Eres

In May 1968, while students were tearing up the paving stones of the Latin Quarter, Irene Leroux opened Eres on the Place de la Madeleine in Paris. The house she built is a French maker of luxury swimwear and, since 1998, lingerie, owned by Chanel since 1996 and still producing in its own Paris workshops. Eres is known for plain, precisely cut pieces in a small number of technical fabrics, with almost no decoration.

Leroux did not start from nothing. Her parents ran a swimwear business, and she took it over and changed what it sold and when.

A swimsuit sold in December

The first change was the calendar. French swimwear in the 1960s was a summer product, stocked in spring and cleared out by autumn. Eres sold swimsuits all year round, the first house to do so, and so caught the customer who left for the sun in January as well as the one shopping in June.

The second change was structural. Swimsuits of the period were built like corsetry, with underwires, boning and padded cups to hold the figure. Leroux stripped them out and cut the suit to follow the body like a second skin, relying on fabric tension and pattern rather than internal scaffolding.

The third, in 1971, was commercial. Eres began selling bikini tops and bottoms separately, each in its own true size, so a woman could buy a top for her bust and a bottom for her hips, and mix colors if she liked. It sounds obvious now. At the time a bikini came as a set in one size.

Peau Douce and parachute fabric

The Eres look depends on its cloth. The house uses a patented Lycra-based jersey called Peau Douce, "soft skin," and a fast-drying fabric it calls "parachute." Prints are rare and trims are minimal. Much of what distinguishes a piece is in the cut: where a seam falls, how a neckline sits, how a strap is set.

Production stayed in Paris. The workshops on the Boulevard Voltaire, in the 11th arrondissement, are still where the house makes its pieces, which is unusual for a swimwear brand at this price.

The Chanel purchase in 1996

In 1996 Coco Chanel's old house bought Eres. Some accounts date the deal to June 1997, but most give 1996. Leroux stayed on as artistic director, and the new owner used the brand to enter a category Chanel itself did not make in any depth.

Two years later Eres launched lingerie. The logic was the same as in swimwear: minimal structure, smooth fabrics, careful pattern work. An unlined bra or a simple triangle bra in fine tulle or jersey fits that thinking better than a heavily padded shape. Shapewear followed later, and so, oddly, did nail polish.

Designers after Leroux

Leroux ran the creative side until 2007, when Valerie Delafosse succeeded her. In 2013 the work was split. Marie-Paule Minchelli took lingerie, and Yasmine Eslami, who also ran her own Paris lingerie label, took the beach collections. Minchelli was later sole artistic director. In 2016 the Belgian designer Veronique Leroy produced a 19-piece cruise collection for the house.

Collaborations have stayed small and French. In 2020 Eres made children's swimwear with Bonpoint, and in 2021 a seven-piece collection with the interior designer Sarah Lavoine, made in France.

Size of the business

Eres is a small company by luxury standards. French company data for 2024 lists revenue of about 48 million euros and 144 employees. It runs its own boutiques, about a dozen of them in France and others in resort and city locations including Cannes, Saint-Tropez, Palm Beach, Los Angeles and New York, and sells through roughly a hundred points of sale in total.

Last updated October 7, 2026