Rigby & Peller leads lingerie’s new era

Everybody knows about Rigby Peller. The made-to-measure bra shop; the brand that provides maternity wear for the Duchess of Cambridge and brassieres for HM the Queen. The very name conjures up images of matronly shop attendants casting a disapproving eye over one’s ill-fitting current undergarments. But fewer people know Rigby Peller today, 76 years after Bertha Rigby and Gita Peller opened their first bespoke corset-maker on London’s South Molton Street.

For the lingerie shop has come full circle. Rigby Peller has always had its loyal fan base – once customers experience the 38 components used to make a typical bra stocked in the store, they struggle to return to high-street bras, which usually consist of 16 – but it hasn’t always been at the forefront for the fashion set. As well as competition from cheaper, mass-market chains, the brand seemed unable to shake off its image as the place one’s grandmother would buy bras. But its heritage has proved the ace up its sleeve as modern luxury customers seek quality and individuality, provided in spades by the brand’s tailored service.

Made-to-measure is nothing new for Rigby Peller – it began as a bespoke corsetière and has always had skilled craftspeople behind the scenes hand-making one-off pieces for VIP clients. But the brand has never made a song and dance about the service. Until now. Last night’s party at the newly-refurbished Knightsbridge flagship marked the store’s official re-launch, with a heavy focus on the unlimited choice offered by made-to-measure.

“We can do literally anything a client wants,” said Holly Bocock, head of communications and marketing at Rigby Peller. “Whether it’s a specific style in a particular material, or a completely bespoke strapless, backless piece that doesn’t look like underwear at all – there are no limits.” Like all customers, made-to-measure clients begin with a fitting and styling service from an in-store stylist, who provides advice not only on fit but shape – which varies dramatically between the store’s roster of 20-plus brands – and style, ensuring it works with the customer’s lifestyle and wardrobe. “There are five scientific principles behind finding a correctly-fitting bra, but the sixth principle is most important of all: emotion. If it doesn’t feel right on, everything else goes out the window,” head stylist Kelly Dunmore told me.

Having found a style that suits, then the creative part starts. With the help of an in-store seamstress, customers can dictate changes to the shape, choose their material from a range of fine French silks and lace, add embellishments – “even diamonds, if you want” – and customise the piece in any way possible. The design is then whipped into reality in the Knightsbridge in-store atelier and tailored precisely in a second fitting. Like Paris’s couture fashion houses, Rigby Peller keeps the template for each of its made-to-measure customers so that they can re-order in different colours and trims from anywhere around the world.

So what prompts people to spend upwards of £300 on a made-to-measure bra as opposed to £70-£120 on an off-the-peg piece from one of the store’s carefully curated designer brands such as Empreinte, Aubade or Primadonna, or even £250 on a bra from the store’s limited-edition Maison Lejaby Couture collection? Bespoke clients tend to fall into one of two camps, says Dunmore – those with a particular size or shape which is not catered for by off-the-peg designs, and others who simply want something spectacular and unique for a special occasion.

“People are coming back to the idea of having something special made for them – it’s that handmade quality you don’t get anywhere else,” says Dunmore. “A lot of the bespoke lingerie maisons in France have shut down now, so people come here because they can’t find this service anywhere else.”

It also comes down to a greater focus on lingerie as fashion. “Europeans have long dressed ‘from the inside out’ – they are fanatical about the designers, the materials, the fabrication,” says Bocock. “And now us Brits are beginning to catch up and pay as much attention to what’s going on underneath our clothes as we are to the clothes themselves.”

As such, fashion-forward brands such as Simone Perele and Andres Sarda – which bring a welcome dash of colour among the traditional white and ivory bridal sets – do well, enticing a younger breed of customers who want fashion-forward style along with the perfect fit. Add into the mix the preponderance of sheer clothing and an increased trend for wearing underwear as outerwear and it’s a perfect storm for the British grande dame to reinvent itself as the place to go for luxurious lingerie for every day; not just on your wedding night.

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