Antwerp, Bruges and Knokke
French entrepreneur Pascal Yefet (36) – who owns a dozen ready-to-wear called ‘Les Bourgeoises’ in Brussels, Courtrai and Louvain -is Mer du Nord’s saviour in this regard. “We will breathe new life into Mer du Nord and repair the brand’s identity”, he promised.
“I spend a lot of time in the shops because I feel it is important to keep the brand close to the customer’s wishes. It is their needs we have to fulfill and we will do that with seasonal, stylish, high-quality collections. We will also guarantee the existing Mer du Nord stores remain open and will open several new stores.”
Mer du Nord will add stores in Bruges, Antwerp and Knokke to its existing retail park in Hasselt, Ghent, Louvain, Aalst, Courtrai, Wavre and Waterloo.
Made in Europe
Pascal Yefet also revealed Mer du Nord will launch a new collection in March: “We are currently preparing the new Mer du Nord’s summer collection and we will not ignore the brand’s DNA.”
The collection will be manufactured in Portugal, Italy and France and Yefet will wants to guarantee “100 % quality. It demands a lot of time and energy, but keeping production close to home facilitates all this. This way, the brand can quickly adapt to the customer’s wishes.”
Hopefully, this is the end of the Belgian fashion house’s bad luck spell, after it had to file for bankruptcy in August 2014 – 26 years after its launch.
