The Elégance company, now globally successful, was founded by the Offergelt brothers in 1938 as a fabric business. The Elégance workforce in 2010 totals 330 people.

Its head office is in Aachen, in Germany, where a design team creates superb prêt-à-porter collections that are presented every season in top-flight boutiques, online, in the company’s own shops, franchise shops and shop-in-shops. Matching accessories – from scarfs to shoes and handbags – round off the Elégance creations.

International presence

Major milestones on the Elégance road to international success were the foundation of our foreign subsidiaries in France (1954), Austria (1955), Switzerland (1960), Belgium (1973) and the United Kingdom (1992).

The prêt-à-porter collection premiered in 1970, which also saw the first Elégance catalogue. We launched our licensing business in Asia in 1980, and granting licences for top-quality products has continuously built up the Elégance brand image in both the Asian and European areas. The first exclusive Elégance shops opened in several European countries in 1992, and today they can be found in prime retail locations in Paris, Brussels, London, Tokyo … there are more than 70 shops, both the company’s own and franchised, throughout the world. (Elégance collections are now available in 55 countries.)

Elégance and exclusivity personified

The creative Elégance theme is the unique conjunction of elegance and exclusivity. The collection is characterised by exquisite materials, supreme tailoring, flawless craftsmanship right down to the smallest detail – and a predilection for the effective use of colors.

Quality always has absolute priority. It takes a very special sort of savoir-faire to implement every season’s latest trends in fashions that perfectly meet the tastes and preferences of our discerning customers, and this is crucial to the success of the Elégance style.

One style characteristic remains constant: Elégance fashions are unfailingly feminine, modern, and – as the company name makes clear – quintessentially elegant!