The history of La Senza dates from 1966 when the company Suzy Shier Inc. was formed.

Nowadays the La Senza Corporation, based in Montreal, Canada, is a major retailer of women’s lingerie and apparel, offering a quality product range including women’s and men’s underwear, loungewear, sleepwear, bodycare and various accessories. 

It currently operates around 200 stores in its native country and a further 140 stores and licensed operations in countries throughout the world, including the U.K. and the Middle East. And via its 80 La Senza Girl stores, it appeals to girls between the ages of eight and 14.

Although it only entered the U.S. lingerie market in 2003 with La Senza Lingerie, it has sold products to its main neighbour since 1984 through its subsidiary Wet Seal.

La Senza is a public company, but 90% of the shares are owned by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Irving Teitelbaum.

Teitelbaum, along with brother-in-law Stephen Gross, teamed up to open Suzy Shier in 1966, on behalf of their store owning father-in-law Irwin Shier. Suzy Shier was aimed at the junior fashion market and after Irwin Shier died two years later, Teitelbaum and Gross began to aggressively market the store.

Over the next ten years, the number of Suzy Shier stores grew to 22 throughout Canada and in 1975, in search of fresh capital, the brothers-in-law sold a majority share (50.1%) share in Suzy Shier to Toronto-based Dylex Ltd, which had a number of retail operations in its company portfolio. With the backing of Dylex, Suzy Shier added a further 50 stores.

Also in this period, they acquired 80% of the U.S. company, Wet Seal. The deal was struck in 1984, with Dylex owning 40%. In 1990 Wet Seal was floated as a public company, raising $41 million which was used to pay back Dylex loans, reduce debt following some heavy losses and fuel Wet Seal expansion. Which it did, growing to around 600 stores.

Also in the 1980s Teitelbaum and Gross, thinking that many of their businesses had peaked, saw the growth of Victoria’s Secret in the states, and decided to emulate their success. The team wanted to avoid the overtly sexual nature of the Victoria Secret product range, but still offer a range of exciting lingerie. La Senza was born and in 1990 the first shop was opened in Ottawa’s Place D’Orleans Shopping Centre.

The concept was simple: create a private label (Senza means without in Italian) range of lingerie and sell it within a boutique format. Throughout a number of corporate acquisitions and traumas, the brand went from strength to strength, growing throughout Canada, the U.S. and then worldwide.

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