Pacific Retail Group’s lingerie division Bendon is to take its Elle Macpherson brand to the United States, launching the Elle Macpherson Intimates line in 30 premium North American department stores in February.

This comes as a result of a three-year success in the UK, where the Elle range just extended its UK coverage from 15 department stores to about 600 independent retailers and has become a top-selling lingerie brand with annual growth of between 40 and 50 per cent. The Elle range has a strong presence in Australia and is also offered in Hong Kong.

Chief executive Stefan Preston said Bendon had been researching the US market for about two years, and the US launch followed heavy restructuring of Bendon in recent years, to prepare it for global growth.

Regular fresh “fashion drops“ of new styles and designs keep the brand vibrant and relevant. Newly appointed president of Bendon North America, Victoria Vandagriff, said the brand’s strong emphasis on design, and the celebrity status of Elle Macpherson, would see the range sell well among strongly brand-loyal US consumers, reports The New Zealand Herald.

Preston said, despite its global growth, there were advantages in Bendon remaining based in New Zealand, as the place was low-cost to do business and unique for design work. “We’re able to objectively look at trends worldwide and produce an eclectic and unique design handwriting.

“In the old days people used to think of this (Bendon) as a manufacturing business. Now it’s a marketing and intellectual property business,“ he said.