Bestseller group launches French-style label Rouge Edit

Danish fashion group Bestseller, which owns brands like Vero Moda, Jack & Jones, Vila, and Only, has recently unveiled a new label with a premium positioning called Rouge Edit. Designed in Denmark, the womenswear label’s refined looks combine a rather minimalist Scandinavian vibe with French-style elegance. Rouge Edit is partly inspired by Parisian chic and is mainly targeting France as its expansion market.

“Rouge Edit is an edgier, more upmarket version of our Vila brand, which has been synonymous with everyday womenswear for 30 years,” said Shanel Bican, head of marketing and communication at Bestseller France. “It is targeted at urban consumers in their thirties with an eye for fine directional items,” she added. Rouge Edit is planning to drop four collections per year.

For its first collection, Spring 2025, it has created a wardrobe “that transcends transitory trends,” said Bican, with an emphasis on “simplicity as much as sophistication.” The designs are rather directional, for example a belted waistcoat and trousers set, or a short leather dress with a shirt collar, and some of them feature bold hues like meadow green.

Price-wise, high-waisted trousers retail at €80, a leather jacket at €220, and a trench coat at €230. The majority of these items are manufactured by Bestseller’s production partners in Asia, but in future the group is planning to gradually source Rouge Edit’s collections closer to home, in Portugal. “We have a no-stock policy. We only produce the items ordered by retailers after their orders have been placed,” said Bican.

The Rouge Edit e-shop went live in December 2024, while the label’s first products were presented to buyers at Copenhagen Fashion Week last year, and are now available at several multibrand retailers. “We’re a little more selective in terms of our retailers’ profile. Some 20 stores are distributing the label in France for our first season,” said Bican. The target is to reach 50 retailers in France with the next collection, which will also feature on fashion e-tailer Place des Tendances.

Rouge Edit is also marketed in Denmark of course, and in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Italy is the next country on the list.

Last year, the Bestseller group created another new brand, in the menswear category. It is called Annarr and it too is targeting the premium segment, proposing a smart-casual men’s wardrobe aimed at urban consumers. Annarr isn’t yet distributed in France.

The Bestseller group’s products are sold via 2,800 monobrand stores and 16,000 multibrand retailers worldwide. The group’s strategy is to further diversify its brand portfolio, from the entry-level segment, where it is already very active, to the premium one. Bestseller was founded 50 years ago, and for its 2023-24 fiscal year, closed on July 31, it reported a 4% revenue shortfall, down to DKK35.6 billion (€4.77 billion). However, EBIT improved by 8% to DKK5.3 billion (€710 million).