NEW YORK — French lingerie queen Chantal Thomass popped into Victoria’s Secret on 34th Street here Tuesday morning to fete her collection for the chain.
“I love working with Victoria’s Secret,” said Thomass, who began selling her designs at the intimate apparel giant two months ago. “It’s different designing here because I am doing six collections a year, while I only make two collections at home.”
Thomass is designing two lines for the retailer. The first, called Chantal Thomass for Victoria’s Secret, is priced from about $28 to $198 and includes a broad range of items such as peekaboo lined bras, lace panties, silk robes, hosiery and a selection of other accessories including eye masks. A handful of VS stores also sell a few pieces from her other, high-end line, priced from about $60 to $350, which includes more luxury fabrics such as higher-quality lace and silk.
For spring, new designs in the Chantal Thomass for Victoria’s Secret collection, which she showed to the press, include whimsical prints with cherries and candies on silk blended corset-style tops. Other looks come in bright hues with embellished flowers and plenty of lace. “My inspiration comes from old fabrics and designs and I love whimsy,” said Thomass who was clad in a black Yves Saint Laurent suit, knee-high, lace-up Christian Dior boots and a white blouse, black vest and curled metal glasses of her own design.
Victoria’s Secret plans to expand the distribution of the core Thomass line for spring into additional locations, said company spokeswoman Monica Mitro, who said it is now sold in about 130 stores.
Thomass began designing in 1967 and is credited with being one of the first to show intimate apparel on the runway. Her business has faced some ups and downs in recent years, but is now back on track, due to a significant investment from Sara Lee Corp., which now owns about 66 percent of the company. Thomass recently opened a shop in Paris, and she revealed on Tuesday that she is looking to open additional stores in locales such as Moscow and Kuwait.
“I would love to start designing men’s underwear,” she added. “And I am interested in decorating a restaurant and doing interiors. And I want to make sheets and home products.”