Van de Velde

Van de Velde sits firmly at the luxury end of lingerie, and the case for it is durability and fit rather than novelty. Its premium brands are known for lasting years rather than a season, which softens the higher price over time. If you want lingerie engineered to fit and hold up, that is the brand group's whole proposition.

Van de Velde is the Belgian group behind several famous premium lingerie names: Marie Jo, PrimaDonna and Andrés Sardá. On the retail side it also owns store chains including Rigby & Peller and Lincherie. So when you buy Marie Jo or PrimaDonna, you are buying into the same century-old Belgian house.

Both are Van de Velde's premium labels, but they serve different needs. Marie Jo, launched in 1981, was the group's first own brand and leans into fashion-led lingerie, while PrimaDonna — acquired in 1990 — is especially known for fuller-cup support. The group has also extended each with sub-lines like Marie Jo L'Aventure and PrimaDonna Twist, so there is range within each name.

Let your fit lead the choice. If you wear a fuller cup and want serious support, PrimaDonna is the natural starting point; if you are after fashion-forward style and lace, Marie Jo is a strong first buy. For the best result, get fitted at one of the group's own retail concepts like Rigby & Peller, since precise fit is what these brands are built around.

Everything is designed in Schellebelle, the Belgian town where the company is headquartered, and then produced abroad. The majority of production takes place in Tunisia, with some manufacturing in China. So the creative and fit work stays Belgian even though the sewing happens elsewhere.

The company was founded in 1919 by Achiel and Margaretha Van de Velde, beginning with corset manufacture. It celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2019 and remains owned by the same family. That century of continuous lingerie-making is a big part of why the brands carry such craft credibility.

Yes — more than a century after its 1919 founding, the company is still owned by the founding Van de Velde family. It is also publicly traded, having floated on the Brussels Stock Exchange in 1997. That blend of family ownership and listed-company scale is unusual and shapes its long-term approach to the brands.

It evolved in clear stages: the first generation made corsets, the second expanded into bras and tights, and then the company launched its own brand Marie Jo in 1981. Acquiring PrimaDonna in 1990 and Spain's Andrés Sardá in 2008 turned it into a multi-brand luxury group. Each step moved it further from private-label corsetry toward the premium house it is today.

Rigby & Peller is one of Van de Velde's retail brands; the group took a majority stake in the UK fitting specialist in 2011. Rigby & Peller is famous for its fitting-room expertise, which dovetails with the group's focus on precise fit across Marie Jo and PrimaDonna. So buying through Rigby & Peller keeps you inside the same family of brands.

It does. The group has extended its lingerie expertise into swim, launching PrimaDonna Swim in 2013 and Marie Jo Swim in 2018. The appeal is the same fit-and-support engineering that defines its bras, applied to the beach — useful if you want swimwear that supports fuller cups properly.

Treat fine lingerie gently to protect both fit and lace. Hand-wash in cool water with a delicate detergent where possible, or use a lingerie bag on a gentle machine cycle, and reshape and air-dry rather than tumble-drying, which breaks down elastic. Rotating between bras rather than wearing the same one daily also helps the structure recover and last.