style='font-size:18.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>British bras are big business: New brands on the
market

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What is special about British
bras? 

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>For the last 15 years in Britain, there was, and is
still going on, an “underwear revolution” comprising two aspects: a human and a
commercial. Since the mid-1990s, there were huge changes in the women’s
attitude towards their underwear wardrobe and in their ability to spend money
on themselves. This resulted in a boom in lingerie business. At present,
British women are buying more bras, better quality and sexier than in the early
1990s. Recent studies by Rigby & Peller (corsetiere
to the Queen) show that the British spend more on underwear than any other
nation in Europe.

What did trigger this
revolution in Britain?

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>It is a complex question. First of all, the world now
is more consumer-oriented than 15 years ago. In the early 1990s, women weren't
drowning in choice the way they are now, so it is hardly surprising that on
average, they only bought one bra a year. However, the most important factor
behind the boom in bras, and the one that is hardest to quantify, is that style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>women are not the same as they were in
the yearly 1990s. According to a recent article in Telegraph by Jo Craven, two events in 1994 dramatically altered the
history of the British bra: Eva Herzigova in the
'Hello boys!' Wonderbra advert and the opening of a
small shop in Soho called Agent Provocateur, with a scantily clad dummy in the
window. Darkened windows in lingerie shops became history. Today there is not a
high street in the country without 'come hither' lingerie shops vying for our
attention.

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>In 2001, there was another event in the underwear
revolution which shook the best half of the nation: In the ‘What Not to Wear’
television show, Trinny and Susannah’s relentless
assault on laughably awful underwear shamed many of us to take a long hard look
at our boobs and realise we, too, needed to go shopping. Wearing the right bra
size miraculously made us feel more confident - giving us a better posture and
making us look slimmer. British women now buy on average four bras a year - the
most per head in Europe.

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>These days women know all too well what they want,
they are going to ask for it, and they are certainly not waiting for a man to
buy it for them. Women don't feel the need to look good for anyone but
themselves and if someone else appreciates their lingerie, then that's a bonus.
Whether it is sexual confidence or social change, it has had a big impact on
the psychology of the average bra shopper. 'Women today exist in a "have
it all" society’, says Franceska Luther, the
creative director of Myla. ‘We strive to be the best
we can be - both at work and at home. We want the most fabulous clothes, the
best beauty products and this must be complemented by the finest lingerie.'
Even if we can not afford £79 for a bra, we are seduced into buying it anyway.
British women's relationship with their underwear has moved on from being about
functionality. They now buy into it for its ‘feelgood’
factor. Lingerie has become a fashion accessory.

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>The underwear revolution affected the average British
bra size. The headline news is that the nation's breasts are getting bigger. class=GramE>Where once the average British bra size was 34B, it is now 36D or
38C or 34E depending who is talking. In fact, bra designers claim that about
80-85 per cent of women in UK wear wrong-size bras. Thus, the mysterious
bra-size increase does not mean that, for the last 15 years, the nation's
breasts are literally getting bigger—this means that, for the last 15 years,
British boobs got their right-size bras. The bad side of the wearing of the
wrong-size bra is that it can lead to back, neck and posture problems.

Lingerie business in Britain

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>There is an exhausting energy in bra land. Since the
early 1990s, the number of lingerie brands available in high-street shops is
increased exponentially. At the same time, the price of designer lingerie went
down, that makes buying into the big-brand experience affordable. The business
of bras is increasingly a place of takeovers where small labels struggle to grow
and compete. In 2006, we spent £2.48 billion on our lingerie in Britain. Since
then, the underwear market expands by about 2.6 per cent per year. Marks &
Spencer sold 20 million bras in 2007 - 10 per cent more than in 2006. The
growth is definitely set to continue. A bra is not too expensive a thing to buy
to make you feel good when you are feeling the credit crunch.

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Recent development of online businesses profoundly
changed our attitudes to shopping. Most people prefer to shop on internet sitting
comfortably at home - less stress, cheaper, bigger choice, 24 hours a day, and
365 days a year. Online sales are definitely a growing force, including
lingerie market. Every brand you can think of can now be bought online. Online
stores make the brand competition fairer: small, independent lingerie brands
can co-exist and, even, compete with big ones, occupying a certain niche of the
Britain market. In many cases, the ratio of quality/price of bras and knickers
of small-size lingerie brands is better than that of big brands. You pay just
for the product, not for a big-brand name and a product attached to it.

New lingerie brands on the
British market

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>New lingerie brands continue to break into the British
market. The upmarket Russian lingerie company Wild Orchid, which has a turnover
of £50 million with 216 stores throughout Russia and Ukraine, made recently its
British debut. Wild Orchid is the first Russian retail chain to break into the
European market. The Italian company Tezenis opened
recently on Regent Street selling competitively priced underwear. class=SpellE>Tezenis has 100 stores in Italy and is aggressively
expanding throughout Europe.

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Mid-size lingerie brands knock at the door of the
British market too. A newly launched web-site href="http://www.elitebralingerie.com">www.elitebralingerie.com presents to
the British public a new lingerie brand ALUR. In French pronunciation, class=SpellE>Alur sounds similar to Allure, a lingerie brand designers of
which concentrate more on sex appeal of lingerie. As Wild Orchid, class=SpellE>Alur is an East European brand, and very popular over there.
What makes Alur bras popular is their quality, competitive
pricing and colour gamut. They are very practical and long lasting. The class=GramE>nine-years old Alur is one of the
first, if not the first, who started to use large-size live models to present
its lingerie. They say that ‘big’ is not necessary ugly – ‘big’ can be
beautiful too (see the picture).



class=GramE>Alur class=GramE> lingerie model at
the International Exhibition ‘Kiev Fashion’ in 42DD bra. lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'> 

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What do women want? A
perfect bra: underwired or not?

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Charlotte Williamson in her 2006 article in style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Telegraph described her trip to Paris,
to visit a famous bra designer Poupie class=SpellE>Cadolle who makes hand-made bras called 'Cara'. It costs 550
euros (£380 at that time), takes three months to make
and is supposed to create the perfect bust. But is the bespoke 'Cara' really
the ultimate bra? 'OK, what do you want from your
bra?' asks Mme Cadolle when they meet. Charlotte
replies ‘I want support and lift and a fabulous shape’. 'Then you need the
Cara! This is the perfect bra.' says Mme Cadolle.
After a few months (and one additional fitting in-between), Charlotte received
her Cara by post. Her final conclusion is that the Cara may be not the ultimate
bra but, at least, it is a perfect one. The Cara is an underwired
bra.

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>During the meeting in Paris, Mme Cadolle
explained that ‘It should last two, three, four years,
with proper care.' ‘What is the proper care?’ 'You have to hand-wash it every
week, at least. You must not use detergent. Use a pure shampoo.' class=GramE>‘A hair shampoo?’ 'Why not! What
gets ruined is the elastic. And no Woolite! It is a
killer of elastics.'

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>In Paris, Mme Cadolle also remarked
that 'The Italians love coloured bras, they have no complex about colour. The
English love colour, too - they buy red, blue and emerald.’

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>What about the credit crunch?

style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>So despite the credit crunch, can women's seemingly
insatiable appetite for lingerie make it recession-proof? 'Some women may trade
up for investment bras, and some may trade down for something cheaper. If you
only pay £5 for a bra then it's a guilt-free treat,' Mintel's
Sally Bain comments. But with so much evidence of competitive pricing, Michelle
Mone is adamant that 'the bra that does the job will
survive whereas the bra that is just a brand will disappear.' Achieving growth
is definitely going to be tougher going. And the jostling between product
innovation, price, fashion and functionality within a bra that also needs to
make us feel and look good at the same time is a fine balance. One thing is for
sure, there is no going back; this is a battle that will run and run. It is good
news for the Alur brand ( href="http://www.elitebralingerie.com">www.elitebralingerie.com).

 

style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Andrea Moor