At the entrance of the Simone Pérèle booth, guests are greeted by a row of stockmen. They offer a retrospective of each decade’s emblematic styles since the brand’s creation in 1948. More than just a chapter of the history of women’s lingerie, it is the story of a major house that unfolds, one that 75 years after its creation continues to evolve alongside women and their desires.

A family-run company with a longstanding know-how implemented in 60 countries of the world, the brand is committed to maintaining an intimate relationship with its clients, but also with its partners. Simone Pérèle works closely with all of its different markets, aware that women’s needs differ according to factors as varied as their age, morphology, personality and culture. According to Mathieu Grodner, CEO and grandson of the company’s founder, the Salon International de la Lingerie remains the ideal place to build on these relationships, while taking the pulse of a sector that breathes at the pace of women’s aspirations.

How are you approaching this edition of the Salon International de la Lingerie?

We intend to do even better than last year, which in terms of visitors already marked a return to the pre-Covid times. This year we are aiming even higher. We went big with increasing the size of our booth by 50%, to mark our 75th anniversary but also to show our partners that they are important to us and that we have a lot to offer. Of course, it is also the opportunity for us to meet with our prospects and to put our preliminary work into practice.

Tell us about your relationship with the salon.

We have been present here since before I arrived, probably since its first editions ! For us it has always been an essential event which contributed to turn Paris into the lingerie capital of the world, and above all to maintain its position. But beyond that, the salon is a collective within which all the international brands are able to unite, and which they have chosen as an event of reference to support. After complicated times such as the health crisis, the lingerie ecosystem is all the more attached to this event.

What types of products are you betting on this season?

We are launching a new permanent line called Intrigue. Something very elegant and refined, with French embroidery and available in three colors : a permanent black and two seasonal shades. We are expecting a lot from it because permanent lines are very important for increasing both partners and customers’ loyalty.

In which ways does this inform the development of the collections?

It is about staying in tune with women, and in a broader sense with society, because lingerie has always followed the major societal trends. We are dealing with women’s relationships to their bodies and to different types of femininity, so we need to be able to adapt to everyone and support women at every stage of their lives, whatever their mood is. So the idea is to have both sophisticated lingerie, with noble fabrics that they will want to show, and more basic, daily pieces, that you won’t see nor feel under the clothes.

It is all the more important as lingerie is increasingly visible in the fashion landscape.

The line between lingerie and ready-to-wear is blurrier than ever. We’re moving towards lingerie that you want to show and embrace like a garment. We take this in consideration by staying as close as we can to fashion. The increasing popularity of shapewear shows that lingerie is no longer just about highlighting the breasts or bottom, but the body as a whole. In the upcoming seasons we will be expanding this offer, with the same attention to detail and noble fabrics.

How do you manage to combine the technical aspect of lingerie with noble, delicate products?

French lingerie is at the core of this know-how, but few brands are capable of offering this combination. This season we have products which are very rich and intense, sometimes a little retro when it comes to embroidery, but we also offer light, elastic lace with a lot of comfort, and models without underwiring. Our ability to cover such a wide spectrum within our different lines is what makes our international success.

What are your new challenges for the upcoming times?

One of them is to work on digitalisation and to get the different sales channels to communicate. In 2024 we will be working on omni-channel sales, so that a client who doesn’t find her size in store can order it from our website, within the store, and have it delivered. We are also going to develop new product categories such as nightwear, homewear, sportswear and beachwear. The line between these categories and ready-to-wear is even thinner than that of lingerie, whose complexity is that it is not, or barely, visible. We are learning a lot from this new approach.