JANET REGERJanet Reger, who died on 14 March, 2005 aged 69, was a revered lingerie designer who became a forerunner in making sexy underwear available for the British high-street.One of the first to offer ordinary women the chance to wear lacy bras, knickers and nightdresses, she undoubtably kick-started the flourishing underwear business that has since developed in Britain with the likes of Agent Provocateur and Victoria’s Secret.Some of her most high-profile customers have included Princess Diana, Britt Ekland and Joan Collins. Ms Collins wore the label throughout her 1978 film ‘The Stud’ and even men such as Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger have been seen shopping at her London store for their wives.In her 1991 autobiography, Mrs Reger remarked, “I’ve always been an optimist, even when things get very black and I am depressed for a short time.”Janet Phillips was born in the East End of London on 30 September, 1935. Her parents made bras from textile factory cut-offs during the war and, after leaving Kendrick School in Reading, she chose to study corsetry and underwear design at what is now known as De Monfort University.Later disillusioned by late-‘50s London, she moved to Israel for a brief time before finally settling in Zurich, where, during the early 1960s, she started her own lingerie business from home.In 1966 she returned to London and opened a tiny Paddington workshop a year later. Despite being told repeatedly by every manufacturer that there was “no way English women will buy things like this,” her expensive custom-made creations soon became known throughout the capital and the business snowballed as celebrities such as Bianca Jagger and Angie Bowie placed orders.Shops in Bond Street and Beauchamp Palace saw Mrs Reger’s annual sales figures top £2 million by the 1980s but, when the company’s rash expansion outstripped its market in 1983, it was forced to go into voluntary liquidation with debts of £1 million.However, despite the collapse of the business and her husband’s suicide in 1985, Mrs Reger fought back and used savings of £5,000 to set about rebuilding the business on a more manageable basis.After the slow retrieval of the business and a breast cancer scare in 1991, the designer began to withdraw from the industry, instead choosing to spend the vast majority ofher later years in Mauritius where most of the Janet Reger Creations were manufactured.Day-to- day control of the company passed to her daughter Aliza who took over as chief executive in 1998. By now turning over £5 million a year, it was divided into a couture division, an affordable luxury range and a diffusion line sold at Debenhams.Mrs Reger died after a long battle with cancer on 14 March 2005, aged 69.She reportedly knew she had made it after hearing a character in a Tom Stoppard play utter the line, “Don’t get your Janet Reger’s in a twist.”Today, her signature pieces such as satin and lace basques can cost up to £235.Of her mother, only child Aliza Reger remarked, “There was nobody who did not love her.”The company launched its rather more risqué line ‘Naughty Janet’ in 2004, which included thongs embedded with Swarovski crystals.
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