How L’Couture’s Lyndsay Doran is Shaking Up The Activewear Industry Within The Region – and Beyond

A fashion outsider, the Dubai-based founder reveals how she built a regional sportswear success by embracing women of all sizes

Around the same time Kim Kardashian had her Kimono-turned-SKIMS epiphany, Dubai-based Brit Lyndsay Doran decided to start her own inclusive activewear line, right here in the GCC. Why? In part, because the former Emirates First Class flight attendant was tired of pulling her ill-fitting leggings up at the waist during workouts. And we’ve all been there.

“I go to the gym six days a week, and I always had to alter my gym leggings,” Lyndsay reflects, emphasising that a lot of workout outfits disappoint with a baggy waist or “pancake bum” effect.

Since her business breakthrough, things have been happening at lightning speed for the budding mogul. Lyndsay has seen her brand and her family grow exponentially over the past five years. Back in 2017, she began exploring the idea of launching her company and set out to educate herself on the market as she scoured the globe for the right materials and pinpointed the perfect manufacturers to bring her vision to life. At the same time, she had three children in quick succession, who are now toddler age.

But women are famously skilled multitaskers and Lyndsay proved that point as she pushed forward with her dream to create an activewear brand that would cater to the diverse array of female silhouettes actually walking the streets today. After two years of research and development, she finally launched L’Couture in 2019 as an online business and quickly built up a devoted clientele that waits with bated breath for each new L’Couture (L/C for short) drop.

Lyndsay, who has made Dubai her home over the last 11 years, explains that she built L’Couture out of sheer passion, catering to a demanding activewear customer such as herself. “I am the customer,” she declares. Peruse her Instagram and it is filled with just as many pics of Lyndsay at the gym lifting weights, as there are of her carrying three babies all under the age of two and enjoying the local beach scene. The vibrant lifestyle, the buoyancy of the local retail market and the rise of the independent female shopper with increased spending power has definitely played a role in fuelling the activewear brand’s meteoric success. Not to mention the rising prowess of local e-tailers like Ounass which can fulfil orders for her fashionable, practical and size-inclusive designs within four hours.

Business also accelerated during the pandemic when Lyndsay, then a one-woman show, was filling a constant wave of orders. “All of a sudden, we are in lockdown and had so many orders… I was alone and I wasn’t able to hire anyone.”

Things crescendoed further in 2020 with the launch of Skin V2 and its irreverent “girl-warrior” campaign of intrepid models marching through the desert and speeding across the sands in off-roading vehicles. Emboldened by its core company mission of female empowerment, V2 solidified the brand as one for the everyday woman, celebrating diversity with a mission to instil confidence and extol strength – body and soul.

What was truly unique about V2 was the feminine silhouettes and the soft colours, not to mention the sports bras that promised support and lift for larger cup sizes, as well as the top fitting high-waisted leggings and shorts, outfitted with scrunch bum. (If you are wondering what scrunch bum is, it’s a sewing technique that involves adding fabric to the bottom area for an accentuated fit.)

Despite her petite athletic figure, Lyndsay was adamant about making every woman “love the fit they are in” and that’s why the brand’s sizing goes up to XXL with special alteration “tweaks” available in store.

September of last year was definitely a crowning moment for the UK native. That’s when L’Couture saw its third brick and mortar opening in 18 months, this time at Mall of the Emirates, following the initial surge in online followers. The IRL shopping experience is one Lyndsay had not initially considered but the brand’s in-store success made her realise that activewear is extremely personal and consumers feel more confident trying skin-tight everyday wears in the store.

The Mall of the Emirates store is indicative of L’Couture’s signature retail experience and its feminine and welcoming aesthetic. The 160 square metre location is a tribute to the brand’s core, with a luxurious yet whimsical design featuring romantic architectural accents, feminine hues and brass finishings, similar to the ones featured in the flagship store on Al Wasl Road – which is also the brand’s headquarters – and the newly refurbished The Beach, JBR store.

Today, L’Couture is resonating with a worldwide audience with its full range and regular new collection drops such as Elevate, Revive and SoCal Sorbet and LC Mini – a ‘matching with mum’ children’s line. With three brick and mortar stores, as well as online partners like Ounass, L’Couture is looking forward to expanding its range of products even more and has already branched out into accessories and loungewear.

“Rigth now we are focused on bringing out new categories… Pieces you can go to the gym in and then swap into loungewear.”

Lyndsay Doran

“Right now we are focused on bringing out new categories… pieces you can go to the gym in and then swap into loungewear,” Lyndsay explains, adding that each design undergoes at least four fittings – to ensure each one is “squat proof” for all members of the L’Couture team before it’s produced in its partner factories in Thailand and Portugal, the latter known as a heartland for innovative performance fabrics.

With nearly 100k followers on Instagram, the lifestyle Lyndsay has built nourishes the brand’s image, as well as the community around it. The company’s feed, which posts images of fans wearing pieces in the real world to its stories, remains a main driver behind L’Couture and its growing popularity.

But the company also likes to connect offline as well. Every second Wednesday of the month, L’Couture hosts a free wellness class for its customers. These are intended to help build an even stronger connection with and between its loyal clients, to make friends and stay in touch. Recent pop-up events included a spring carnival for kids and parents and plans for dynamic meditation and gifting events have also been envisaged to recruit new customers in the future. “It’s all about the personal touch,” Lyndsay says.

The brand has also just dipped its toe into the US market, in line with its Los Angeles and Miami launch last summer with special pop-up events that involved members of the team flying out to oversee the project, some of whom had never been to the United States before 2022.

“It’s a huge market with massive opportunity and it’s different to the UAE because America is so big and New York fashion, for example, is very different from LA and Miami,” Lyndsay explains, reflecting on her trajectory and where the brand is headed in the near term. “The goal is to break into America for sure. That’s the dream,” she says.

One thing is for sure, no matter what heights L’Couture reaches, Lyndsay doesn’t want to lose that personal touch… and the handwritten thank you notes that come with every package.

Interview: Jessica Michault. Photography: Efraim Evidor. Styling: Cristina Burca.

From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s January 2023 issue.