French lifestyle brand, Marinette Saint Tropez, is available in Australia and New Zealand for the first time through wholesaler Blossom & Bubbles.
The label was started 60 years ago and is well known in Europe for luxurious products—including towels, table linen, home fragrance and candles—at affordable prices.
Blossom & Bubble co-founders Caroline Khelaifia (Blossom) and Cathryn Bock (Bubbles) met through their children and quickly bonded over a love of good food and wine. Khelaifia has a French background and has been bringing premium French fashion labels to Australia for over 10 years, while Bock has marketing and event management experience.
“Caroline has known Marinette St Tropez for many years as it is a famous French label,” says Bock. “During one of her buying trips to France she found that the label was constantly renewing itself with over 85 per cent of their collections being new each year.”
The pair launched Marinette to trade at Life Instyle Melbourne, including bath towels that are used by five star hotels along the French Riviera and a range of printed table linen. “All our original prints are hand painted in St Tropez, France and then hand stamped onto fabulous quality cottons and linen,” says Khelaifia.
“We also launched a range of home fragrances with all natural essences and fragrances from Grasse, France. Grasse is the world capitol of perfumery with Dior, Chanel, Guerlain and many other international brands [located there].”
The pair says the reaction from Australian shoppers to Marinette has been positive so far, and they are looking for more brands to bring to market.
“We have just started so we need to get [Marinette] up and running…but we have been looking at different brands to add to our portfolio and are currently checking consistency in style and price/quality ratios,” says Khelaifia.
By Ruth Cooper
