PARIS — After three years without their all-important January show, the Salon de la Lingerie (SIL) and Interfilière were back with a vengeance — and a new organizer keen to shake up the status quo.
WSN took over the organization of SIL and Interfilière last year, and staged the event in tandem with fashion and accessories event Who’s Next from Jan. 21 to 23, with a shared entrance ticket for the Porte de Versailles venue and the aim of building synergies between them.
Matthieu Pinet, the founder of fashion-forward show-in-show Exposed, which launched in 2016 and had increasingly become an attraction for buyers thanks to its edgier proposition, took over as SIL and Interfilière’s managing director last year. The stakes were high.
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“It’s gone unbelievably well, much better than we anticipated in terms of exhibitor and visitor satisfaction, business and energy,” said Pinet. “People have really understood what we are trying to achieve…The sector needs shaking up, and it’s a very strong sign for the future.”
SIL and Interfilière attracted 15,285 visitors over three days, some 61.5 percent of them hailing from abroad. It has been many years since previous organizer Eurovet published visitor numbers, which had declined significantly over the past decade — in 2011, SIL and Interfilière pulled in more than 29,000 people.
Visitors were happy to be back. “SIL has been and continues to be an important show and meeting place for the industry,” said Yolaida Duran, owner of Alla Prima Lingerie in San Francisco. “It is a place where we exchange ideas, absorb new trends, and understand our position in the market. Meeting face-to-face and viewing collections in person was a joyful return to a sensory experience.”
She praised the show’s new layout. “The open floor plan and airiness of the show was appealing and perhaps a reflection of our collective need to expand again after sheltering for so long,” said Duran.
“They’ve done a really great job,” said Guido Campello, brand director at Cosabella and owner of Journelle, which is expanding in European wholesale this year. “Matthieu [Pinet] has opened it up and is pulling people together, there’s a real community drive.”
“It’s much busier than we anticipated,” said Groupe Chantelle chief creative officer Renaud Cambuzat. “That’s great news for the profession.”
Most of France’s corsetry makers are looking to modernize their offer and attract new, younger consumers. “We have to ask ourselves the right questions, about how to present our collections, our offer, our communication,” observed Simone Pérèle brand and product director Stéphanie Bujard Pérèle.
After several years in the doldrums, the French lingerie industry is flying high once more. Exports of French innerwear gained 6.24 percent year-on-year, reaching 320.9 million euros, in the first eight months of 2022, according to data from corsetry industry association Promincor released for the show. Sleepwear exports, meanwhile, leaped 32.4 percent, to 91 million euros, in the same period.
Demand has been driven by a renewed interest in more sophisticated lingerie and sleepwear. French corsetry specialists are recognized for their know-how and focus on high-end fabrics, often made in France, which is also benefiting the supply side, according to exhibitors at Interfilière. “There’s tangible growth in demand for French savoir-faire and quality,” said Pinet.
“The lingerie share of our business has been growing consistently for the past five or six years,” concurred Julien Bracq, chief executive officer of Calais lacemaker Jean Bracq. “Bigger brands are increasingly realizing the potential of high-end products.”
“More and more customers are looking for made-in-France products,” agreed Paloma Casile, who just celebrated her label’s 10th anniversary and was showcasing designs featuring gold-plated and silver hardware.
“Lots of American stores sold a lot more sexy products and loungewear during the pandemic,” said Raphaël Camp, president of sister show Curve in the U.S. “We thought it was a mature market…I hope the American market will progressively adopt more and more sophisticated lingerie.”
“The U.S. has been our biggest market from the outset,” said Casile, who had also observed a number of retail start-ups coming to visit during the show. “There are a lot of new multibrand boutiques, especially from France,” she said.
This echoed feedback from several exhibitors who said that smaller multibrand boutiques are continuing to outperform. “We’ve seen a lot of new prospects,” said Wacoal Europe marketing and communications manager Sophie Knis. “It seems like there’s a new generation of boutiques.”
On the French domestic market, lingerie and hosiery sales grew 2.5 percent year-on-year to 1.53 billion euros in the first 10 months of 2022, according to data from Kantar issued for the show.
Strong demand has not been without its challenges, lingerie players said. “From a supply chain perspective, 2022 was really complex,” said Cambuzat. “There were shortages for a lot of materials…but things stabilized in the fourth quarter, and we have started 2023 with good availability levels and we have stabilized our prices.”
Many of the high-end corsetry players that make up the core of SIL’s exhibitors already sourced most of their fabrics in and near Europe, so have been less impacted by supply chain difficulties than those sourcing textiles and components in Asia, exhibitors stressed.
Price increases are an issue that brands were trying to stabilize for fear of alienating consumers — and retailers. “After an extremely dynamic first half everywhere in the world, the second half was more complicated due to inflation,” said Simone Pérèle’s Bujard Pérèle. “Buyers are a lot more cautious.”
“We have increased our sales prices very little,” said Olivier Piquet, managing director of Lise Charmel. “Most of our sourcing is local, so we have more control over our prices. Many of our competitors in all price brackets have increased their prices a lot and the fact that we haven’t means that our high-end products are comparatively more affordable.” Piquet said 2022 had been a very strong year for the company in France, the rest of Europe and the U.S.
At Groupe Chantelle, core brand Chantelle was upping the sophistication of its designs beyond the basics it is best known for, with elements like Lurex embroideries and leather encrustation. High-end line Chantelle X was showcasing its third collection, with graphic embroideries, sporty pieces and designs incorporating French lace from Sophie Hallette. For the next phase of its “megabrand” restaging, the group presented Chantelle Easyfeel, the new name for its Scandinavian brand Femilet.
“We’ve been working to reposition all the brands for the past five years, and here is the full articulation of that,” said Cambuzat.
Wacoal, known for its shapewear, was also integrating more elaborate silhouettes, including the Izumi range featuring Noyon lace and a guipure motif.
Simone Pérèle is working to ramp up sustainability initiatives, and will launch traceability labels on its products this April. It is using sustainable fabrics whenever possible in new designs, said Bujard Pérèle, although it will take longer to overhaul permanent lines, which account for around 75 percent of sales, due to the technical challenges involved.
When it came to trends, exhibitors reported a rise in demand for underwired bra designs as the market moves away from athleisure, although triangle shapes remain popular. Pieces that bridge fashion and lingerie were also proving popular and represent a growing offer from the lingerie majors as well as emerging brands.
“People are going back to sexy,” said Charlotte Watson, a designer for Chinese lingerie maker Meihuang, an exhibitor at Interfilière. “It’s now about a bra wardrobe, it’s a combination of comfort and sexy. Loungewear has still not plateaued, but consumers want sexy as well.”
“The profusion of bright colors, prints and textures stood out against the more neutral palettes,” commented Alla Prima’s Duran. “Metallic silver was on display in most collections. Inclusivity in sizing, which began before the pandemic, is now prevalent. There was also an attempt to reflect inclusivity in the choice of models used to showcase the collections. Gender-neutral lingerie is a nascent trend that will undoubtedly gather momentum. Underpinnings for the naked look in ready-to-wear is another visible trend.”
Among newcomers, Iiana Biasini, based in Hamburg, intends to cater to a gap in the market for ultra-luxury lingerie “like the La Perla of the past,” she summed up. Using embroideries from Austria and silk from around Lake Como in Italy, she launched a small collection including a bra, panties and silk nightwear in two colorways with a retail price of 620 euros for a set, employing seamstresses previously employed by Felina, which had closed down its production in Germany.
Within Exposed, situated centrally to encourage traffic across the show floor, highlights included newcomers Nufferton, a Swedish unisex pajama brand offering classic striped nightwear in unusual colorways crafted from organic cotton, and Puntoe, from Japan, with quirky silk basics dyed with natural colorants, whose offer includes kits so consumers can dye their own products at home.
Historic French brand Huit8 was a returnee, back under new ownership. Bought out by long-time distributor Souad Sinai, who is based in California, in 2019 after it went into liquidation, the brand has undergone a complete revamp. “The brand is really well-loved and I’d love for it to rebuild that,” she said.
For the relaunch, the brand has integrated wellness and athleisure pieces in high-quality fabrics alongside lingerie pieces featuring contrasting Swiss embroideries, with everything designed to mix and match. Bras are priced between 70 and 80 euros at retail.
Looking ahead, WSN plans to continue shaking things up. The July lingerie show, previously held under the Mode City banner with a bigger focus on swimwear, will also be held under the Salon International de la Lingerie brand, for starters.