significantly influence the decisions I was making around my intervention.

I therefore conducted an interview with two people from Suwen, a Turkish lingerie brand, one from the marketing team and one from the design team. The interview helped me look more closely at how the colours surrounding us are actually selected and what happens behind those decisions.

We discussed colour trends, customer demand, how brands respond to these demands, and the actions taken as a result. More importantly, I wanted to understand the decision-making process behind the colours we encounter in everyday products. To what extent are these choices driven by customers? How much are they shaped by sales and commercial considerations? And, when specifically thinking about women’s lingerie, how are certain feelings or ideas about femininity communicated through colour and design? Can these choices contribute to more gender-performative ideas of femininity?

The interview gave me a much clearer understanding of the systems behind the colours we interact with. It helped me see colour not only as an individual preference, but also as something shaped by wider commercial, cultural and social decisions.

This perspective has become particularly useful for my intervention and for the analysis of the colours participants choose during the bracelet-making process. Understanding how colour choices are produced and communicated at an industry level allows me to look at people’s own colour preferences from a wider perspective, rather than treating them as purely personal or isolated decisions.

I will now share the questions I prepared for this interview below:

Colour: Presence, Absence & Change

1. What are currently the most and least used colours across Suwen’s products? If possible, could you share how the use and sales performance of these colours have changed over the past 5–10 years?
2. Have there been colours that were previously part of Suwen’s collections but were eventually completely discontinued? If so, which colours were they, and what led to their disappearance?
3. Have there been colours that had never been used by Suwen before, were introduced into a collection, and then performed significantly better than expected in terms of sales? If so, which colours were they, and how would you explain their success?
4. Have there been colours that received significantly less interest than expected when they were first introduced? In such cases, are the colours completely abandoned, or are they tested again in different shades, products or seasons?
5. Have there been colours that were once popular, disappeared from collections, and were later reintroduced? If so, do you think the meaning or perception of that colour among consumers had also changed?
6. When deciding whether a colour should exist within a collection, how influential are factors beyond sales data, such as fashion trends, cultural changes, consumer psychology and the social associations attached to a colour?

Colour & Gender

1. Do you think the ways in which colours such as pink, blue, red, black and white are associated with femininity and masculinity have changed in recent years? Do you see evidence of this change in Suwen’s sales or consumer data?
2. Do you think perceiving a colour as “feminine” affects how likely consumers are to choose it in lingerie? Or are you observing consumers moving away from traditional gendered colour codes?
3. Have you observed a shift in Suwen’s colour palette, such as a decrease in traditionally feminine colours or an increase in more gender-neutral colours? If so, what do you think has driven this change?
4. Do you think defining a colour as “feminine” can help women express their femininity while simultaneously limiting femininity to certain visual codes?

Colour & Gender Performance

1. Do you think the colour a person chooses can influence how they express their gender identity or femininity to others?
2. In a product that is directly connected to the body, such as lingerie, could colour choice become a way for someone to express “the kind of woman they want to be”?
3. Do you think choosing a traditionally feminine colour versus deliberately rejecting those colour codes can create different forms of identity expression?
4. Do you observe a difference between consumers choosing colours that make them “feel feminine” and those choosing colours that make them feel “strong, free or different”?
5. Do you think a woman can simultaneously want to appear feminine while also distancing herself from traditional ideas of femininity? Could lingerie and colour choices communicate this kind of identity conflict?

Colour, Identity & Personal Meaning

1. When a colour is discontinued or reintroduced over time, do you see this purely as a commercial or trend-driven change, or could it also reflect a change in the meanings society attaches to that colour?
2. For example, if a colour that was previously perceived as “too feminine”, “too young” or otherwise undesirable becomes popular again years later, could this indicate that the concept of femininity itself has changed?
3. Do you think consumers can assign a completely personal meaning to a colour that differs from the meaning the brand intended to communicate?
4. For example, could a consumer choose pink not because of its association with femininity, but because of a personal memory, person or experience? Do you think these personal associations play an important role in consumer behaviour?
5. In your view, who creates the meaning of colour: brands, society, or individuals through their personal experiences?

Lingerie, Body & Identity

1. Since lingerie is often chosen primarily for oneself rather than for public visibility, could this make colour more significant as a form of identity expression?
2. Do you think there is a difference, in terms of identity, between choosing a lingerie colour that only the wearer sees and choosing a colour for clothing that is visible to others?
3. Could someone choosing a colour in lingerie that they would not normally wear be interpreted as discovering or experimenting with a different aspect of themselves or a different identity?
4. Could colour in lingerie act as a mediator between a person’s existing identity and the identity they want to communicate or experience?

Empowerment & Gender Expectations

1. Do you see the use of traditionally feminine colours in Suwen’s communication as a way of supporting women’s empowerment, or does it risk reproducing traditional expectations of femininity?
2. Can a woman consciously choosing traditionally feminine codes such as pink, red or lace be considered a form of empowerment? Similarly, could rejecting these codes also be a form of empowerment?
3. Do you think empowerment is more closely connected to adopting particular feminine codes, or to having the freedom to choose whether or not to adopt them?
4. Around 90% of Suwen’s employees are women, with women also strongly represented at management and board level. Does this internal representation of women influence the brand’s understanding of femininity and empowerment? Does it shape the image of women that Suwen presents to consumers?

Women’s Sport & Alternative Femininity

1. How do you view Suwen’s support of women’s football and volleyball in terms of expanding the brand’s representation of women beyond lingerie, beauty and aesthetics towards strength, movement and physical performance?
2. Can the visibility of strong and athletic female bodies contribute to changing traditional perceptions of the female body?
3. Can a lingerie brand supporting women’s sports contribute to expanding the image of the “feminine woman” into a broader range of identities?
4. As women’s sports become more visible, could placing traditionally feminine colours such as pink alongside concepts such as strength, athleticism and achievement change the social meaning of those colours?
5. Do you think there is still an identity conflict in society around women being feminine, strong, athletic and independent at the same time?
6. Do you see Suwen’s support of women’s sports as a way of expanding traditional definitions of femininity?

Overall Perspective

1. Looking at Suwen’s colour history and consumer preferences, is there a particular colour or colour shift that you believe reflects changes in the ways women define and express themselves?
2. Do you view the changes you see in colour sales primarily as shifts in consumer preferences, or could they also be interpreted as indicators of broader changes in society’s understanding of femininity, the body and identity?
3. Finally, do you think the colour a woman chooses today says more about “what kind of woman she is expected to be”, or about “what kind of woman she wants to be”?

Data & Material Request

1. If possible, could you share the changes in the top-selling and lowest-selling colours over the past 5–10 years?
2. If possible, could you provide examples of colours that were completely discontinued, later reintroduced, or introduced for the first time and achieved particularly strong sales?
3. Would it be possible to share any data, charts, reports or visual materials showing how the use and sales performance of colours have changed over time?