Agent Provocateur opens in SF

Saucy British lingerie label Agent Provocateur opened its fourth US store in San Francisco on Valentine's Day.

“We knew San Francisco would be a great market because we've always had regulars from this city visit our boutiques in London and Los Angeles,” co-founder Joe Corre told WWD at Tuesday's opening night. Co-owner and Corre's wife, Serena Rees, was unable to attend.

The company now has 17 stores worldwide, including shop-in-shops in two Selfridges and a store at Heathrow.

Agent Provocateur is also offering an eight-minute, black-and-white film directed by Academy Award nominee Mike Figgis.

www.agentprovocateur.co.uk
16 February 2006

Push-up bra sales plummet

Sales in push-up bras are dramatically declining as British women turn to a more natural silhouette that matches the current Boho and Victorian styles. These are the new findings from TNS FashionTrak. Sales in push-up bras have dropped 10 per cent year-on-year, while the sale of non-push-up under wire bras has climbed 5 percent. Sales of push-up bras bought as a present have plummeted 61 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, push-up bras represent 14 per cent of all bra sales in a market valued at £647 million, and which is growing 5 per cent per year.

Further to this, 17 percent of push-up bras are purchased by women under 25, while over half of all 35-54 year olds buy non-push-ups. “Women are increasingly looking for comfortable underwear which gives a flattering silhouette,” says Fiona Bell, director of TNS FashionTrak. “ Whilst younger girls still favour cleavage enhancing bras, women over 30 are more likely to opt for the comfort and shape of a non push-up bra.”

6 September 2005

Maidenform Q2 sales growth

The US undergarments marketer Maidenform Inc has reported an increase in sales for the second quarter, thereby narrowing its loss. Net sales for the period ended 2 July were up 8.9 percent from $93.9 million (£52.6 million) in the same period last year to $102.3 million.

Net sales for the wholesale division climbed 10.2 percent to $87.5 million, compared with $79.4 million in the second quarter of 2004. Gains in this division were primarily due to sales in the mass merchant channel, generated by new store growth and additional product placements.

Net sales for fiscal 2005 increased by 17.4 percent to $202.5 million, while international sales – including the wholesale division – grew 53.8 percent to $12.3 million. The company said that sales in the first quarter benefited greatly from the roll out of certain products to all stores of a major mass merchant. It also launched a line of panties to a US chain.

www.maidenform.com
31 August 2005

Early development

Training bras are a big thing with young girls these days. We're all getting bigger nowadays, and not just in girth or height. Increasingly younger girls are starting to need that little bit of support that a 'starter bra' can offer. And even if they don't, peer pressure from bra-strap-snapping pre-teen boys will send any young girl running for the lingerie department. After all, what's worse than having that cute boy try to snap your bra and finding that there's nothing to snap? Exactly!

Whatever the motivation, the retailers are catching on to the trend. Companies like Sara Lee Corp have invested heavily in starter bras and some of the larger department stores have begun training their staff to fit bras for "first timers", writes Reuters. The shocking news is that girls as young as six are starting to develop breasts, according to Iris Prager who has a Ph.D. in health education and runs www.beinggirl.com, a Procter & Gamble sponsored website. The average age for Caucasian girls to develop has been shown to be a little over age 9, while African-American girls average at age 8, according to a 1997 study.

No one knows exactly why girls are reaching puberty so much earlier these days, although people have come up with extreme theories like the abundance of hormone-laced food in average US diets and the influence of sexual themes in television and film. The bottom line is that they are and they need bras.

Sara Lee came up with an answer a few years ago. "When we introduced 'Barely There' three years ago, we immediately found it appealed to this whole category of customers," Joanne Kaye, director of merchandising for Sara Lee, told Reuters. "This customer is very modest…and not ready to wear the underwire." Offering the bras in blue with yellow or pinek and green with cranberry helps appeal to a young girl's sensibilities, says Kaye.

Maidenform, an established name in the US with legendary bra ads dating back to the 50s and 60s, also successfully introduced its sportsbra "One Fabulous Fit" in 2001. Abercrombie & Fitch was not as successful. It introduced a range that was far too sexy for its target group. Parents and child advocacy groups were outraged and the company withdrew the line. The rule of thumb with training bras is to keep it simple and innocent.

7 July 2005

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Impetus introduces Coolmax® Women’s Fashion Underwear

Impetus is highly experienced with Men’s Fashion Underwear. This year they introduce Women’s Fashion Underwear for the first time. A nice, trendy outlook combined with high-quality materials such as Coolmax®, a high performance fibre. Its heat regulating effect increases the comfort and well-being of the body in any climate conditions. All the items are made seamless so it fits perfectly.

Impetus Portugal, started in 1973 with 6 employees and nowadays a group of eight companies with 800 employees in total. All together they are responsible for the design, production, sales and distribution of about 9,500,000 articles, mainly Men Fashion Underwear. Recently women’s fashion underwear was introduced for the first time. The whole process is done with the help of most modern equipment for e.g. cutting and weaving; but also the fully automated intelligent warehouses respond at all times to the demands of the market. The high-quality products are distributed to customers in Europe, Canada, U.S.A. and China.

For Impetus quality is important both for company processes and production. To support the company processes Impetus was looking for high-quality and modern software; they choose for Navsion-Pebblestone Fashion. A short but very thorough preparation was necessary. With this Impetus uses the modules: Wholesale/Distribution, Inter Company, Advanced Forecasting, Sales Target and Analysis from January 2005 on.

>> more on Pebblestone
8 February 2005

Naughty but very nice

State of undress may be a condition we often find ourselves in, but these days the term is also synonymous with up-market, provocative lingerie. In fact, it is a new brand that threatens the monopoly of Agent Provocateur in the naughty-but-nice lingerie stakes.

Before Agent Provocateur founders Joe Corre and Serena Rees came along and packed the lingerie market with a bit of punch back in the 90s, all Britain really had was Marks & Spencers for day and Janet Reger for evening underwear. Once Agent Provocateur was established it became the by-word in up-market risqué lingerie. Agent P even provided the high street with an affordable line, available at Marks & Sparks.

But now newcomers are chomping at the bit. State of Undress consists of a team of three Saint Martin's graduates. Canadian Alexandra Suhner, Emma Cheevers - deputy editor of Urbanjunkies.com - and textile designer Daniel Reynolds are stimulating the senses with signature pieces like sash panties and lavish kimono's.

Another brand, Tabooboo, is providing "no sex please, we're British" Britain with peek-a-boo bras in pretty floral prints and bottom-revealing wrap gowns. Tabooboo sex toy vending machines are slowly taking over London bars and clubs, and plans to expand to other cities are on the way.

State of Undress is available at Liberty and the Tabooboo boutique can be found on the second floor of Selfridges.

www.letrainbleu.com
www.figleaves.com
2 November 2004

Leslie Ash New Playtex Model

Leslie Ash, the former star of the sitcom Men Behaving Badly, has been selected as the new face of bra-maker Playtex. The 44-year old actress has recently made headline tabloid press and has denied rumours she landed in hospital as the result of domestic violence from ex-footballer Lee Chapman.

"Playtex believes that Leslie Ash is perfect for the 'Just My Style' campaign because she is a real woman," says Therese Gilligan, marketing manager for the brand. "On the one hand, she is an aspirational, beautiful and confident celebrity, with a hugely successful acting career. On the other hand, as a mum who has been through difficult times, she is very accessible and easy for women across the UK to identify with."

Ash herself is upbeat. "I chose this range because it is so right for a woman like me who wants to look good and feel really feminine. I love the way I look in these pictures - sexy and confident."

Jasmine Montgomery, the strategic director of branding agency FutureBrand and an expert on marketing to women, believes that the choice of Ash as a role model is a welcome step in the right direction. "Any time a fashion brand, in particular a lingerie brand, decides to use someone in their forties, that's a positive move because it goes against the grain of so many brands that have invested in youth," she said.

She compares the Playtex campaign with the recent adverts for Body Shop and Dove bath products, featuring real women of all shapes and sizes. "There's a massive opportunity out there for brands to promote women's self-esteem. Most brands actually damage women's self-esteem because they understand that's a way to drive purchasing behaviour."

12 October 2004

New face for Wonderbra

The world-renown brassier company celebrated its tenth anniversary in Times Square last week with a new ad campaign on a billboard. The Yugoslavian model Maja has been chosen as the current face of Wonderbra and features on the billboard. She was also present at the big reveal last week and expressed her joy at having been chosen.

Marketing Manager for Wonderbra, Diane Ridgway-Cross, said that they had looked at thousands of women, but Maja simply exuded the right degree of confidence and sexiness, which represents the brand.

www.wonderbra.com
12 October 2004

Bigger Package

Men are waging war on their small endowments, and the battle has spilled over into a big fashion trend. Now there are two new products on the market giving men confidence in their packages. 2xist, the long-running underwear choice for providing a subtle lift, is bracing for competition from new arrival C-in 2, billed as the "push-up for men."

The line comes from 2xist founder Greg Sovell whose innovation in package enhancement is the Sling Support, an adjustable microfiber loop engineered to increase trade. The brand's racy Steven Klein-lensed campaign will have a splashy launch this fall giving a big rise to men's profile.

2 Aug 2004

Chunk Launches Underwear

Chunk, the young casualwear brand made famous by its T-shirt prints taken from Haynes auto manuals, has launched an underwear range. The collection, which has already been bought by House of Fraser, features prints including Michael Caine and Al Pacino.

6 November 2003

A dream come true: underwear that burns fat

Do you still feel fat after all that Christmas food? Go to Japan for a new solution: fat eating underwear. Second Japanese intimate apparel company Gunze declared on Tuesday it has developed a new range of underwear for women that will help to lose weight. The company says their underwear range has a slimming benefit, because the panties are laced with caffeine and fragrances that activate the central nervous system and burn fat.

The company said it has used several key agents from a popular skin lotion in the new range, which will retail from 4 USD to 35 USD. In October last year, Boffins at Fuji Spinning Co designed a new lingerie line that "eats" fat when absorbed into the skin. The "Wonder Slim" fabric contained caffeine and seaweed extracts.

The company claimed the extracts would continue to be absorbed into the body even after they had been washed. Sure. We may be desperate to lose weight, but come on, fat eating underwear? I'm scared of what it might actually eat…

January 22, 2003

Underwear sales on the rise again

Lingerie and underwear manufacturers are doing well all over the world. After reported sales rises of seamless underwear in the UK and Italy last week, this week China joins the club. Chinese underwear companies are expected to enjoy an average annual profit growth of 20% with sales expected to hit almost $11 billion in 2002. This year 600 million pieces of underwear are expected to be sold in China with 60% of those consumers seen as women who live in the country’s big cities. China currently has more than 3.000 producers of intimate apparel.

Back in the UK experts say the popularity of G-strings among women has hit an all-time high. Industry insiders say sales of ladies' thongs now match those of traditional knickers.

The success of G-strings began around five years ago among women trying to disguise visible panty line when wearing close-fitting dresses or slacks. But underwear manufacturers now say their appeal has broadened and they are becoming the preferred choice for women on other occasions. Separate research suggests one in three women would wear no underwear beneath an evening dress five years ago, but with the rise in the popularity of thongs this had fallen to one in nine.

8-14-2002