Discovering Simone Pérèle

You were recently appointed to lead Simone Pérèle in North America. What are your immediate priorities, and how do you see your role shaping the brand’s next phase of growth in the US and Canada?

My immediate focus has been on spending time with our retail partners, our internal teams, and the market to clearly understand the current environment, where we are already strong, and where there is opportunity to evolve. North America is a very diverse region, so aligning brand vision with local realities is a very important and ongoing process. My role is to ensure we support our partners in a meaningful way, and to guide thoughtful growth that remains true to the brand’s heritage of meeting each moment in a woman’s life with chic, comfortable and expertly-crafted lingerie; we truly aim to create the kind of lingerie she puts on and forgets she’s wearing.

What are you currently observing in terms of sell-out performance across the US and Canada, and how is the balance evolving between independent boutiques, key accounts, and online pure players?

2025 came with some unique challenges across all channels. To draw a through-line, we saw very strong performance with partners that are focused on creating a compelling product assortment, have positioned themselves as category experts, are fiercely committed to high service levels, and have cultivated a strong dialogue with their core customer. And woven through all of those seems to be a deep understanding of who that customer is, even beyond the quantitative; what are her hopes and dreams, her fears and pain points. In our experience, that has really transcended channels. 

Which Simone Pérèle styles and categories currently perform best in the US and Canada, and what do these successes reveal about local lingerie preferences?

As the creator of the first spacer t-shirt bra decades ago, it’s no surprise that spacer styles like Caresse, Subtile, Karma, Reve and Andora continue to be a major core competency. But what might be more surprising is what a large part of our business lace full cups and demis represent today – those high craftsmanship looks that command attention, like Saga with its timelessly elegant guipure lace, or Intrigue’s intricately embroidered tulle that appears hand-drawn on the body. For categories outside bras and matching bottoms, our nightwear and shapewear lines have absolutely exploded in the past year. Shapewear growth has been lead by a high-waist brief in the Subtile group and a high-waist thong in the Story group that have become fast favorites among our retail partners and their customers. Our nightwear growth is attributed mainly to the successful launch of Love Me, a silk group of mix-and-match separates, and Aurore, a similar mix-and-match concept in effortless, super soft viscose. The common thread through our best performers is always a sense of refined practicality. Our top styles always combine comfort, support, and a modern take on femininity. 

In general, across both the U.S. and Canada, our clientele values the craftsmanship and French savoir-faire of a stunning embroidered group like Intrigue and Saga; she sees a little lace as an important daily indulgence, transformative in the way it makes her feel about herself. She can feel the softness and fit precision of spacer t-shirt bras like Subtile and Andora. Incidentally, the Andora spacer, which was the very first, turns 20 this year! In many ways, Andora’s legacy tells the story of what the North American consumer is looking for, even two decades later. It is the embodiment of that refined practicality that our customer has come to love and trust us for.