Camaïeu dressed French women for 38 years — the court gave it one day to close

Camaïeu was founded in Roubaix in 1984 and grew into one of France's most familiar women's fashion chains: 600 boutiques by 2007, a store in most mid-sized town centres, and clothes aimed squarely at the mainstream. It survived the first shock of e-commerce; it did not survive the second decade of it, as Primark, Shein and the marketplace platforms took the middle of the market apart.

The owner that bought it in 2020, the holding group Hermione People & Brands, arrived with a portfolio of other struggling retailers and not enough capital for any of them. When Camaïeu went back to the Lille Commercial Court in September 2022, HPB's recovery plan proposed closing 208 of the stores and cutting about 500 jobs — and asked the French state for €48 million of the €80 million it said was needed. The government judged the request unrealistic.

On 28 September 2022 the court ordered compulsory liquidation instead: all 508 stores to close, all 2,600 employees made redundant by the end of October. Two turnaround funds, Hilco and Gordon Brothers, had looked at the whole business and both withdrew. The name survived only as an asset in the sale — bought by the menswear chain Celio, which began reopening Camaïeu stores in 2023, a smaller brand in someone else's hands.