Etam

Etam is a French lingerie and fashion retailer that began in Germany: Max Lindemann founded it as Strumpfhaus Etam, a stocking and lingerie business, in Chemnitz in September 1916. Today it is the flagship of Etam Groupe, a Paris-based company controlled by the Milchior family, which also owns Undiz, Maison 123 and a majority of the Paris label Ysé. The group reported revenue of about 892 million euros in 2024 and sells in more than 55 countries.

Strumpfhaus Etam in Chemnitz, 1916

Chemnitz was a textile city, and stockings were its trade. Lindemann's company made hosiery and women's lingerie, and took its name from "étamine," the light, open-weave fabric it used. The first Etam shop opened in Berlin at Friedrichstraße 176.

The brand traveled quickly. Franchise partners took it to Argentina, Belgium and the Netherlands. A London shop on Oxford Street opened in 1923, and a Paris store followed in 1928 at 376 rue Saint-Honoré. For a German stocking firm only a few years after the First World War, that was an ambitious footprint.

The Milchior family and Setamil

The family that controls Etam today came into the story by a parallel road. Martin Milchior opened a chain of shops called Setamil, first in Belgium in 1925 and then in France in 1929. By 1936 Setamil had its own manufacturing in Mouvaux, in the textile belt of northern France near Lille.

After Martin Milchior's death, his son Pierre ran Setamil and negotiated a merger with Etam France in 1961. The combination was completed in 1963. Etam Prêt-à-porter was created the same year, and the network then counted 49 shops. From that point Etam was a French company in all but its birth certificate.

Etam lingerie and the group's other brands

The group grew by splitting its customers into separate brands. In 1983 it launched 1.2.3, aimed at a more upscale woman than the core Etam shopper, now trading as Maison 123. Undiz, a younger and cheaper lingerie chain, sits at the other end. Etam itself remained the anchor, best known in France for affordable bras and briefs, nightwear and loungewear sold through a dense network of high-street shops.

At the end of 2015 the group counted 4,098 points of sale. In France, Etam Lingerie as a brand has held about 11% of the lingerie market, with the wider group at about 16%, which puts it among the largest lingerie sellers in the country. Its natural rivals are the Italian chains of the Calzedonia group, above all Intimissimi, and the department-store ranges of older French corsetry houses such as Chantelle.

Lingerie shows before Paris Fashion Week

Etam Lingerie made a habit of staging its collections as shows organized like performances, held just before Paris Fashion Week for ready-to-wear. The idea was to borrow the attention of the fashion calendar for a mass-market brand that would never be on the official schedule. It worked as marketing: a high-street lingerie chain got runway coverage that its prices would not normally attract.

Leaving London and China

Etam's international history includes two notable exits. In 2005 the group sold its British business to Arcadia Group, ending the line that ran back to the 1923 Oxford Street shop. Etam UK later became a separate story as a British women's clothing retailer, now defunct.

The other was China. Etam entered the Chinese market in 1995 and sold its Chinese operations in 2017. The same year the family took the company off the stock market, two decades after its 1997 listing on the Paris exchange, and regained control with about 80% of the capital.

Ysé and recent years

In July 2019 Etam bought a majority stake in Ysé, the Paris label founded in 2012 by Clara Blocman for small busts. The price was not disclosed. The deal gave the group a younger, design-led brand with a sustainability story, something that a high-street chain struggles to build for itself.

Laurent Milchior is listed as co-manager of the group. Recent results have been less comfortable than the long expansion years: the 2024 accounts showed a net loss of about 6.6 million euros on that 892 million in revenue, and in March 2025 the company announced the closure of its tech center in Marcq-en-Barœul, with 55 jobs lost. This encyclopedia records about 800 Etam products, mostly the everyday lace bras, briefs and pajamas that have kept the name on French high streets for close to a century.

Last updated October 7, 2026