During an exclusive interview for Underlines and Intima Group, Renaud Cambuzat reveals the order of events for the main French corsetry group, Chantelle.
This major French corsetry group, with a turnover of 350 million euros, continues to make the news with its numerous stances which have also sometimes earned it some misunderstanding from certain distributor customers. Renaud Cambuzat, who with Guillaume Kretz, is at the origin of this cultural revolution started in 2017, grants us this exclusive interview.
Renaud, we were about to take stock with you of the implementation of the many commitments made in the Chantelle for Change program and … you are announcing a structural overhaul of the group’s offer… Explain to us.
Since 2017, we have been working with passion on everything that can improve the lives of women, of all women. We have shown courage in touching on representations of femininity in lingerie; we were pioneers. Our approach has since evolved: we also try to be inclusive by developing products that support women at sensitive times in their lives: fertility, pregnancy, menstruation, disability, sex life, menopause… Some of these topics still suffer from taboos: we try to remove them, find solutions, offer designs that make the difference. Strengthened by these developments and biases, the Chantelle brand is growing faster than we anticipated and we want to capitalize more on its influence. Chantelle will therefore have the mission of embodying the whole group and linking our different brands around common values, while remaining a leading product brand. We thus wish to create a complete, transparent and powerful ecosystem, able to meet all the needs of our customers, on a wide range of product categories and positioning, and to stand out among our consumers through notoriety and strength. A tenfold strike force.
So we understand that you are going to remove CL in favor of Chantelle?
This has in fact already been the case since 2021 when we have gradually replaced CL by Chantelle in our various distribution channels and communication elements. Our stores are called Chantelle, our e-commerce site is called Chantelle, our labels and our communication elements are signed Chantelle. Our Passionata and Femilet brands are also accompanied by a By Chantelle to let our consumers know that they belong to the same group and, as such, benefit from the same know-how. The results recorded following this change are very encouraging and attest to greater clarity, greater consistency and better identification.
How many outlets previously owned by Orcanta have you kept? Will they change brands?
In 2018, we initiated an ambitious transformation plan with the development of a new Chantelle store concept to which 24 Orcanta stores were able to migrate. As Guillaume (Kretz) explained, the sale of the 29 remaining Orcanta stores allows us to focus our investments to support the emergence of this Chantelle network, whose performance since its launch in 2018 has been constantly improving. We are also very happy that all the jobs associated with Orcanta will be retained and that Chantelle remains an essential partner of the brand.
With this reorganisation of your offer, which brands will remain under the Chantelle umbrella?
All of our wholesale brands have moved under the Chantelle umbrella, with the exception of Chantal Thomass, which we will be parting with at the end of SS22. We are therefore marketing 4 brands in AW22: Chantelle, Passionata (by Chantelle), Femilet (by Chantelle) and Chantelle X, our new high-end proposal. Our approach revolves around a few major strategic pillars in terms of product: strengthening our core offer in corsetry with the evolution of our collections, encouraging disruptive innovation with the launch of new product ranges (Chantelle SoftStretch, Chantelle One, Chantelle Life, Chantelle Active), propose a new vision for seduction with the launch of a new brand (Chantelle X), enrich the lingerie experience with the launch of the Chantelle ready-to-wear in addition to the existing offers at Passionata and Femilet, promote responsible initiatives with our Chantelle For Change programme and the launch of Chantelle One.
Why did you sell the Chantal Thomass brand?
Through its history, its creativity and its rebellious spirit, Chantal Thomass is an unparalleled brand, which will have had a lasting impact on French lingerie. In recent years, we have sought to develop it to allow it to grow and attract new customers. Chantelle’s international influence has prompted us to develop, in this high-end seduction segment, a new brand driven by an unprecedented creative vision.
Tell us more about your new brand, Chantelle X, which was launched for AW22.
Seduction evolves and transforms. It now stands out as one of the fields of feminism and continues, in one form or another, to arouse fascination and interest. We wanted, through our different brands, to speak again about this essential dimension of lingerie that we had probably neglected a little in recent seasons. This is a notable development on our Chantelle and Passionata AW22 collections for which we have reinforced the level of refinement. But we also wanted to offer new proposals that go against traditional codes and develop, within a dedicated creative space, an original and contemporary interpretation of seduction. This is what Chantelle X is: an original and contemporary high-end creative proposal. We will start in AW22 with a short and effective assortment — 4 lines of corsetry and a few ready-to-wear pieces — and will expand our offer (6 lines in SS23) as we build our community around this new brand.
Why did you choose such an ambiguous name?
The X of Chantelle X is that of extravagant, extraordinary, exceptional, explicit, extreme, exclusive, experience. It is also the X of collaborations, which we wish to develop, that of the multiplication of talents and universes. It is finally in certain cases, in France more particularly, the X of the forbidden. On this last point, there is no ambiguity: Chantelle X in no way refers to this universe.
What is its price positioning?
We are on proposals oscillating between 75€ and 130€ per bra: 75 to 90€ for the rather graphic and everyday segment (Essential), 90 to 110€ for the more disruptive and image segment (Signature), 120€ to 130€ for the more exclusive segment (Couture).
What are the priority distribution channels that you have identified?
Chantelle X will be distributed on all of our networks, in France and internationally, with the same level of priority and attention given to each channel. We believe that in her segment, Chantelle X can bring together a large community of clients from all walks of life.
Can we venture to say that Chantelle X is the future of Chantelle?
The future of Chantelle is above all human: her teams, her partners and her clients. Chantelle X is one of the proposals offered and which seems to us to have a future!
