20th Anniversary Edition

The Best of Intima Awards have increasingly become a highly-anticipated moment during New York’s intimate apparel trade week, a moment for the spotlight to shine on the best North American specialty stores and a highly efficient networking opportunity. Originally launched as the first awards show dedicated to stores from the United States, the event successively opened to also include Canada to pay tribute to those intimate apparel boutiques throughout North America which really stand out. The awards format has evolved with the times always remaining fresh, intriguing and attentive to industry developments.

The 2023 Jury counted a solid panel of 28 high-end brands of the utmost quality, most of which have been supporting the event throughout two decades and for multiple editions. The brands in the jury represent the state of the art in the lingerie industry, continually dedicated to pushing boundaries in creativity while remaining true to their core principles and missions. This year the jury welcomed two new brands: Aubade and Calida who alongside the other panel members contributed in selecting the best performing North American stores. In addition, we witnessed the grand return of maternity bra specialists Bravado for a special prize.

The Anniversary edition counted the traditional category awards - Best Store USA, Best Store Canada, and BOI’s Choice and Best Luxury Store, introduced last year, as well as additional special prizes for Best Community Support, Best Creative Retail Events, Best Social Media Activity. The Store of the Year winner was selected from the Milestone Circle comprising iconic past winning stores who were still among the year’s nominees. This time, to create more excitement amongst the members of this amazing group of stores, a ranking was introduced, and an outstanding boutique was confered the Milestone Achievement Award! 
The highly awaited Best Newcomer prize presented some of the most promising recently opened boutiques while the Lifetime Achievement Prize rewarded a true icon of lingerie retail.

Best Store Usa, presented by Romain Tabaries, Simone Pérèle General Manager North America: Birdies Best Store Canada, presented by Rodrigo Padilla, President of the North American division of Empreinte: Diane’s Lingerie BOI’s Choice, presented by Francesca Spinetta, The Best of Intima CEO: Story Essentials  Best Community Support, presented by Dean Cooper, International Sales Director at Panache: Bra Fittings by Court Best Creative Retail Events, presented by Ali Dick, Sales Director at Commando: Bloomers Best Newcomer, presented by Guido Campello, Managing Director of Cosabella: Love Letter Best Luxury Store, presented by Jan Snodgrass, CFU Huber Group: Je Suis Jolie Best Social Media Activity, presented by Liza Bennett, Managing Director of North America for Fantasie: Bliss Beneath Store of the Year, presented by Samantha Chang, designer & founder at Samantha Chang: Top Drawer Lingerie Milestone Achievement, presented by Paul Gladysz, CEO and Owner of Fitfully Yours : Bra Genie Lifetime Achievement, presented by Mitch Kaufmann, President and CEO of Wacoal America Inc.: Bertha Church Bravado’s Nursing and Maternity Award, presented by Mario Pace, Vice President of Global Sales at Bravado: Forever Yours Lingerie

What gave you the idea to launch the Best of Intima Awards in 2004 and what lay at the heart of it?
Being a B2B media company, Retailers have always been at the heart of Intima. We have been scouting stores and writing stories on retailers since the very beginning back in 1957! You all know our signature Worldwide Boutiques section with its incredible lingerie and swim stores from all over the world. The idea of putting together all this knowledge and connections led us naturally to set up our first Retail Awards in Italy 25 years ago. This was followed by the American Awards immediately after the launch of The Best of Intima magazine. Other retail awards are now organized by our partners in Germany and the UK and the latest addition are the French retail awards, TOP 100.


Is the awards format the same in all your 5 countries?
Yes, and no. Let me explain: while the concept is the same, ie to select, with the participation of a professional jury of brands, the year’s best performing multi brand lingerie independent stores, the categories and the prizes can vary to better correspond to the country’s perspective. To give an example, we have a New Generation category in Italy, to reward the second generation of owners which is quite numerous in the country. Similarly, in Germany and the UK we have a category dedicated to stand alone department stores, whilst for the French edition we don’t have any categories at all, jut the TOP 100 stores of the year…I think it is of the utmost importance to deeply understand each domestic market and custom tailor our retail events accordingly. Following the same logic, the awards format evolves with time and most editions now integrate social media activities, creative retail events and community support as relevant aspects in retailing succe

What has attracted the variety of brands who have participated in the event throughout the years?
Well they are more fit to reply to this better than I am but I believe they saw and understood the importance of taking a leap from paper to a live event and the value in helping us identify the stores who make the industry move forward. In our jury, you will find from smaller brands to big corporations, from domestic to international names, and what they have in common is the commitment to developing the independent business activity.

You were personally involved in the Awards since the beginning. What is your memory of the first edition?
We were all so young! Besides this, I remember the very first edition took place in the summer of  2004 in the basement of the Altman Building where the Lingerie Americas trade show was held. It was staged with a very limited budget but the energy was already there. We quickly moved to The Marquee Club in the Meatpacking District – we would drive guests with a black limousine – and subsequently moved again to a rooftop and glass ballroom  in Midtown. Our current location in Tribeca allows us to host 300 guests and the space is so exceptional that we have not as yet found a place to top it! And of course, let’s not forget the two editions we broadcast from the TV studio in Milan in between!

Do you have any favorite or memorable moments of the event?
I like to say that each BSA is special to someone and the 10th edition will always remain amongst my cherished memories. Of course, The Best of Intima Awards is a fantastic get-together event, but it really is much more than just a great party. It means a lot to be there, to be recognized for the work done, for the results achieved and to feel the respect, consideration and recognition of the entire community. 

What do you see in the future for The Best of Intima Awards?
I see the format continuing to evolve and becoming increasingly connected with our most recent BBA – Best Selling Brands and Styles format, where our TOP 700 retailers contribute to unveil the most significant sell out trends in terms of product categories and brands. We started this new concept during the pandemic through a phygital event. We subsequently staged the first in person edition at the Salon de la Lingerie in Paris and in Curve NY last winter. We are now considering a few options but I believe this is another extremely useful tool and we will devise an optimum and exclusive format.