Samantha Roddick (born 1 July 1971) is an English business executive who is the founder of ''Coco de Mer'', a British lingerie brand and retail store. She is the daughter of

Body Shop The Body Shop International Limited, trading as the Body Shop, is a British cosmetics, skin care, and perfume company founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, who opened her first store in Brighton, England. The company is now based in London Bridge ...

founder and activist

Anita Roddick Dame Anita Lucia Roddick (23 October 1942 – 10 September 2007) was a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of The Body Shop, The Body Shop International Limited, a cosmetics co ...

Early life and education

Roddick is the younger daughter of Anita and Gordon Roddick. She was educated at Summerlea Primary School and then at Frensham Heights in Surrey until she was asked to leave at age 16. She gained only two O-Levels due to having undiagnosed

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

. On leaving Frensham, the mother of a schoolmate suggested she work with her in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, which is where her activism began.

Early activism

Roddick's early activism included talks, fundraisers and projects worldwide. In addition, she set up ''Cockroach'', a youth magazine; and taught art in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. Roddick backed the

Women's Equality Party The Women's Equality Party (WEP) was a feminist political party set up in the United Kingdom in 2015. The idea was conceived by Catherine Mayer and Sandi Toksvig at the Women of the World Festival, when they concluded that there was a need f ...

's campaign to encourage women to vote in the UK's 2016 referendum on its membership of the EU.

Coco de Mer

In December 2001, Roddick opened Coco de Mer in

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

Monmouth Street Monmouth Street is a street in the Seven Dials district of Covent Garden, London, England. Monmouth Street runs north to south from Shaftesbury Avenue to a crossroads with Tower Street and Shelton Street, where it becomes St Martin's Lane. A ...

with an evening hosted by Dave Stewart, and a fly-poster campaign by

Saatchi and Saatchi Saatchi and Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency ...

. In 2004 Roddick was prevented from registering the Coco de Mer name as a trade mark by French fashion designer

Coco Chanel Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel ( , ; 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and Businessperson, businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with populari ...

, the lawsuit citing the similarity in product range and name. In 2011 the brand was purchased by British

sex shop A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products. An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in Par ...

Lovehoney Lovehoney is a British business that sells sex toys, lingerie and erotic gifts on the Internet. Their tagline is "the sexual happiness people". In addition to retailing, Lovehoney has more than 400 own brand products and does development and ...

. In April 2014 former La Perla brand director Lucy Litwack was appointed as managing director of the company. Cristina Ceresoli was also brought on to be interim Chief Marketing Officer. The name comes from the

coco de mer ''Lodoicea'', commonly known as the sea coconut, coco de mer, or double coconut, is a monotypic genus in the palm family. The sole species, ''Lodoicea maldivica'', is endemic to the islands of Praslin and Curieuse in the Seychelles. It has th ...

palm tree of the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

, which has the largest seed in the world. The seed is said to resemble a woman's buttocks.

Bondage For Freedom

Bondage for Freedom was founded in 2008, focusing on fighting for human and environmental rights. It had worked on a number of projects, including the 1994

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Gre ...

; the release of the "

Angola Three The Angola Three are three African American former prison inmates ( Robert Hillary King, Albert Woodfox, and Herman Wallace) who were held for decades in solitary confinement while imprisoned at Louisiana State Penitentiary (also known as Ango ...

"; preventing sex-trafficking; and

colony collapse disorder Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is an abnormal phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a honey bee bee colony, colony disappear, leaving behind a queen bee, queen, plenty of food, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining ...

Television

Roddick is an advisor on '' The Joy of Teen Sex''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roddick, Sam 1971 births Living people English businesspeople People from Rustington English women in business People educated at Frensham Heights School People with dyslexia