Le Chat

Le Chat lingerie traces back to a weaving workshop in Chauffailles, a small Burgundy town that turned to textile production in the 19th century on the strength of its proximity to Lyon's silk trade. According to the region's own tourism authority, the business passed from founder Antoine Durand to his daughter Aimee Durand, who together with her husband Jean Chalumet built the nightwear-and-loungewear brand that became Le Chat, distinct from the town's wider textile trade. (Note: sources disagree on the precise founding date -- this record's existing description cites 1802, while regional tourism material dates Chauffailles' textile specialization only to 1842; neither figure has been independently confirmed as Le Chat's own specific founding year, so no date is asserted here.) The company remains family-run today under Gregoire Chalumet and has grown into an internationally distributed nightwear house, present in more than 30 countries, still manufacturing from its original Chauffailles site -- now promoted by local tourism under the heritage name 'Textile Indemaillable.' The factory itself is not a public storefront: it opens to visitors only during guided tours organized by the local tourism office and during periodic factory-sale events held a few times a year, with Le Chat's regular retail presence instead running through department-store concessions such as Galeries Lafayette and its own e-commerce site.