The journey of lingerie from 'cotte' to trendy intimatewear
The existence of lingerie is as old as the existence of women who wear it. In the middle ages things were easygoing as women wore discrete corset-like alternatives like the cotte, the bliaunt and the surcot, which move on really over their dresses and hold the breasts firmly. Wearing underwear/corsets has been practiced since the ancient civilization of Egypt and Greece, where women wore corsets to withhold their breasts. Bras have been worn in all ages to withhold women's breasts and give them a fashionable look.
18th Century: It is believed that the history of underwear started in the 18th century. The padded silhouette with a flat stomach, slim waist and cone-shaped bust was a style. The corset, a vital part of any woman's clothing at that time, gave the body a typical shape, squeezing the internal organs and production them feel comfortable. Greatest usage of satin, silk and damask decorated with embroidery, ribbons and laces gave the corollary of artistry.
19th Century: Women wore corsets, crinolines and bustles. The S-shaped silhouette trend started at that time. Women wore underwear like knickers, corset, camisole and waist slip.
20th Century: Lingerie turned out to be simpler and more practical. Corsets were supplanted by a more flexible girdle modern bra. Pastel colours for lingerie came into existence. In 1910 boyish silhouette became a trend. The first brassiere to have a patent, which was proper largely, was a bra invented by a young New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob in 1910. In the 1930s femininity became a fashion trend. A woman was covered by the one-piece garments known as corsets along with a curved and bust-emphasizing brassiere and girdle with garters. But one-piece corsets were proper largely and panties were reduced in size and finally gained the shape of bikini briefs.
21st century-the era of intimacy-intimatewear: In this era the fashion is pushing women to exhibit the underwear as outerwear which is worn for the sensitive delight of a partner. Lingerie is thought about as the second skin by many women. In the gift era, women have more choices than ever in terms of style, design, fabrics etc. Since many centuries fashion in association to lingerie styles was toggling between the feminine and masculine, painful and practical. In the modern time, lingerie is the most attractive, luxurious and feminine clothing that is worn intimately and respected for its practicality and comfort.
Worldwide shop increase Forecast of Lingerie
Today, the main concern about marketing the lingerie products is the fight for share between global brands and retailers' local labels worldwide. It is also about consumers' option and acceptance of brand. With its matchless combination of fashion and function, lingerie is a goods kind that crosses the fine line between necessity and luxury. Also these features, it has increased into about a Us billion-a-year business and placed itself for additional increase over the next five years.
To know the global lingerie market, it is principal to check out not only the competition between brands, but also the cut off bra-wars taking place between brands and local sell labels. The leading player among lingerie brands worldwide is United States-based builder Sara Lee, which has a major shop share in its home country as well as the European market. After Sara Lee there exist clubs like Warnaco, Fruit of the Loom, Vf and Maidenform, in Europe Triumph also possess a major shop share. The more comfy La Perla, meanwhile, is atop the high end of the world lingerie market.
In the sell sector, Us chain Victoria's Secret, the Uk's Knickerbox and northern European retailer Hunkemoller provide to the scholar market, but the huge quantity of lingerie is traded by clothing retailers like Marks & Spencer and hypermarkets like Wal-Mart and Carrefour. Though, the tendency is to be robust on briefs than bras, and repeatedly sell these items in multiple packs. While the leading retailers and brands keep up to drive the market, the nature of uniqueness demands that there is also a push of smaller, more up shop labels that offer to a few niche.
Of the total world lingerie market, amounted to Us.5 billion annually in 2003, bras calculated to 56 per cent of total sales, while briefs and the body wear/daywear/shape wear kind add 32 per cent and 12 per cent in that order. Of about 6.4 billion bras and briefs were procured worldwide in 2003. The report shows that the mean woman buys two bras and five pairs of briefs per year. Lingerie sales in the advanced world are observed to be basic fashion-driven, with the mean woman having six bras and eight pairs of briefs in her wardrobe - more than she usually requires.
The buying of these products is usually thought about by style factors, like as what styles (g-string, padded bra) look best under positive types of clothing, or what colors appear best. In the past, this photo has not been right for developing countries where lingerie is bought more out of need than desire. Though, citizen growth, unstable demographics and the appearance of consumers with more disposable income is changing purchasing habits in these regions, and the lingerie shop is projected to gain advantage from this opportunity.
According to a explore report, the global lingerie shop was calculated to be .15-billion (U.S.) in 2004 and is projected to increase (at the rate of about 9 per cent) to .6-billion in 2012. And the goods kind that will have the quickest increase is "bodywear, daywear and shapewear."
Despite this great growth, request for lingerie in the advanced world has been observed to be rising at about five per cent (based on low citizen growth, ageing demographics and goods saturation), while that of the rest of the world is projected to increase by practically 20 per cent.
While this turns out to be a fairly steady 7 per cent raise in world volume to 6.8 billion units, it also amounts to immense increase in developing nations. This will go together by a great push towards offshore manufacturing in countries like China and India, as continuing enhancement in technology and communications make such alternatives far more cost efficient than the domestic alternative. Markets that are anticipated to originate in the time to come contain the Indian sub-continent, China and Southeast Asia. India and China are projected to increase their international shop share by about Us0 million each, while Southeast Asia, already a leading shop for lingerie, will increase by Us0 million in value.
Given that price points in these sub-regions are somewhat low; this anticipated increase shows an occasion in huge quantity for lingerie companies. Products which shape the body and offer flat curves are observed as a key increase sector for baby boomer lingerie buyers. New and innovative fabrics like Lycra and microfibers will keep on featuring a lot in this segment.
Prices to keep steady
With downward price emphasis at a sell level compensating any attempts at increasing manufacturers' costs, prices are not anticipated to have any great impact on lingerie shop increase in the advanced world till 2010. Though, value increase in the developing world is more complex to estimate, due to the farranging trading in the gray or black markets and, hence, not at general sell prices.
Nonetheless, Sara Lee is anticipated to keep on its dominance of the advanced world shop and formulate large inroads into other markets over the next five years - even in the challenge of financial problems faced by competitors such as Warnaco and Maidenform. Along with it the low profile and hence low debt European clubs like Triumph and Wolford will keep surviving. It is understandable that high-volume increase for lingerie's leasing players will come from emerging markets, while, in a sector where discrimination is important, useful business will also be held by niche marketers. Fortunately for all matter, lingerie is pushed by female consumers' loyalty to brand, fit and comfort, production it as one of the more financially strong segment in the apparel market.
China
China exported 4.2 billion pieces of women's undergarments in 2004, a 30 percent raise from 2003. In China, Shantou is one of the leading manufacturing hubs for women's undergarments with well-set up and good factory supervision systems, gift prompt service and efficient provide chain system. This harbor city in Guangdong province exported women's underwear worth 0 million in 2004, accounting to be the third of China's outbound shipments of the product. Shantou possesses more than 1,500 suppliers, about 150 of who export directly. Shantou's connected towns of Gurao, Xiashan, Chendian and Liangying are the leading manufacturing areas. Gurao, the biggest center, has more than 440 undergarment makers. every year sales reach 0 million, along with 564 million brassieres and 180 million pairs of underpants. Shantou is preeminent over China as a major producer of knitted underwear. Xiashan and Chendian each yield more than 0 million worth of women's undergarments per year.
Suppliers in Shantou vary from small clubs with 50 workers to big manufacturers with 1,500 employees. Though, small and midsize suppliers constitute the major companies. Many suppliers possess vertically integrated output with in-house fabric knitting, dyeing, finishing and printing, and garment sewing, exaggeration and packing capability. The city's bra and panty suppliers target on midrange models, but high-end designs are also made by them. practically 90 per cent of output is for Oem orders.
Seamless bras and panties are trendy designs which are more preferable now a days. Hanzina Underwear Co. Ltd, a leading supplier of such products, has invested a huge amount in 20 Santoni circular knitting machines from Italy, two warp knitting systems and 350 sewing machines. The business makes 200,000 pieces per month. The use of lace and embroidered fabrics is also well-liked among Shantou suppliers. Chengtai Underwear Knitting factory makes bra and panty sets with lace trimmings, exaggeration or prints.
The midsize business makes undergarments for Wal-Mart and donna l'oren. Hongjie Underwear commercial Co. Is also a leading producer with 1,500 workers and fully integrated output that covers fabric knitting and sewing. The business provides fancy bras and panties in crocheted fabrics, intricate prints and embroidery. The business also produces items like push-up and convertible brassieres.
Many clubs are production efforts to decrease their lead and delivery times. Shantou's port, one of the 20 leading harbors in China, transports cargo to many countries and regions. This facilitates suppliers to provide suitable shipping to foreign buyers and supports in continuation in transportation at cheaper rates.
India
The lingerie shop in India is still in its baby stage and, until in modern times, the accessibility of high potential intimate apparel was limited to irregular or grey imports sold under the counter. Because of the limited products and lack of enough specialized and organized sell atmosphere, the fashion realization and potential awareness of the Indian buyer for intimate apparel is yet to be realized.
India is also one of the most scattered sell markets in the world. The products, so far, have been generally marketed as a commodity and are price and margin oriented. Till today huge quantities of bras are sold to end users by male salespersons in mom-and-pop shops. Majorities of the stores do not even provide a trial room.
As a consequence, large buyer base are not sure of the functional features of a bra or even their own sizes. When Gokaldas Intimatewear began developing Enamor, their first aim was good fit. over India Enamor surveyed and measured 4,000 women. They noticed that 80 per cent of Indian women wore a uncomfortable fitting underwear. In India, bras were made only in B and C cup sizes, though Enamor's explore found that most Indian women required A or D cup sizes.
In India Triumph, Lovable Lingerie, Enamor, Vip, Juliet, Amul etc are major players in lingerie market. Today 70 per cent of the lingerie shop of India is unorganised. But that can be supplanted with the increase in the amount of malls and quality-conscious consumers. For example, Lovable's increase of 20 per cent last year was sustained by new sell space.
The joint shop gift of the leading five retailers in India totals less than two per cent. Though, Lingerie sales have increased by 12 per cent in the past five years because of a new awareness of intimatewear. Women's innerwear business in India is worth Rs. 2,000 crore and is growing at an mean rate of 12 per cent.
Turkey and Bangladesh have already observed the inherent and are aggressively promoting its innerwear industry. Many Asian countries are defeating India in the Us, the world's biggest clothing importer. Agreeing to the Us office of Textiles and Apparel, in 2002 the country imported 198,094,426 dozen pieces of cotton underwear. India's gift in this was a paltry 2.36 per cent. In bras using manmade material, the Us imported 37,676,800 dozen pieces. While China constituted 32 per cent of these, Indonesia had 10.5 per cent. Even Bangladesh had 1 per cent. However, India exported a meager 0.65 per cent. Though, there is a great inherent to be taped if approached in an organized manner with a permissible set up.
Womenswear: the most profitable segment
The Rs.28,375-crore womenswear apparel segment covers 32.1 percent share of the Indian apparel shop in value terms. In volume terms, shop share of womenswear is one percent greater than that of menswear but in value terms its share is five percent less than that of menswear due to branded segment in womenswear was practically non-existent till a few years back. At present, it is the most profitable segment for investment. During 2005, volumes increased by 5.5 percent while value appreciation was as high as 15 percent.
Women's trousers and skirts kind observed a top increase During 2005, volumes growing nine percent and value appreciating more than 23 percent over 2004 levels. Western wear like suits and blazers and Lingerie are the two other categories where enlarge was excellent, volume and value increase being 10 and 21 percent respectively in the Western wear and 6.8 and 18.1 percent in lingerie.
In early days the Indian women mostly trusted foreign products or directed their friendly angle tailors to stitch form-fitting bodice, which were worn under dresses. But now the scenario is different. The first trendy movement for both men and women was seen when connected Apparels Pvt Ltd, producers of freedom shirts, introduced the world preeminent Maiden Form bras, Jockey men's underwear and Jantzen swimwear in 1962 in India.
It was a lanky period for freedom shirts with complexity in imports and the export shop initiation, so the late Bhawandas Wadhwani approached the lingerie business with technical knowhow from the Usa. The brands got an achievement of optimum level with their styles and quality. But due to the government's restrictions for foreign brands, Wadhwani discontinued the overseas tie-up and changed the names to Libertina for lingerie and freedom for men's underwear in the late 70s. From 80s to 90s the business focused on undergarments. Even today Libertina and freedom are still one of the major players in the lingerie market.
With the great triumph of Libertina and Liberty, other Indian clubs also shifted into the lingerie markets. In the 70s Peter Pan from Dawn Mills entered in the shop with lingerie styles of the West. The brand was popular among the Indian women, but two decades later it vanished from the market.
In 1971, Vip entered the men's underwear shop with a big-bang and became the most talked about brand due to its advertisement featuring model Dalip Tahil. Since then Vip is a leading player in the men's and women's underwear market. Vip launched Petals, a Lycra moulded cup bra with motifs, which was proper well at that time, but was later discontinued. But introducing Loveable in 1996 was a huge success as they brought in a foreign brand, but it was made in India. Lovable was followed by Feelings, Vip's domestic products and Daisy Dee other foreign brand. The very ultra Vanity Fair was introduced in 2004 and lastly a Korean Brand Try for men and women in 2004. Vip's fashionable new men's innerwear called Frenchie X was targeted to meet the challenges thrown by the foreign brands.
Another leading brand in the lingerie shop is Rupa & Co established in 1985. Its collection of men's, women's and children's underwear put together makes it India's biggest innerwear builder and seller. Also these two brands there are other labels produced by them. Amul, Lux Cozi, Dollar are some of the brands catering to a particular segment of the men's underwear market, while the lingerie segment has its own local offerings like Neva, Bodycare, Softy, Lady Care, limited Lacy, Red Rose, Sonari, Feather Line and many more.
In the 90s Jockey re-entered the Indian shop followed by Calida and Liberti Blu. Then the very high fashion Gossard existed for a limited time. In the 21st century, Enamor, other foreign brand entered the Indian shop straight through Gokaldas Exports and the very chic French brand Aubade started its only outlet in Mumbai. La Senza is the next foreign brand that is set to enter the shop while Hanes has already set with a very unconventional ad campaign targeted to ease for the Indian male.
One of the leading foreign players in the Indian lingerie shop is Triumph. They have a nearnessy in 150 countries colse to the world and a turnover of Us billion with a output of over 200 million units annually, producing 6000 new fashion styles per year designed by 200 designers in 11 countries. Triumph started its execution in India in six metros, and is now spread in 45 cities. As far as lingerie is concerned, India is still in its initial stage. India has to wait to become a matured shop as compared to the other Asian markets like Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Vietnam. In the last three years there has been a great increase in the business but the retailing of lingerie and distribution channels are limited. Triumph markets straight through retailers, Mbos, and two franchisees in Mumbai and Kolkata, and additional more they are going to increase in the near future. From 300 outlets in India they target to cross 1,000 outlets in three-five years. With all raw materials imported from Europe, Triumph is produced in Chennai and has gained a 50 per cent raise in sales since it came into the country. Though, Triumph is the only internationally managed brand, it also aims to satisfy Indian buyers and has the potential to source moving fabrics not offered in India. Triumph was the first to introduce moisturising fabrics with Aloe Vera and the one-piece bra which is produced by one piece of fabric. The sizes and styles are very particular to Indian consumers. Triumph which begun output in India in 1998 has been exporting to the Usa before it came into the local market. With 80 per cent exports and 20 per cent local sales in India, Triumph adds new products and concepts for 5-10 styles each year.
Lately, well-known international lingerie brands - Aubade - from the fashion capital of France has entered in Indian market.
While the international lingerie outlook is as moving and moving as the outerwear one, India's increase in the old segment can be called just about negligible. Body and beach fashion shows are showcased twice a year colse to the world showing the most recent trends in innerwear fashion. New underwear fabrics with 'anti' medicine like anti-stress, anti-smog, anti-static, anti-allergic, anti- bacterial, anti-moisture and anti-odour pamper the body. Top European products like Bruno Banani, Excellent, Schneider, Louis Feraud, Calvin Klein, Gianfranco Ferre, Dkny, La Perla, Gossard, and Schiesser are some of the brands that set their inspiration to the Greatest test. Thanks to the new outerwear execution made by designers colse to the world and India, lingerie is seemed with renewed fascination in India too.
It may be shocking that there are 1000 Indian brands in the shop but only 200 are nationally active. The others cater to markets in the vicinity of their production. Many of these brands have so far prolonged the coming of Mnc labels for the last decade and should continue to do so.
The Indian lingerie business is growing because of the increasing domestic request coupled with huge export potential. It will soon receive an upfront position. From a cottage business it can be transformed into a growing trade. Indian brands have experienced that they have to be more potential known and work harder in branding, promotion, packaging and innovation. Only the mindset to make world class lingerie is lacking. Smaller countries like Sri Lanka, Turkey and Bangladesh are major producers in this segment. Indian clubs have recognized the significance of innerwear for men and women and the competition is just boiling as new and more players arrive to offer Indians that much required fashionable lift.
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