How Knix brought A Court of Thorns and Roses to life for an audience of ‘enthralled’ fans

Fae fans may not be able to visit Velaris, but they can now dress like a local.

Ahead of the hotly anticipated release of the sixth book in the wildly popular romantasy series A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR), intimates brand Knix partnered with the series’ licensing company IMG to release a line of character- and setting-inspired lingerie and other intimate apparel—fitting for a story loaded with steamy scenes and faerie relationships.

The partnership offered a chance for Knix to venture into the new lingerie silhouettes, marking a first for a brand that has been up until this point most known for leakproof underwear, Cyntia Leo, CMO at Knix, told us.

Knix is not the only brand tapping into the ferocious fandom behind the faerie romance series (more than 100 million English-language copies of series author Sarah J. Maas’s books have been sold around the world). Target released a merch line earlier in October, including book-inspired tumblers and jewelry, and fragrance brand Fine’ry rereleased existing scents with ACOTAR-themed packaging. But with great fandom comes great responsibility, and the team behind Knix’s partnership felt they had to deliver.

“We know that the ACOTAR community knows those books inside out and are incredibly enthralled in the world,” Leo said. “It was a bit of pressure to make sure we got it right, and it was so important for us to make sure that we got every single detail right.”

Fan service

The partnership began the way many fandom-fueled projects do: With an internal passion and a cold DM.

The Knix team, it turns out, is full of ACOTAR fans themselves. With about 40 employees who already loved the series, Leo said there was internal excitement to figure out a way for the brand to collaborate with the franchise. Founder Joanna Griffiths was all for it as a fan herself, and Leo said Griffiths set the ball in motion by sending series author Maas a message on social media.

“One day Joanna decided, she was like, ‘I’m gonna DM Sarah and just see if we can do something, and that’s how it started,” Leo said.

It was also important to make sure that the collaboration was something Knix’s community would rally around. Leo said the team surveyed customers on social channels and via email to ask who they would want to see the brand work with; ACOTAR was a clear winner across both channels.

An employee-fan task force then became key to developing the partnership beyond the initial idea. As the lingerie pieces went through the design process, Leo said the design team gut-checked elements with employee fans to see if they felt the products were hitting the right marks.

“Every design element, every Easter egg, we really needed to run it through our internal experts to make sure that we didn’t miss,” Leo said.

Fantasyland

Working with a book series, especially one without an existing screen adaption, can also present a challenge—namely because of the pressure to get it right. But it also allowed for some creative freedom, which gave the team room to interpret some of the book’s details into real life.

“It gave us incredible space to create and build, but we wanted to stay truly authentic,” Leo said.

At Knix’s midnight launch party earlier in October, where the ACOTAR line made its official debut, those details came in the form of elements of the series’ setting, like interpretations of the books’ famous Autumn, Summer, Winter, and Spring Courts, plus main character Feyre’s art studio, reimagined for real life in an event space. About 200 people, 20 of whom were BookTok influencers on an official brand trip with Knix, attended the launch party, and the physical space was also made available to the general public, which Leo hopes will allow Knix to connect with its audiences.

“It was really important for us, as part of our experience, to have an IRL consumer day as well, where we can invite the broader community to come in and celebrate and explore and touch and feel the collection and be part and play in the different worlds and courts that we’re creating,” Leo said.

The Knix team isn’t set on continuing with these types of products and will gauge its community’s response to the partnership as part of its calculus. Early sales and engagement data after the line’s release look promising: Knix’s website homepage saw a click-through rate of 31.7% with the launch, nearly triple the brand’s typical activity, and four styles from the ACOTAR collection sold out in the US in the first 12 hours, according to data provided by the company.

“ACOTAR actually allowed us to play in new silhouettes that we’ve never played in before,” Leo said. “We haven’t made plans yet to continue in lingerie, but we’ll see if it’s something that continues to soar and people love. It could be an option for the future.”