A combination of top-selling lingerie at retail and best-booking styles for spring is creating an exotic cocktail of luxury, fashion and specialty fare for 2007.
Consumers have become more discerning at all channels of distribution and have acquired a taste for luxe merchandise and key items that serve as fashionable, yet functional foundations for ready-to-wear and eveningwear, innerwear executives said. Top-selling styles that are expected to propel business next year are not only special-looking but also convey a message of perceived value with rich-looking fabrics and laces, embroideries, dressmaker touches and soft, feel-good fabrics.
Key ideas in foundations are lightweight shapewear with laser-cut treatments that lie flat on the figure like a second skin, as well as dual-purpose corsets and bustiers that can be worn with jeans or as an underpinning. There are a variety of multipurpose, cleavage-enhancing bras for popular deep-plunge necklines, either square-shaped décolletage or rounded sweetheart looks.
There’s also a big push to make loungewear casual, especially in natural colors and distressed effects achieved through washed techniques or faded prints. Sleepwear is likely to continue focusing on a mix of updated basics in misses’, novelty pajamas and character prints in the young contemporary segment and sexy-looking baby dolls and chemises as year-round staples.
Sell-throughs of specialty lingerie this fall and early holiday at major specialty and department stores are more than 5 percent higher than in the previous year. Innerwear executives generally said they feel bullish about first-half business, particularly in niche areas like young contemporary bras by Fruit of the Loom at Ariela-Alpha International and sports bras that meld fashion and function by Natori at Dana-co.
There’s also a growing number of eco-friendly products by brands. These include 2 Life by Flora Nikrooz, a line of sleepwear made of soybean protein powder; daywear with a supersoft hand called Natori Bamboo Underneath at Dana-co that is made of cotton and bamboo fiber, and novelty sleepwear of organic cotton by the licensed comic strip character Mutts at Richard Leeds International. The top-selling item by Mutts is a sleep shirt that says, “Saving One Kitty at a Time.”
In an effort to capitalize on directional trends from other apparel markets and mainstream culture, innerwear executives are taking their cue from several important factors this year, pushing the envelope with inspiration gleaned from several areas:
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- The prevalence of décolletage on Hollywood’s red carpet and on hit TV series: ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” MTV’s reality show “The Real World,” “The Girls Next Door” on E and “Nip/Tuck” on FX.
- A demand for luxe-looking lingerie, whether it’s Vassarette’s matte-and-shine Body Curves Ultralights Ultrastripes push-up bra at Wal-Mart, a soft lace chemise by proprietary label Mystique at J.C. Penney or a sexy mahogany and black Congo Lace contour underwire bra and string bikini by Josie Natori at Neiman Marcus.
- The increasing impact of lingerie-inspired looks on ready-to-wear and couture runways, ranging from sassy baby dolls and corsetry with a vintage spin to updated bloomers, scores of unconstructed bras under sheer tops and layered pieces and active-looking separates that can be worn in or out of the boudoir.
- Victoria’s Secret, the $4.45 billion lingerie phenomenon, continues to gain momentum as parent Limited Inc. expands sub-brands like Pink into the lifestyle arena with accessories and home-related items.
Lisa Bell, product merchandising manager of the Vassarette brand at VF Intimates, said, “There are a lot of things going on with necklines, not only with red carpet and the Emmys, but this trend is going into spring with rtw. There’s a new balance of romantic, deep-plunge necklines on Empire silhouettes and deep plunge with soft, layered looks.”
Bell noted that “trend-right consumers are still going to buy day-in, day-out bras, but we’ve also found our boutique specialty bras are layering the business.” One new style that will fill the specialty segment for spring is Crazy in Love, a deep-plunge demi-cup number of embroidered tulle that has an upscale look, she said.
There’s also a growing demand for a broader range of nude tones, primarily foundations.
Anne DiGiovanna, vice president of marketing at The Warnaco Group, said, “Demand for push-up [bras] has increased dramatically over the past year, and there’s been a huge increase in selling darker body tones in taupe, nude, beige and fawn. We are also expanding into a range of ivories for spring. Mocha shades are now regarded as basics.”
The extension of skin tones is expected to be “very well received” in a bra group by Warner’s called Satin Tuxedo, said DiGiovanna. She added that another classification targeted for growth was soft-cup bras, a longtime specialty of the Olga brand.
Another segment of the bra business that has been overwhelmed with requests from retailers is full-busted styles that go as high as G, H, I and J cup sizes. The demand, though, is not for full-figure bras for plus-size women; it’s for average-size women who need fuller cups but smaller back widths. Requests for fuller cups are emerging from two areas: women who have had breast augmentation and younger women who are full-busted and want fashion product, said executives.
“Thank you, Oprah Winfrey. She did two big bra shows this year and the message was, it’s OK to be a larger cup size and a smaller back size,” said Jim West, director of marketing and product development for Eveden Inc., the U.S. unit of Eveden Ltd., based in England.
He added that there’s been a spike in the demand for larger-cup bras since the broadcasts aired. “More [department store] retailers are now coming to us saying, ‘We need larger cup sizes and smaller back sizes.’ They realize they are losing ground to discounters and more specialty stores which are doing phenomenally well with specialty intimates. They are stepping up to the plate in a class of trade.”
Eveden has three full-cup bra brands: Fantasie, which has a T-shirt bra that goes to an I cup; Freya, which has a sexy-looking number for spring called Arabella that’s available in a J cup, and Goddess, a long-established, full-busted brand that’s been “prettied up” with embroideries and fashion colors and is sized to a J cup. Freya also has a feminine-looking nursing bra called Rosalie that is sized to an H cup.
“A lot of celebs have been having babies and now everyone is looking for something a little better,” West said. “Everyone now wants to upgrade [maternity bras]. Goddess has one with moisture management properties.”
Addressing specialty fabrics and treatments, Susan DeMusis, executive vice president and general merchandise manager at The Carole Hochman Design Group, said, “Mesh continues to excel for On Gossamer. Our two new mesh bras, both the contour and unlined underwire bras that coordinate with mesh Essentials panties, were overwhelming favorite booking items at all major accounts for July 18 delivery. In addition, our decorated and embellished mesh daywear with unique placement prints or encrusted crystals booked extremely well as a continuation of a strong spring booking of embellished mesh.”
Saleena Sidhu, president of Pfiff Lingerie, said special details such as mini buttons, jacquard elastics and fly-away edges have created best-selling items, particularly in a bra and panty group called Ephemeral Promises.
“It features an interesting mix of Guipure lace, microfiber and a new boucle-effect fabric,” said Sidhu. “We are selling fresh colorways better this season, with blue and ivory combinations taking the top place. I think that in addition to our use of color, retailers are looking to us for more than traditional and larger brands could offer, such as little designer details and innovative fabrics.”
Despite robust retail results this year, a majority of innerwear executives said the five seasonal markets have generally been unpleasant and nerve-racking. The main reason was the fear that suppliers of May Department Stores would lose business following the Federated’s acquisition of May. Channels of distribution were cannibalized and scores of vendors were eliminated from the May matrix.
For sleepwear and robe firms, in particular, a wide range of bread-and-butter private label programs were dropped as Federated and its nationwide Macy’s rollout increased the presence of its proprietary brands such as Charter Club, while launching private brands bearing long-established names like I. Magnin in sleepwear.
“We had to think outside of the box to survive,” said an executive who asked not to be identified. “In a sense, it’s been a tough year, but it forced us to be creative and innovative. Now we’re ahead of the game.”