Bershka

In April 1998 Amancio Ortega's Inditex group opened the first Bershka store, launching a Spanish fast-fashion chain that sells trend-led clothes to young women. Headquartered in the province of Barcelona, first in Tordera and later in nearby Palafolls, it grew to more than a thousand stores in about 70 countries. It is a fashion retailer, not a lingerie house, and its products appear in this encyclopedia for the fashion pieces that sit at the edge of intimates.

Why Inditex built Bershka in 1998

By the late 1990s Inditex already ran Zara and Pull&Bear. Bershka was created as a fast-fashion concept for a younger customer, originally young women, who wanted the newest look at a low price and would come back for the next one within weeks. The first store opened in April 1998, and the brand was run from Catalonia rather than from Inditex's home base in Arteixo, Galicia.

The Spanish-language record puts the original headquarters in Tordera, a town on the Barcelona coast, with a later move to Palafolls, a few miles away. The company is organized in two divisions, Bershka Diseño for design and Bershka Logística for distribution.

Bershka store growth and the music-store format

The expansion was fast even by Inditex standards. By March 2017 the chain had 1,096 stores in 70 countries. Inditex itself describes the brand as living "at the intersection of technology, music and social networking", and the newest stores follow a format the group calls Stage, built around music, video screens and a club-like interior.

By January 2022 Bershka had 852 or more stores in 74 countries, with Spain, Russia and Italy its largest markets, and it accounted for roughly 10 percent of Inditex sales. That year the brand pulled out of China, closing its Tmall shop and physical stores in August 2022.

Bershka, BSK and the men's line

The range is split into lines. The main Bershka collection serves young women, BSK targets teens, and a men's line was added as the brand broadened beyond its original customer. Across them the stock leans on casualwear, basics, sportswear, jeans, footwear and accessories.

Where intimates fit in a Bershka store

Bershka does not run a lingerie department in the way a specialist does, and neither Inditex's description of the brand nor its Wikipedia entries list underwear or bras as a category. Anything close to intimates arrives through fashion: pieces such as bodysuits, camisoles and cropped tops are bought for how they look under an open shirt or with jeans, not for support or fit. The brand's own web store refused our requests, so the current range could not be itemized for this entry.

That is a deliberate division inside the group. Inditex's dedicated intimates chain is Oysho, which began in lingerie and now presents itself as a sport and leisure label built on technical collections. A shopper who wants a proper underwire set has a sister store for it. Bershka handles the fashion layer.

A useful comparison

Bershka's position is closer to the online fast-fashion players than to any lingerie brand. Its true rivals in this encyclopedia are the young-fashion e-tailers such as Shein and Boohoo, which also sell a fast-moving bralette or bodysuit as one more trend item next to the jeans. The difference is the store estate: Bershka built its audience through hundreds of physical shops before selling online.

Bershka today

Twenty-eight years after its first store, Bershka remains one of the larger chains in the Inditex portfolio, alongside Zara, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius, Massimo Dutti and Oysho. Its 27 products in this database are a small sample of a very large range, and a reminder that plenty of what young women wear next to the skin is bought in a fashion store with loud music and no fitting service.

Last updated October 7, 2026