Maison Close rebrands as Scandale, opens Paris flagship on Rue Cambon

Maison Close is making one of the boldest moves in French lingerie right now: it is handing its future to Scandale, a heritage name with enough history to shift the brand from niche sensuality into a more overtly luxurious register. The company will officially adopt the Scandale name on July 22, and a Paris flagship is set to open on Rue Cambon in September, putting the relaunch on one of the city’s most symbolically charged luxury streets.

The wager is bigger than a simple rename. Maison Close, founded in 2006 by Nicolas Busnel after a career in advertising, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2026 by absorbing and reviving a label that dates to 1932, when Robert Perrier, a textile designer and former collaborator of Christian Dior, founded Scandale. Maison Close has described the heritage house as a pioneer of the modern girdle and credited it with helping introduce softer, lighter underwear that broke away from restrictive lingerie codes. That is a potent story in a market where lingerie heritage still carries real emotional weight, especially when it can be translated into something that feels current rather than costume-like.

The acquisition came from Hong Kong-based Hop Lun, which had owned Scandale since 2006. Maison Close had already begun sketching out the relaunch, with a first Scandale collection called Rococo planned for late January 2026, before the name change was pushed into a more public-facing reinvention. That sequence suggests a brand trying to do more than borrow old-language glamour. It is trying to make heritage do commercial work again, and to do it in a category where provenance can matter as much as silhouette.

Rue Cambon is the second half of the message. A flagship there is not just a Paris opening; it is a declaration that Scandale wants to be read alongside the city’s most recognizable luxury codes, with Chanel’s own flagship at 31 Rue Cambon reinforcing the address’s cachet. In an international market crowded with lingerie brands that trade on either comfort or seduction, the Maison Close-Scandale pivot aims for a sharper proposition: French lingerie with history, a named founder, a luxury postcode, and a brand architecture built to travel well beyond its home market. If it lands, the new Scandale could become legible not as a revival project, but as a serious player in modern luxury lingerie.