In Paris last summer for the couture shows, I made time for a brief shopping pilgrimage. While the world’s 0.01 per cent perused hand-embellished eveningwear, my between-show treat was a snatched detour to the more reasonably priced Soeur boutique.
The city is brimming with shops offering their own vision of La Parisienne, but for me, Soeur’s mix of clean shapes, workwear fabrics and retro prints has an easy cool that stands out. I recommend it to anyone else who wants a change from APC, likes Toast but finds it slightly granola, or aspires to Phoebe Philo, but isn’t rich, edgy or willowy enough.
But now I can spend my free moments in Paris eating a baguette instead of shopping, because Soeur has just opened its first London boutique. Investment fund Style Capital took an 80 per cent stake last September, and aims to accelerate the brand’s international growth. Soeur’s sales have grown by 40 per cent a year for the past two years, and hit €52mn in 2023. For context, at 10 year-old French mid-market brand Sézane, sales rose 30 per cent year on year in 2022. As luxury prices soar, for many shoppers the contemporary (or affordable luxury) space feels extra relevant.
But for those French fashion fans who might have fallen under Sézane’s spell but haven’t come across Soeur, what does the brand bring to la table? It was founded in 2007 by French sisters Domitille and Angélique Brion and now has 50 standalone boutiques or shop-in-shops (41 in France, nine international) as well as 520 wholesale locations globally. Angélique, who was on the finance side, is “no longer involved operationally but is very much involved as a shareholder”, says Domitille, who has always been more focused on creative direction.
On a Zoom call with Domitille and managing director Freja Day, talking from their headquarters overlooking the Louvre in Paris, the pair explain the brand’s vision. Brion feels more comfortable talking in French, so Day is translating.
Creative director Brion says the brand encapsulates everyday elegance. “It’s sophisticated cuts for a woman who wants to feel elegant throughout the day, who doesn’t necessarily want to dress up on a Saturday and dress down on a Sunday. The way that we see [ French style] is this idea that the same garment can be worn during the day or night, depending on your attitude, and how you accessorise it.”
Ah yes, the never-ending topic of French style, how to crack it and how it’s evolving. Cornerstones of the French look — sharp blazers, trenchcoats, and dresses worn with plimsolls and the air of someone who spends their day browsing second-hand copies of Sartre on those bookstalls alongside the Seine — are still frequently spotted in the wild. But now greater experimentation has gained a foothold alongside these timeless classics.
Brion acknowledges that “French fashion is much more on the street, more accessible, and there’s more individual expression. The aesthetic is more polarised, and there’s more diversity: there are people who will follow the current fashion trend like Kim Kardashian, and others who will be more classically French who are maybe less visible on social media.”
Soeur is much more in the timeless than trend-led camp, helped by retro cultural references such as New Wave cinema and unfussy classics such as roomy summer shirt dresses and masculine blazers. However, Brion emphasises that “we are a fashion brand. We have the idea that each season you can update a little bit, rather than going in one direction.” A stylish Paris-based friend who wears it says she sees it as “chic-casual” and “bohemian”, while noting that “it’s very particular universe doesn’t suit everyone”.
The spring/summer collection has gone big on a laid-back, oversized feel, featuring wide trousers in cream twill and denim, long airy smock dresses in checks, chocolate silk and faded florals, and androgynous blazers and workwear jackets.
If Frenchness is one strand of Soeur’s appeal, another is the affordable pricing. For next season, wide linen twill trousers are £260, while a structured leather shoulder bag is £425 for the larger size. It’s one of a cohort of French brands, including Sézane, Sandro and Maje, that have carved out a space at the contemporary level that falls between the upper echelons of the high street and designer.
Day believes “there is space in the middle for a high-quality product . . . good materials combined with true serious design work around the pattern and the cuts. We have a big team of patternmakers who come from all the big luxury houses.” When I mention a Soeur kaftan dress I bought on eBay, Brion enthuses about a special machine in which the brand invested to create the stitch that holds the neckline on this particular garment closed.
Quality and attention to detail made up part of the brand’s appeal for Roberta Benaglia, chief executive and founding partner of Style Capital, which has previously invested in Golden Goose and Zimmermann. She confirms on a separate call that the price positioning is crucial to the plan to take Soeur from a brand that’s well known in France to an international name. “Wholesalers were pushing us to have a brand in our portfolio that was smarter in terms of price point, because what they are seeing is that luxury is too expensive today, with the growth of the prices after Covid,” she says.
Federica Levato, senior partner and EMEA leader of fashion and luxury at consultancy Bain & Company, says that in general: “The contemporary market has been pretty dynamic for the past 10 years. We see a great opportunity for this segment . . . as luxury brands increase prices, these brands have an opportunity to be a more authentic value proposition to customers and really understand them.” She cautions, however, that for brands that mainly cater to local markets, going global without the marketing budgets of big luxury houses will be more of a challenge.
Benaglia was also drawn to Soeur’s strong digital performance — it makes 35 per cent of its sales online — but the team is still enthusiastic about physical retail. According to Day, “it gives a context to the brand. OK, we are not a mom-and-pop shop, but we visit the stores often and get to know our customer — it’s what makes our work engaging.” She says there is a type of “VIP customer who used to shop at Phoebe Philo for Céline and has moved towards us for minimal wardrobe essentials, which she combines with designs from higher-priced brands such as Acne and Jil Sander”.
Brion says the new shop, on Redchurch Street in east London’s Shoreditch, is more pared back than many of the other boutiques, using lighter wood and more concrete on the floors. They decided to open in the UK capital “because we love London, and to be here is to be on the international map . . . it’s a window to Asia and the US”.
Finally, why does Brion believe Soeur can expand? “Maybe it’s a bit pretentious to say this but we feel like there’s a lot of potential; we are not done yet. It’s not necessarily about being the next Sandro or similar . . . but we feel like there is a Soeur customer in Seoul, there’s one in London, there’s one in Shanghai probably. And we want to dress her.”
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