Feel At Home
Buying lingerie and swimwear is tricky and our mission at Maison SL is to make it easy for you.
Maison SL is an award-winning luxury lingerie and swimwear boutique in Notting Hill We are experts in what we do and stock a wide range of international designer brands. We cater for all ages, shapes and sizes from cup size A to J. There is something here for you.
You can come and feel safe and at home here in the knowledge that you will get expert advice from a team who will find exactly the right solution for you – whether you want a well-made everyday bra for work, sexy lingerie for a date or a new swimsuit or bikini for your next beach holiday.
Buying swimwear can be very intimidating. We understand that. And we will make sure you come away with swimwear that is comfortable, suits your shape and makes you look and feel fantastic.
Customers range from sporty teenagers through to busy mums, professional women and mature ladies. Sometimes we have three generations in the store at the same time, not to mention husbands, lovers and boyfriends.
So come along to the shop for a free bra fitting and styling session. Or sign up for an online appointment. We do online bra fittings in the digital world on Facetime or Zoom and delivery is free for online orders.
The Collection
The Collection
Maison SL’s wide selection of more than two dozen luxury lingerie and designer swimwear brands are carefully curated by Susana Lorena, Maison SL’s founder. The collection is about elegance, fashion, luxury and quality. Susana has more than two decades experience in the lingerie business. Her idiosyncratic eye for what will look good brings a distinctive unity to Maison SL and the boutique stocks collections and brands that are hard to find elsewhere.
Maison SL is the only independent store in the UK to stock the exquisite, high fashion brand I.D Sarrieri. Other brands such as Banana Moon, Huit and Valery are not available at any other shops in London. You can choose between the exotic, sensual creations of the Barcelona lingerie designer Andres Sarda; the leading French lingerie houses Aubade, Lise Charmel and Maison Lejaby; the superb quality of Empreinte, Prima Donna and Marie Jo; luxury swimwear brands such as Gottex, Maryan Mehlhorn and Nicole Olivier; and leading British brands Fleur of England and the upcoming Parasol Rose and Shell Belle Couture
The range includes lingerie for all occasions. You can find basic, everyday T Shirt bras suitable for work, Sports bras for your exercise sessions or beautiful, exotic lingerie by Andres Sarda and Aubade when you want some sexy lingerie. You can also choose from our collection of exclusive bridal lingerie and later you can come back to buy your maternity bras and nursing bras.
The Team
Maison SL is a family business. Susana Lorena (right) has been involved in lingerie and fashion for more than two decades. She works with her sister Laura Pinheiro and two Bengal cats, Tiga and Bubbles.
Before opening Maison SL Susana worked for both Rigby & Peller, the British lingerie retailer, and for Eres, the Chanel swimwear and lingerie brand. At Rigby & Peller she managed their flagship King’s Road store in Chelsea and also revived the Bow Lane store in the City of London. At Eres she launched a new store in the Burlington Arcade in Piccadilly, a leading luxury shopping destination in London, and was responsible for building the clientele and developing the business.
Susana also started up and ran her own lingerie business in Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey for a number of years, and still has loyal customers from those days who come to Maison SL.
Conveniently for such an international community as Notting Hill, Susana speaks French, Italian and Spanish as well as her native Portuguese.
Sister Laura Pinheiro is fluent in Spanish as well as Portuguese. She too has spent much of her career in the luxury retail industry. She worked in Porto for Christian Dior as a manager at El Corte Ingles, the top department store in Portugal. She has also worked for luxury retailers Fenwick and Selfridges.
Laura is a talented make-up artist with a highly developed sense of colour and shape, which is very handy when helping customers choose the right colours in lingerie and swimwear.
Tiga (pictured) is more outgoing of the two Bengal cats. She comes to work most days and enjoys sunning herself in the shop window and watching the world pass by. She is also an accomplished sales person and has brought many new customers into the shop. And she has lots of local friends in Notting Hill, who come to visit - including both canines and humans. Bubbles, who has a Spanish passport, is rather shy and tends to take lengthy siestas in the stockroom.
Expert Bra Fitting
It is sadly true that many women go for years wearing the wrong size bra. One of the most common questions women ask is ‘How do you measure your bra size?’ Many have no idea. Or sometimes they have been badly fitted in the past. It is complicated because your shape changes at different stages in your life.
That is why it is so important to get advice at a specialist lingerie and swimwear store. Wearing the wrong size bra is uncomfortable. It can also be harmful, especially when breasts are developing and when you are taking exercise.
We are specialists at fitting by sight and will advise you on the right size. But that is only part of the story. Different brands and bra styles suit different bodies - some women prefer bralettes, some need the support that comes from a wired bra, some shapes work with balcony or plunge bras but some do not. Brands also vary in how they fit and some will suit certain women and not others.
The same is true of swimwear. Finding the best swimwear to suit you requires an understanding of body shape and how different swimwear styles will complement your figure. For instance, if you have wide shoulders then you should think about halter necks as they will make you look smaller on top. Colour and how it complements your skin tone is also critical when buying swimwear.
Stocking a wide range of different brands allows us to cater for all sorts of women of different shapes and sizes, at different stages of their lives, and those with specialist needs such as mastectomy bras. We are good at finding solutions and we will find the right solution for you. We want you to come away feeling comfortable, stylish and good about yourself.
Bra Recycling
Sustainability is a growing concern for all of us and the clothing industry is a huge source of environmental damage. To help address this we operate as a bra bank for Against Breast Cancer, collecting unwanted bras for recycling.
Many of you will have bras in your drawers that you do not wear any more - or perhaps have never worn. Bring them to us and we will ensure they do not end up in landfill by sending them for recycling and in the process raising money for secondary breast cancer research.
Under the Against Breast Cancer recycling scheme, unwanted bras that can be repurposed or have not been worn are sent to countries in Africa. There they are sold at affordable prices by local traders to women who would otherwise not be able to afford a bra.
The bras that are beyond saving are sent off for specialist recycling.
To encourage people to recycle their bras rather than throw them away, we run a Bra Amnesty each year sponsored by a leading lingerie brand. Last year it was Aubade and the year before Maison Lejaby. The sponsors generously donate free bras to give to the first two hundred customers to hand in their unwanted bras for recycling.
