LAT: The Road to Profit, Paved With Panties (Sorry -- couldn't resist!)

[DeepModem Mom]

The Road to Profit, Paved With Panties
Retailers are jostling to outdo one another in a $9.1-billion intimate-apparel niche, wooing women of all shapes and ages with underwear.
By Leslie Earnest, Times Staff Writer


It seems like a license to print money: Stitch together tiny pieces of fabric, pitch it to women as apparel that makes them sexy, mark it up to as much as $80, then watch the cash roll in.

That may explain why so many apparel retailers are hot for the lingerie business.

Gap Inc., not known for sizzling underwear, is adding 30 more GapBody sections to its namesake stores this year — three times as many as last year — selling panties, bras and pajamas.

Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco, known mainly for its jeans, has just begun delivering its own brand of panties and bras to store shelves. The frill-free products feature jeans-style detailing, such as rivets and contrast stitching.

And Victoria's Secret, which transformed the retailing of come-hither lingerie two decades ago, is targeting college students with a line of intimate apparel that analysts predict will become its own chain next year.

Retailers are jostling to outdo one another, wooing women of all shapes and ages with lingerie. The $9.1-billion intimate-apparel niche, including loungewear such as negligees and camisoles — represents almost 10% of total women's apparel sales nationwide, said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at NPD Group, a market research firm. Sales of sleepwear are an additional $3.6 billion....

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lingerie6nov06,0,7212426.story?coll=la-home-business

[Silverhair]

1. And what is wrong with it?

If women want to buy and wear them, that is their decision. Nobody is holding a gun to women and telling them to buy. The cheap undies are still available at any discount store. The chains would not be able to sell them if women did not voluntarily buy them.

Maybe you think that everybody should wear Mao suits and not spend money on anything that some Central Planning Committee might say was frivolous.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Of course, women should wear anything underneath that makes them happy!

I did think the article was interesting -- I never thought about the small amount of fabric required to produce lingerie, compared to other clothing.

[murray hill farm]

3. That is interesting!

There will come a time, i fear...when demand for food and shelter and electricity and the goods of basic survival will way outweigh the demand for fancy panties, but clearly it is not hear yet.