NEW YORK — Ready-to-wear’s influence on lingerie, particularly in fashion colors and prints, was prevalent in the top-booking styles at this month’s spring market.
The big demand from department and specialty store buyers, as well as catalogue houses, was for sophisticated prints that stepped away from boudoir and home-furnishing floral patterns. The new florals ranged from Asian-inspired bamboo motifs in deep hues of green, yellow, blue and pink tempered by neutral ivory and antique white to multicolored graphics and florals that harkened back to the Sixties and Seventies.
Whether they were rendered on sleek polyester, silk charmeuse or mesh and georgette, prints were top sellers in sleepwear, robes, chemises and daywear items such as camis, tank tops and a variety of undies including boy-cut pants, bloomers and thongs. Stretch lace was also gaining momentum in the daywear and foundations areas.
Another key segment was the growing expansion of fashionable full-figure bras with cup sizes that go up to J, said a number of foundations executives.
Bob Vitali, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Wacoal America, said three of the company’s bra styles that go up to G cup sizes were the big hit for spring: Romantic Inspirations, an allover floral-embroidered bra; Pretty and Polished, a nylon and Lycra spandex number detailed with fake ribbon and embroidered treatments, and Keep It Classic, a softly tailored style that’s merchandised as an everyday bra.
“On the other end of the spectrum, the push-up category is performing quite well,” he said. “We’ve had very good reception to the new seamless iBra Push-up bra.”
Addressing the licensed DKNY Underwear business, Vitali said, “The bra business is up 39 percent at retail against a year ago. It’s because in DKNY, we are focusing our corporate energies on developing great-fitting bras that appeal to a broader segment of the population, and we walked away from a lot of fashion daywear business and focused on our ‘3 pairs for $24′ panty tabletop business with four new collections — allover lace, cotton and stretch lace, satin and Modal.”
Victoria Vandagriff, president of Bendon USA, which sells, distributes and markets Elle Macpherson Intimates in the U.S., said the appetite for sexy-looking lace bras and coordinating panties has been “phenomenal.”
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“Dentelle is our number-one selling group, and it’s been so popular that we expanded into sleepwear items like camis, chemises and pajama pants,” Vandagriff said.
She listed three other best-booking groups: Natorious, a group of stretch lace bras with embellished jeweled straps in black, tan and rose; Coranto, a line of stretch lace bras in vibrant colors including top-booking turquoise, and a group called Moody Blues, which features a range of shades from a rich, deep blue to an inky shade.
Regarding fuller-cup bras, Vandagriff said, “We’ve had a lot of interest in our Fayreform brand in cup sizes F to J. We are launching a sports bra for spring 2007 and it seems to be at the right time because there is so much interest in full-cup bras.”
Brenda Berger, vice president of sales at Hanky Panky, said, “We did a bloomer panty in mesh and, hands down, it is our best-selling item. It was available in six colors, but retailers have asked for six additional colors. Sleepwear buyers are buying it with a cami-doll as a set, and daywear buyers are buying it as a panty item for tabletop displays.”
Berger added that a boldly printed panty of signature lace, as well as coordinating pieces including a cami, a baby doll, a bralet, a boyshort and a thong, have also been strong.
“It was the best market we’ve had in 30 years,” she said. “Retailers were really hungry for fashion and color.”
Julie Hedrick, vice president of sales for the Carole Hochman, Oscar de la Renta and Stan Herman sleepwear and robe brands at The Carole Hochman Design Group, said prints that have a more sophisticated edge are the top items.
“In the Oscar de la Renta Signature collection, we’ve been steering to more sophisticated prints that lend themselves to a more ready-to-wear look, instead of sleepy-looking prints,” Hedrick said. “Our Palm Springs group features a print from de la Renta’s resort swimwear collection, which rarely happens. They prefer for us to reinterpret the prints, but this time they allowed us to use the exact print.”
Other best-booking groups by de la Renta sleepwear included Florentine Paisley, a blue-and-white printed cotton lawn, and Country Retreat, a textured group of cotton batiste with eyelet cutout treatments.
“Believe it or not, my hottest item was kimonos,” said designer Ying Li of the group, which wholesales for $180. “Everybody wanted dramatic, hand-painted kimonos, which are my most expensive items. I had no indication in March that long kimonos would be in such demand by smaller, specialty boutiques and major stores who at this point are picking the prints and building programs around them.”