Lejaby, the insolvent French lingerie manufacturing brand has been put into judicial administration by a Lyon court for a period of six months, to allow the company to continue to trade while it restructures its business and prepares a recovery plan.

According to a Just-Style.com report, Lejaby's debts to its suppliers will be frozen while workers' salaries will be paid through insurance protection, under the terms of the court's judgement. The report said the lingerie company, which closed three of its four French production sites at the end of last year, posted a loss of EUR2.7m for the 2010/2011 financial year.

Restructuring is said to have involved almost 200 jobs cuts and the transfer of production to North Africa. "Lejaby put its difficulties down to a significant shrinking in the multi-brand retailer channel, the main outlet for its products and whose global turnover has fallen by 25% between 2007 and 2010," the report said.

According to Lejaby its relationship with women story started back in 1930 with Gabrielle Viannay whose first bras manufactured in the backroom of a cinema in Bellegarde, near Lyon, experienced rapid success. Nicknamed ‘bras à la Gaby,' they quickly became the standard in the industry and the Lejaby brand then took shape.

Always in tune with women's needs and one step ahead of the trends, Lejaby negotiated exclusive use of Lycra fibre in France in the 1960s.

Prior to this, elastic parts of bras were made of natural rubber which had the disadvantage of drying out breaking over time. Lycra thus offered better durability and, when combined with Nylon which was also newly introduced to the market, provided women with a very simple care option (quick-drying, no ironing required, etc.).

According to Lejaby, while lingerie is often only focused on the art of seduction, the company challenges the norm to provide women with a new approach to lingerie. In 1995, the Nuage line was released and featured microfibre for the first time, a very new material. Nuage began the era of the Invisibles and the ultra-comfortable. Throughout the seasons, Nuage gradually became natural, more chic and refined. In 1999, Invisible Briefs joined the collection.