“Marlies Dekkers to close own stores”

Dutch lingerie chain Marlies Dekkers is gradually closing its physical stores, committing to a digital future. The brand previously sold primarily through multi-brand boutiques anyway.

New course

In that new strategic course, online sales will take centre stage, the label said. It did not specify if it would close “some” or “all” stores, nor in what timeframe, Fashionunited reports. Marlies Dekkers currently only has a handful of own stores in the Netherlands, but it used to have stores in Belgium, France, Germany and Thailand as well.

The brand’s collections will remain available through online platforms and selected retail partners. In September, Marlies Dekkers will also launch a new webshop, which “establishes a new brand experience that reflects the way our customers live, store and connect with our brand.”

For decades, Marlies Dekkers was considered an innovator in the lingerie market, with bras that found success with stars such as Lady Gaga and Rihanna, but as the brand grew, it also struggled with increasing counterfeiting and mounting loss rates. In 2013, the company made a slimmed-down relaunch.