Bordelle

The designer Alexandra Popa founded Bordelle, a London label of lingerie and bodywear. The brand gives its founding year as 2009, not 2007 as is sometimes printed. Its pieces are designed and sampled in a West London studio and made at the company's own workshop in Cluj, Romania, and they are built around a single recognizable device: bands of satin elastic fastened with gold-plated hardware.

The strap as the garment

Most lingerie uses elastic to hold something else in place. In a Bordelle piece the elastic is the design. Narrow satin-faced straps run over the shoulders, under the bust and around the hips, crossing at set points and fixed with small rings and sliders. The fabric panels between them, often sheer, are almost secondary.

The brand's own description is precise about the components. It combines 24K gold-plated hardware and customized satin elastic strapping with silk satin, soft mesh and bespoke Swiss embroidered tulle, along with fabrics sourced from European suppliers. The result is body-con: pieces that sit close to the skin and adjust through the straps rather than through stretch alone.

That adjustability is practical as well as decorative. Strapped construction lets one garment fit a range of bodies, because each band can be tightened or loosened. It is also why Bordelle pieces look so different on a hanger and on a dress form. Flat, they are a tangle. Dressed, they resolve into a clear pattern.

Bodysuits, harnesses and the cage

The core categories follow from the strap. Bordelle is best known for bodysuits, harness pieces that can be worn alone or over other garments, and caged bras and briefs. A corset bra silhouette appears often, translated into straps rather than boning. Colors stay dark most seasons, with black as the base and deep jewel shades used sparingly.

A workshop in Cluj

Bordelle's production story is unusual for a London label at this price. Rather than handing manufacturing to a contract factory, the brand runs Atelier Bordelle Productions in Cluj, a university city in northwest Romania. Patterns and samples are worked out in London, then sent to Cluj for production.

Owning the workshop gives the brand control over details that are easy to get wrong in strapped lingerie: the exact tension of each band, the angle where two straps meet, the finish where elastic is folded around a ring. A small error at any of those points shows immediately when the garment is worn. Bordelle also publishes a separate page on its ethical practices, which is easier to do credibly when the factory is its own.

Sold beside ready-to-wear

Bordelle says it is stocked in more than 25 countries, through department stores and specialist boutiques. Names it lists include TSUM in Moscow, Luisaviaroma in Florence, KaDeWe in Berlin and the American lingerie retailer Journelle. The brand points out that it is one of relatively few lingerie labels carried alongside ready-to-wear designers rather than on the intimates floor, which says a lot about how buyers see it.

That placement is the clearest measure of Bordelle's position. Its pieces are bought to be seen, sometimes under a jacket, sometimes as the outfit. The brand's own tagline for itself is "memorable, provocative, and never without a reaction," and it describes its work as experimental lingerie that crosses into ready-to-wear. The aesthetic is updated each season while the strap language stays fixed.

The London showroom

Alongside online sales and wholesale, Bordelle runs a West London showroom where customers can book private shopping appointments. For strapped lingerie this is more than a luxury touch. Fit depends on how each band is adjusted, and a showroom appointment lets that happen before the garment leaves the building.

Many brands now sell strappy bodysuits at every price, and the elastic cage has become a common lingerie motif. Bordelle's distinction is in the parts list: gold-plated metal instead of painted alloy, satin elastic woven to its own specification, and a Romanian workshop it owns. Readers interested in how a cheaper strappy brand approaches the same look can compare it with Bluebella.

Last updated October 1, 2026