There’s a new category of undergarments and lifestyle pieces that are aimed at a specific consumer segment — tweens.
The brand is called R. Lilly by Tuckerwear, a compact collection of nylon and Lycra spandex camis, tanks, leggings, pants, chemises and slips that double as dresses, the brainchild of Nancy Ganz, the creator of the Hipslip, shapewear that became a household name in the late Eighties and Nineties. Ganz, who sold the Bodyslimmers by Nancy Ganz brand to The Warnaco Group in 1997 for more than $1 million, has kept busy raising her children, 16-year-old Max, and the line’s namesake, 11-year-old Rachel Lilly.
Now Ganz serves as president of year-old R. Lilly Tuckerwear Inc., which also has been a staunch advocate of children’s empowerment initiatives, primarily with the New York University Child Study Center. Ganz said 10 percent of R. Lilly sales will be donated to the child study center generated through first-day business at Bloomingdale’s New York flagship. Bloomingdale’s will stage Fashion Show & Fun Tea for Mothers & Daughters on Tuesday at the eighth-floor kids’ department.
“Bloomingdale’s was one of Nancy Ganz’s earliest supporters when she launched Bodyslimmers,” said Anne Keating, senior vice president of public relations, special events and corporate philanthropy at the retailer. “We’re pleased to have the exclusive on her new venture, too.”
Distribution is likely to be expanded to more Bloomingdale’s doors, Ganz said.
The concept behind the line, aimed primarily at girls in the seven-to-14 age range, as well as teenagers who want fashionable, sophisticated undergarments and lounge looks with a streetwear flavor, is to “establish a new initiative focused on young girls and tweens at a crucial time in their lives to help build self-esteem, achieve healthy body images and make healthy lifestyle choices,” Ganz said. Items retail for $13.50 to $38.
“I designed Bodyslimmers to give women a boost, physically and emotionally,” Ganz said. “Let’s face it, no matter how fit you are, a little extra support doesn’t hurt. R. Lilly Tuckerwear allows a young girl to wear specially designed pieces that are neither too babyish, nor too mature. Building self-esteem and making sure young girls feel good about themselves on every level is important to me personally.”
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She pointed out that it was “very difficult” to get marketing information on tweens outside the entourage of her 11-year-old daughter and friends, saying: “They don’t have their market. Everything is for babies and teens. It makes you wonder why [tweens] wear slutty clothes way too early. This market is wide open.”
According to Euromonitor International, a global business research firm, tweens are “empowered with money to burn.” A Euromonitor report in 2006 entitled “Tweens: A Force to be Reckoned With: Changing Consumption Habits of 8-12 Year Olds,” concluded that “tweens’ spending worldwide is higher than ever at an estimated $170 billion.”
“They are starting to develop their sense of self-identity and are anxious to have products that will cultivate a sophisticated self-image,” the report said. “They are more aware than ever before of what they should or should not look like, how they should behave and what to listen to. This is partly due to marketing initiatives that force children to grow up quickly, since marketers have discovered that treating tweens like teenagers is a lucrative business.”
In addition to dual-purpose pieces that feature double-layered front treatments designed to support a young girl’s developing figure, Ganz has designed a specific item called the Be4Teen cropped tank, a contemporary alternative to what used to called a “training bra.”
Ganz said she gleaned the idea to do a crossover bra for tweens after hearing parents complain, “‘What should I buy my daughter? She doesn’t want a bra yet.'”
“I began noticing that so many young girls were anorexic, bulimic or into substance abuse, and many of the tweens were looking like teens,” Ganz said. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be good to do something to promote a healthy body image?'”
Ganz launched an interactive e-commerce Web site called rlillytuckerwear.com in December. Created by Charles McCoy of Avatar, a Web site design firm in New York, it was introduced in 2005 as a resource for young girls to communicate positive information on their likes and dislikes on links such as “Girl Talk,” which focuses on everything from school and socializing, to favorite foods, music and video games. In addition to launching an online shopping link this year with hip visuals and tag lines such as “Movin’ & Groovin’,” “All Layered Up” and “Pump Up the Party,” the site serves as a lab for personality profiles called “Choose an Attitude.”
The next move will come in April when the interactive “Fantasy Fashion Game” will be launched on the site. While it may be fun to play, the copyrighted game, which took one year to create, also will be an educational business tool for viewers to design clothes, style and manage a store, learn to sell designs in New York and Los Angeles, create a showroom and design a logo.