Key Takeaways:
• Lotus & Luna is moving from two seasonal lines to three, with prebook incentives for buyers.
• A new handmade spinner display and updated packaging let all product share one fixture.
• Vice President Christina Freberg says buyers have responded well, and the brand is recruiting reps.
Lotus & Luna, the San Diego artisan beachwear and jewelry brand best known for its beaded jewelry and resort-casual apparel, is heading into its 11th year with a rebuilt product calendar designed to give retailers more time to plan.
The brand used to release two lines a year, Spring and Fall. It now produces three: Spring, Summer, and Fall/Holiday.
At Surf Expo in September, Lotus & Luna was booking Spring 2027 with a prebook discount, Vice President Christina Freberg said. The brand plans to open Summer prebooks in January.
A Calendar Built for Planning
Lotus & Luna offered prebooks in the past, but Freberg said the timing didn’t work well. The brand’s product development timeline ran right up against its start-ship dates and show schedule.
Catalogs landed about a month before January shows, and buyers needed product shipping about a month after, leaving roughly a season’s planning squeezed into weeks.
“It really wasn’t a great planning window for buyers or sellers,” Freberg said.
That schedule left little room for retailers to strategize their season, or for the brand to offer incentives and more secure inventory commitments, she said.
This September marked the first time Lotus & Luna arrived at the show with a full Spring catalog ready to go. Spring delivery starts in January.
A Creative Refresh
The earlier calendar ties into a creative refresh of the brand’s apparel.
For a long time, the apparel line leaned spiritual and boho, Freberg said. That niche works well for the brand’s web customers, but it limited Lotus & Luna with its wholesale partners, who are mostly coastal and surf.
“Our roots will always be in that mindful, Thai-inspired place, but the line was speaking to a narrower customer than it needed to,” she said.
The brand is now moving toward a more mainstream, fashion-minded look while staying true to its core identity. The new seasonal program has put Lotus & Luna further ahead in product planning than ever before, and apparel development has already started on Spring 2028.
Buyers will get their first look at the new direction at Surf Expo in January.
“We think it will feel like a major step forward,” Freberg said.
One Display for Everything
Lotus & Luna is also rolling out a new spinning peg display, handmade in Thailand like everything else the brand makes.
The packaging changed along with it. Product used to come on small folding tags made to hang on a bar display. The new packaging also fits the spinner, so retailers can choose either fixture or keep the full assortment in the same display.
“It just is going to be so much easier for our retailers to keep everything looking nice,” Freberg said.
Fall 2026 will be the last season for the old packaging.
One of Lotus & Luna’s new displays. Photo by SESO.
New Key Accounts and a Rep Build-Out
Business has been great since the new program rolled out, Freberg said.
Buyers have responded well to having more time to plan their seasons, she said.
The brand has drawn interest from new key accounts going into spring. It has also re-energized long-standing accounts, including full in-store resets.
“We’re really going the extra mile to kind of bring our retailers with us on this journey,” Freberg said.
Lotus & Luna is now in close to 1,000 doors nationwide, with key accounts making up about 20% of that. The VP said the brand is working to grow from Hawaii to the Caribbean, and everywhere in between.
To support that push, Lotus & Luna is looking for independent sales reps as it builds out a boots-on-the-ground program.
Into Year 11
Founder and CEO Janelle Clasby launched Lotus & Luna in 2016 as a wholesale-focused business. The company works with artisans in Thailand who handmake its jewelry and clothing.
The brand celebrated its 10-year anniversary at Surf Expo in January 2026 by debuting a new booth.
“We’ve changed the calendar, the packaging, and the fixtures,” Freberg said. “What we’ll never change is who makes our product and how much care goes into it.”
