Pimkie is a French

fast fashion Fast fashion is a term used to describe the clothing industry's business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and High fashion, high-fashion designs, mass production, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail stores qui ...

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

and chain store for young women. Its headquarters is in

Villeneuve-d'Ascq Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; pcd, Neuvile-Ask) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métropole Européenne de Lille and the largest in area ( ...

, France. They have offices in Germany and Spain. The first shop was opened in 1971 in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

. After a long expansion period, Pimkie reached its peak presence in 2018 with 716 stores in 30 countries, but the company began to face difficulties in the late 2010s. In 2022, the company was sold for the majority to

Lee Cooper Lee Cooper is an English-American clothing and footwear manufacturing company, based in London, that specialises in denim products. As well as its own production, the company licences the sale of many Lee Cooper-branded items worldwide. Fou ...

Pimkie has a large social-media following, with 1.3m followers on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

History

In 1971, French fashion entrepreneurs launched a new trend:

pants Trousers (British English), slacks, or pants are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separately (rather than with cloth extending across both legs as in robes, skirts, and dr ...

for women. Thanks to some success, the range was expanded to offer women's

ready-to-wear Ready-to-wear (or ''prêt-à-porter''; abbreviated RTW; "off-the-rack" or "off-the-peg" in casual use) is the term for ready-made garments, sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure or bespoke clothing ...

fashions for 15-25 year-olds. The first Pimckie store opened in Lille. In 1983, Pimckie became Pimkie. At the end of the 1980s, Pimkie had established itself throughout

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

with around 100 stores. The brand grew internationally over 20 years. In 2015, the brand expanded its target market from 15-25 year-olds to 18-35 year-olds. By 2018, it had 716 stores in 30 countries, mainly in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, five purchasing-sourcing offices (Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, China, and Hong Kong), one main warehouse in Germany, and five distribution warehouses in Europe. The company began to face difficulties in late 2010 following a proposed agreement on an indefinite number of contract terminations in France. In 2017, Pimkie announced it would close some 50 stores in Germany and Austria, amid several executive departures. In August 2018, it made 208 people redundant in France and closed 37 stores. In December 2018, Béatrice Lafon was appointed as CEO. The

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

of Pimkie's

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

and

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

subsidiaries was announced in 2021, amid management issues and the pandemic.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.pimkie.com/ French fashion Clothing brands of France Clothing companies of France Clothing retailers of France French companies established in 1971 Clothing companies established in 1971