Same for Valentines day. These sort of special occasions sell really well over the internet. A lot of men bought lingerie or little accessories over the last two weeks for their Valentine. In the boutique nobody seemed interested in our Valentines accessories. We don’t know why. By far our best selling items over the Internet in February were the gift boxes by Bijoux Indiscrets. But only during the past weeks. Men seemed to love the Agent Secret Set or the Regard Indiscret one. Probably it felt safe, they dont need to bother about such complicated things as cup sizes;-). And obviously they know that they benefit as well…

Bijoux Indiscrets is one of our discoveries coming back from SIL in Paris. Another one was S.P.A.N.K: Sexy Panties and Naughty Knickers. A brand we love. Totally cute bras and knickers fashioned in pure silk chiffon with a gorgeous design and wonderfully pastel colours. Perfect for spring! Its a new brand for us and for most of Germany, so we are really curious how it will sell. But judging from the first customer reactions, people seem to love it.

So, we wish you all a happy Valentine and dont forget to stop by at: www.liaison-dangereuse.com, there is always an occasion for lingerie

So really everything could be just beautiful, if there were no telecommunication companies in the world. Who needs them anyway? As they dont seem to sell telecommunication. Really, I dont know what they do – Edlyn and me keep guessing – but for sure, they dont do in telecommunications. Same for logistic companies by the way.

We personally think that all these “service” companies purposely use leading words such as transport, logistics, telecommunications etc in their names to trick innocent people into believing they would actually do something for you. But then, when you ask for a specific service, it seems that the whole company just dissolves into hundreds of helplines with unfriendly people sitting around the world and all they do is driving you mad over the phone with blatant ignorance to hide the simple fact that the requested service, nor any other service for that matter, would exist.

We can tell you, being an online shop without internet access is a lot fun! And explaining this to German telecommunication companies is even more fun.

But we have survived moving from one office to another.

Good news is that over x-mas the portion of our male customers has increased dramatically! It seems as there are a lot of really nice guys out there, that fear no costs nor effort to surprise the queen of their hearts with a very special gift. Funny enough, we realised that guys always buy the more delicate, more costly, more luxurious – and of course more sexy outfit – than girls would do. They instead would rather go for the more practical thing. Who said again that guys don’t like shopping? I think, goal oriented as they are, guys just need something that motivates them. And what could be more motivating than seeing your heart’s queen in some hot Madame V babydoll? We had two big x-mas bestsellers: The Merveilleuse Set by Chantal Thomass and the Opium Set by Madame V.

We are very curious what will be the bestseller for Valentine’s Day…

We’ll see next time.

Liaison Dangereuse
Edlyn Mauke and Laurence Saunier, two German lingerie-victims in their early 30’s and founders of liaison-dangereuse.com, a fine French web-boutique for designer lingerie and accessories. Soon, they’ll also be opening a ‘real’ boutique in Hamburg, Germany!

Read all posts by the Liaison Dangereuse girls right here!

For us two girls it felt like entering lingerie’s paradise. By January 07 my best friend Edlyn and me finally had the guts to quit our safe and well paid marketing jobs for a not so safe and well paid career as lingerie entrepreneurs. But hey, what the hell! For years we had suffered from lingerie desert in Germany. Having an Italian boyfriend at the time and a French father, I just could no longer accept the fact that my choice of lingerie should be limited to white, crème, champagne or maybe rose – to ask for something very extravagant.

Where were all these beautiful labels that I had seen in VOGUE or Sex & the City? Of course there were one or two shops selling one or two pieces, but this had nothing to do with the choice a girl gets in Paris, London or Milan. Where the most beautiful cheeky and ironic Chantal Thomass pieces hang next to glamourous ID Sarrieri bras with all their affluent luxurious Italian details placed side by side to Madame V with her unique sexy styles. Something had to be done and www.liaison-dangereuse.com was born. Goal: bring the most stylish lingerie labels to Germany – and to us two girls .

Paris 07 was lingerie’s heaven. Unfortunately our favorite lingerie-queen Chantal Thomass was not at the fair, but after the first disappointment we somehow managed to get a private invitation to her fashion show. Imagine a grand boudoir style apartment in Paris’s chic 1er arrondissement with ornated walls and ceilings, golden mirrors, marble fireplaces and, instead of a catwalk, everyone seated around cosy small tables. Music starts, a glass of champagne in your hand and off the show goes. A brilliant play with female/male stereotypes: naïve posing with strawberry red lips and blonde Hollywood curls versus black pixie-cut and pinstripes. And our admired and beloved lingerie-queen herself just next to us! A glamourous French dame with straight black hair and deep red lips, dressed in her famous “dessous-dessus” styles, radiating pure Grandezza with every inch. That’s exactly how we fantasized about starting in lingerie.

However, after the first hype, we soon realized that building a lingerie business is a lot of work. And not everything is as fancy as sitting in a fashion show. Right after the show for example you have to decide what to buy. And there you go. Having opted for the most exclusive designer lingerie only, you cannot buy the pieces off the shelf just in time whenever you need it but you have to decide on two dates only what you are going to sell over the year. There are two designer collections per year, summer and winter, and that’s it. Meaning 6 months in advance you have to know what to buy and how much to buy. No way of bringing obsoletes back or reorder if you run out. Quite a risk to start with. What will be hot and what not? What are the pieces that earn money and what are the ones that ruin my return quota? There is no way to guess the right trends and quantities in advance. Ok, white, champagne and rose will probably always sell. But we started out to offer some choice!

And then, how will people know that we are there and have all the lingerie pieces in stock that they have fantasized their whole life about? With no budget for expensive advertising or PR agencies? Even though having seen “The devil wears Prada” we decided that there was nothing to loose and just phoned all the German fashion mags ourselves. Being scared as hell when we first had the German VOGUE on the phone, we got so surprised by how nice they all were! With all that glamour one sometimes probably tends to forget that the work of a fashion journalist, even at VOGUE, is about introducing new trends, new labels and new stores, including ours if we are lucky. So they would usually not bite over the phone but respond friendly to your request. In the end, we met a lot of very nice and very human fashion journalists.

And yes, we had quite some sleepless nights over the finest French lingerie that didn’t sell because of too high prices or charmingly playful English bras that sold as hell but didn’t fit and all came back. But all in all the first year into lingerie has passed so well that we will expand our online business with a real classic boutique in Hamburg. We already painted the walls, in violet! It looks gorgeous! A beautiful cosy boudoir in the city center to open in a couple of weeks. But more about this in next time…

Liaison Dangereuse
Edlyn Mauke and Laurence Saunier, two German lingerie-victims in their early 30’s and founders of liaison-dangereuse.com, a fine French web-boutique for designer lingerie and accessories. Soon, they’ll also be opening a ‘real’ boutique in Hamburg, Germany!

Read all posts by the Liaison Dangereuse girls right here!

The Madame V pieces are those of their AW07 line we featured last week. I loved them before — and I love them now. At €219 for this excellent Romantica set for example, you pay for what you get, though!

I like the Pleasure State pieces though, even though they’re way more basic. The Pleasure State class shines through though, especially in sets like this pretty Cinta bra and Thong/Garter combo!

Mimi is doing great. They’re in the high street boutiques all over the globe, which includes a regular slot on the racks of Barney’s, New York and LA, Topshop, online giant Figleaves and many more…

Autumn/Winter 07 is Mimi’s most mature and sophisticated collection yet, in subtle colours, which designer Damaris Turtle says is ‘friendly to everyone’. However, as always each story includes that trademark edge, which sets the label apart from the rest. There’s a splash of vibrant coral silk, sophisticated black silk chiffon with black polka dot velvet flocking, ingenious thong and boy short designs, and a new ultra low cut bra in black lace. Each bra is available with a knicker, boy short and thong.

Sizes range to accommodate 28 – 40 backs in cups aa – gg, and also small to extra large in bottoms. Thanks to Liaison Dangereuse for the photos — it’s always hard to find decent quality shots of the Mimi Holliday collections!

I actually adore the pieces — very feminine, but all in warm and romantic winter-colors: it works. Price tags of around €50 for a bra,€25 for thong/panties — not too expensive.

Enjoy the photo set — more Rosapois (and Liaison Dangereuse) to come soon — I promise!

Brand Selection
The brand selection is awesome: Chantal Thomass, I.D. Sarrieri, Moontide, Princesse Tam Tam, Mimi Holliday, Pleasure State and Elise Aucouturier — all luxurious, high quality brands that aren’t always easy to find on the net. They’ll be adding Madame V to that list in august — something we can only applaud!

Pricing
This is Euro-pricing and even though that’s my home currency I’m not too used to comparing prices in Euro. After doing some calculating the prices look competitive, though! Don’t expect cheap — these pieces just aren’t.

Some teasers
Enjoy these pretty photos — some of my favorites at Liaison Dangereuse.

Check them out — and let us know if you buy something, we’re always interested in knowing how the shopping experience is at new shops!