Model marketing: Business hopes ‘Flirtresses’ steal the show at parties

A Charlottesville lingerie shop is now offering more than just lacy underthings.

Flirt, located near the University of Virginia, has established a cadre of beautiful young women who can be hired to attend parties and special events.

So far, the “Flirtresses” have been tapped for a lingerie party, a casino night charitable event and a shindig hosted by one of Charlottesville’s weekly newspapers.

“We’re not just pretty,” said Allison Hurt, Flirt’s owner. “We’re fun too.”

There are around a dozen Flirtresses, all of whom are UVa students, friends of Hurt’s or employees of the shop.

Not long ago, Hurt realized that a niche might exist in Charlottesville for attractive and engaging “promotional models” whom companies and nonprofits could hire to add a bit of buzz and beauty to their events.

“We’re marketing 2.0. No, wait. We’re marketing 3.0,” Hurt said. “We’re fun. We’re not floozies out there getting paid for our sex appeal. But we are Flirtresses, so we’re going to flirt.”

Hurt, 27, declined to allow any of her Flirtresses to identify themselves to The Daily Progress, saying that she wanted to protect their privacy.

Two Flirtresses, both UVa students, were longtime customers of the lingerie shop who became friends with Hurt. By joining the new service, they said, they feel like Charlottesville’s latest “it” girls.

While working a party, they said, the Flirtresses basically try to ensure that everyone has a good time.

“We talk to everyone, help run the event,” said one of the Flirtresses. “We make a point to engage the guests in conversation.”

Their mission, added the other Flirtress, is to make the party a success.

“We keep the drinks flowing. We talk to people. We keep everybody happy,” she said. “We draw a little crowd around us sometimes.”

The Flirtresses are all friends, she added, so even when they’re working an event, it doesn’t quite feel like work.

“We love being social,” she said. “We love to go out together anyway. So why not?”

The Flirtresses’ debut has not been without its share of controversy.

A local blog called CvilleStyle recently wrote about the Flirtresses in a post titled “Flirt gets a little more flirtatious.”

The site’s author, Haidee Cline, wrote that she found it “weird” that a lingerie shop that caters to UVa women would start up such a service.

“… [I]n my opinion, girls for hire is stepping over the panty line,” she wrote in the July 8 blog entry.

Hurt said the blogosphere brouhaha blew her shop’s PG13-rated service way out of proportion.

“They were trying to make it look like I was the madam of Charlottesville,” she said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Hurt added that while she is still hammering out precisely how the Flirtresses will work — and what rates to charge — she intends to do plenty to benefit the community, such as donating proceeds to area women’s groups.

Liz Withers, who does marketing for the Woodlands of Charlottesville, a condo community off Old Lynchburg Road in Albemarle County, has hired the Flirtresses for two events.

The first was a women-only lingerie party at one of the Woodlands’ model units. At the party, which was catered by Maya and included giveaways of Gearhart’s chocolates, the Flirtresses modeled lingerie for the guests.

“They were great,” Withers said. “They really added to the event. They’re professional girls. … They’re just there to promote and spice up the event.”

Withers was so pleased with the Flirtresses, she hired them again to work at La Dolce Vita, a benefit at the Woodlands for the FOCUS Women’s Resource Center. At that event, the Flirtresses wore black dresses and were a big hit, she said.

“It’s like when Budweiser sends out girls to a bar to promote Budweiser drinks,” Withers said. “When pretty girls are at an event, you’ll find it’s a little better attended.”