Panache

Panache is a British lingerie and swimwear company based in Sheffield that makes bras for D-plus cup sizes. It was established in 1982 by Anthony Power, a former national sales manager at Playtex, who started out trading end-of-line lingerie from his family's garage. The business is still owned and run by the Power family and sells its Panache, Cleo and Sculptresse ranges in more than 50 countries.

A Playtex man in his own garage

Power spent close to twenty years at Playtex before going out on his own at about 47. His first business was not design at all. He bought surplus and discontinued lingerie and sold it on to retailers, trading as A.J. and D. Marketing. Companies House records show the limited company was registered in October 1980 under the name Sartorial, renamed A.J. and D. Marketing at the end of 1981, and renamed again as Panache Lingerie only in April 1993.

That paper trail explains the different founding dates in circulation. The brand gives 1982. The legal entity is older.

John Power and the gap in the market

The pivot to fuller busts came from the next generation. According to a 2016 brand profile, Anthony's son John Power saw how badly the British market served women above a D cup and steered the company into that space. A Hong Kong operation followed in 1989, and a New York office on Madison Avenue, opened by Danny Power, in 2002. John became joint chairman and managing director in 2007 when his father retired.

The sports bra that made the name

In 2001 designer Clare Robertson produced Panache's first sports bra, with cut-and-sew foam cups and titanium underwires. The descendant of that design, the underwired style 5021, is still a fixture in specialist fitting rooms as a sports bra for large busts. Panache says it reduces bounce by about 83 percent and that the range was developed using 3D motion capture and biomechanical testing. The figure comes from the company, and it should be read that way.

The industry took notice all the same. Panache was named Sports Bra Brand of the Year at the UK Lingerie Awards in 2012, 2013 and 2015.

Molded cups for heavy breasts

The design problem is specific. A compression sports bra flattens tissue against the chest, which works for small cups and fails above a D. Panache instead encapsulates each breast in a separate molded cup on a wire, then adds a wide band and padded straps. The approach is closer to a structured everyday bra than to a crop top, and most full-bust sports bras on the market now follow the same logic.

Cleo, Sculptresse and the brand family

In 2009 the company launched Cleo, a younger and more playful fashion range in the same D-plus sizes. In April 2013 it added Sculptresse for women who need both larger bands and larger cups, launching in bands 36 to 46 and cups D to J. Swimwear runs alongside the bras, and the 2015 campaign "Modeled by Role Models" used athletes and achievers rather than professional models.

The main Panache line covers bands roughly 28 to 44 and cups D to K. The bestsellers lean toward the balconette and the full plunge, cut and seamed to lift rather than minimize.

October 2012

The company's history includes a hard chapter. In October 2012 Anthony Power, then 78, was attacked in High Hazels park in Sheffield and died three weeks later from head injuries. Drapers reported at the time that Panache had an annual turnover of about 23 million pounds, around 170 staff, offices in New York, Germany and Hong Kong, and stockists including Bravissimo, Figleaves and John Lewis.

Panache today

The registered office is in Waterthorpe, on the south-eastern edge of Sheffield, and a 2016 profile described the firm as family owned with offices in the UK, the United States and China. Its closest competitors are Freya and Fantasie, both owned by Wacoal, and the younger Curvy Kate, and the three together account for much of what a British bra fitter reaches for above a D cup. Panache's particular claim is the sports bra, and twenty-five years after Clare Robertson's first sample, it still holds it.

Last updated October 28, 2026