3 questions for . . . Domitille Brion, co-founder, president, and artistic director of Sœur

Children’s fashion was her field of expertise. For around 15 years Domitille Brion was a designer for Bonpoint before going on to co-create Bonton. Her sister Angélique was very knowledgeable about adolescents, having worked for a marketing research company specialising in that age grouup. The sisters, both mothers of adolescents, saw that there weren’t any brands adapted to their daughters’ needs. In 2008 they decided to create Sœur, a brand dedicated to girls. Since then, the collection has expanded to include womenswear. Last May the Experienced Capital investment fund acquired 40 percent of the brand.

What are the differences between the adolescent and women’s markets and what are their specific characteristics?

The main difference is in the range of choice. For girls ranges are very limited in both colours and products: jeans, T-shirts, and sweatshirts in grey and black. Most adolescents want to look like their girlfriends; and most of them try to blend in with current styles. They usually come to us with their mothers or big sisters to make purchases for the long term. But they indulge in fun fashion when they go with their girlfriends to Zara, H&M, or second-hand stores where they buy pieces to mix with basics from our brand. Women are different, they have a lot more fun with colours and fabrics. They’ll choose a Harris tweed jacket in an “improbable” colour, something an adolescent won’t do. Since we’ve expanded our product line for women, I’ve been enjoying myself a lot more as the creative possibilities are much greater.

Since your brand’s beginning what have been the main obstacles and opportunities for development?

The fact is, it wasn’t easy to find our place in the girl’s market. When we started, there weren’t any magazines targeting that group where we could communicate, and there weren’t any multi-brand stores or professional trade shows. The childrenswear brands that also present adolescent collections do so as a continuation of their children’s lines, which doesn’t really appeal to girls. And the womenswear brands that have a collection for adolescents are faced with women who don’t want to pay the same price for their children’s clothing as for their own. Margins are tighter when you target girls since – and this is an important point – mothers aren’t willing to spend as much on apparel for their daughters as for themselves. To sum it up, there was no place for just a girl’s line, so we had to start from nothing. Afterwards, we observed that clients (and not just celebrities) who came with their daughters also wore our clothing. And the average shopping basket for a woman is worth more than for an adolescent. After we had understood that fact we were contacted by Christian Filippini, a womenswear wholesale agent, and we decided to expand the brand to include women. Then we had to communicate about dressing women without losing our identity for girls’ clothing. Happily, doors opened more easily when we entered the women’s market. This natural evolution happened thanks to our clients and our agent.

What will be the first projects and changes put into place following Experienced Capital’s investment?

Besides wholesale development with sales representatives and agents, we’re going to develop retail.

Right now we have four own-brand boutiques and two affiliated stores in Bordeaux and Lyon. We’re beginning to open corners in department stores: BHV Marais in Paris and Galeries Lafayette in Toulouse and Montpellier since end September and Blvd. Haussmann beginning October. For spring-summer we’ll also open corners in Printemps. And there will be new own-brand stores in Paris and elsewhere in France, but while respecting the retailers we already work with. For international retail, we plan to get started next fall-winter using different formats. We especially want to work in Asia.

For our internal structure, we’re going to relocate our company offices since we’re growing. We also need a big showroom. We continue to fine tune our collection plan, to update our sizing with a pattern maker, and to source new manufacturers to keep pace with our growth.