Out of the showrooms and onto the streets, the racy lingerie has gained a pedestrian foothold, increasingly being sold at Indian redis or stalls.
And with demanding female customers brazenly dictating male hawkers, discussing styles and sizes openly on streets, the public prudery associated with innerwear is also being swept aside.
Lacy or leopard print, striped or fluorescent, local markets are inundated with adventurous lingerie styles, and you’d be wrong to think they are dearly priced.
Case of the Sasta Stripes
Noida‘s Sector 27 market has many roadside hawkers and small shops selling lingerie. One such is Mithun Soni, who does the ladies’ bargaining for them. “250 Rupees ka hai maidam, 200 rupees mein de doonga”. As someone scouting the market for the first time, I recheck with him the price of this orange and grey striped bra, part in disbelief and part in the subconscious habit of fact checking.
Colourful, matching sets come for Rs 350 , says another salesman Ganesh.
Ganesh frightens me at first glance, as he confidently tells me how he can correctly guess my size. No thanks, I say. We move on to other topics.
Women are buying such lingerie, madam. Leaving aside 20-25% older women customers, the rest are all buying colorful, designer, padded bras. The range is wide and full of choices, starting from 150 Rupees to 1000 Rupees.
The middle class woman can feel feline wearing a leopard-print bra costing just Rs 250, without spoiling her budget. This is the opening up of a previously ‘upper-class’ item to the masses — and if liberal adjectivisation is permitted —a dethroning of sexuality. Although of course, bras priced modestly lack the finesse that comes attached with an expensive make.
It’s interesting how the low-end lingerie market also has the latest, most stylish and saucy designs to boot.
New Designs are Important to the Lingerie Industry Too
‘Lovinoform’ is a wholesale manufacturer that supplies to over 250 small shops all over India, in towns big and small. Speaking in a self-congratulatory tone, the owner Deepak Aggarwal, says that every monthly production cycle of the 20,000 pieces they produce boasts of new, racy lingerie styles. It’s the demand of the industry, he says.
Ladies ke segment mein always new creation chahiye hota hai.
Aggarwal’s firm produces bras in the MRP Rs 150-250 category. His target audience — both young and old women.
The Age and Lace Connection
Older women buy a lot of lace from our shop, says Mr Talwar, who runs a cosmetics and lingerie store. At least 15-20 women come to his shop everyday, making purchases of an average of Rs 400, a visit.
But the Noida shopkeeper rues that the younger women have shifted loyalties to the online market place.
Younger girls come here less and less.Their mothers buy from us, but the daughters are buying lingerie online. At least 40% of our revenue has been lost due to online shopping.
Streets or Sites: No Boundaries for Lingerie Shopping
Online shopping has indeed hijacked the industry. Lingerie website shopping Zivame alone has some 6,00,000 women shopping on it every month. With fit consulting and hefty discounts, they are aggressively targeting the middle class women living in towns, metros and cities. Their sheer lacy bras cost roughly Rs. 250 and they offer discounts on all big brands.
A study by retail consultancy Technopak Advisors shows that over the next eight years, whereas the market for sarees will grow at its slowest pace — at a rate of 6% — the lingerie segment will see a growth of 15%.
A Reuters report estimates the industry to be currently worth $3 Billion. With a bullish future ahead, there seems to be plenty of room for lingerie retailers — both online and offline to grow.
Funnily, innerwear still remains a prickly subject in India, which is at best avoided.
Husbands still shy away from entering the shop while their wives are buying underwear. They stand outside, or stand in one corner even if they are inside the shop, pretending not to notice.
— Mrs. Talwar, a lingerie shop owner.
Still, on the streets of India, one can clearly see a mini lingerie revolution happening.