LE CHAT Crosses the Atlantic

15 February 2017

For the last seven decades Le Chat, has been amongst the top selling sleepwear and loungewear brands in France.

They are now reinforcing their position in the US market thanks to their new partnership with Easton International. In an exclusive interview with The Best Of Intima, the Chairman Gregoire Chalumet, reveals how his family's iconic brand has been able to stay on trend for all this time.

Can you tell us where the Le Chat name comes from?
A love story shaped by a family business...Legend has it that, in 1946, it was the family's chartered accountant who came up with the idea of combining the first syllable of each of the founders' last names, DUrand and CHAlumet, to form the French word for cat, 'chat'. This is a very appropriate name for a brand specializing in charming feminine slips.
What are your current challenges?
We want to maintain the key foundations of the brand: quality, feminity, authenticity and wellness. These have already brought us so much success and we want to use them to strategically develop our presence in the US market and online, two areas which currently represent 12% of our sales.
In terms of price and style, how do you position yourself in the US market?
Overall, the brand is a sleepwear and loungewear collection from France that focuses on premium quality with great price value. We pride ourselves on having a price point that is approximately 40% less than our direct competition. The design and image of the brand focuses on a younger consumer, more so than other traditional sleepwear brands. We reflect this in every part of our brand identification from our collections, advertising and press releases to design and presentation. Our goal is to present our brand as clear and easily understandable to the rest of the market.
Which types of stores are your target customers?
The target stores for the brand should be upscale independent, e-retailers, spas, linen shops, gift stores, hotels and department stores. For example, to name a few targets and actual customers for Le Chat are Rigby & Peller, Townshop, Zappos, Shop Bop, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdale’s.
How does Le Chat stand out from its competitors?
Le Chat is on trend but it also remains consistent in terms of quality and comfort, something that is immediately understandable and valuable to the consumer. Combining our loungewear segment with our traditional sleepwear collection reinforces our brand's position across the market and gives us a great competitive advantage. In addition, our 'iconic' silhouettes, like the Jacket Essential 171, have been our number one style for the past four years. We proudly update this style seasonally by changing its color and silhouette in order to ensure it stays contemporary.

SEVEN DECADES OF LE CHAT
1934 : Antoine Durand founded a knitting mill in Burgundy , France
1946 : Antoine Durand's daughter and her husband, Jean Chalumet launched, the Lingerie Du Chat, brand specializing in slips.
1970 : Their Son, Claude Chalumet, became Chairman and decided to develop sleepwear under the name : Le Chat
1980: A complementary homewear line was launched with the slogan : “Le Chat, une mode pour la maison (Le Chat, fashion for the home)”. Both the brand's sleepwear and homewear collections quickly became best sellers in top French department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps.
2003 : Gregoire Chalumet entered the company as Export Manager. Export sales quickly surged, especially in Europe and in emerging countries such as Russia and China.
2009 : Gregoire Chalumet became Chairman. 40% of the company's business was now taking place abroad.
2016 : Le Chat celebrated its 70th anniversary at the Salon International De La Lingerie in Paris and exhibited for the first time at the NY Curve Show.

The third and fourth generations of the Chalumet family created and developed the current concept: a smart, modern, creative sleepwear and loungewear collection.