Global Lingerie Brands Bet Big on China Market

Chinese model Sui He in the 2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. (Shutterstock)

As China’s affluent consumers begin to care just as much about what they’re wearing under their clothes as what outfits they’re wearing, lingerie brands from across the world are moving in on the market.

In October, London luxury lingerie brand Agent Provocateur opened its first standalone store in Hong Kong to join seven stores in mainland China, not long after Italian competitor La Perla opened its 14th China store in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay.

At a time when China’s luxury market growth is slowing, lingerie sales are projected to grow by 18 percent this year. Luxury lingerie made up about one-third of $20 billion made in lingerie sales last year in China, according to Angelito Tan, the cofounder of RTG Consulting in a recent Women’s Wear Daily interview. The article also notes that Agent Provocateur sales are up 30 percent in the brand’s Beijing store, while La Perla’s Asian sales are up 40 percent thanks in large part to Chinese shoppers.

The high-end brands moving in on the market are joined by more mid-range labels like Etam, a French label that recently opened its first China store at Shanghai’s Super Brand Mall, and Victoria’s Secret, which opened its first nine mainland China stores in January.

Lingerie labels are moving in on a market that’s growing in popularity as consumer interests expand beyond outwardly visible aspects of luxury, coinciding with a shift in tastes away from “bling” and flashy logos. Some are still cautious about the market, however—Victoria’s Secret is currently only selling beauty products and accessories in its China stores, which Torsten Stocker, a partner at A.T. Kearney, told Ad Age may be part of an attempt to research sizing preferences in the China market. “If you go in with a full-scale lingerie offering, women might buy it once and feel uncomfortable if it doesn’t fit,” he said, “and then it’s very difficult to get back into the game if you have a reputation as a brand that looks glamorous but is not comfortable to wear.”

With competition heating up, international lingerie companies have been increasingly prone to use Chinese models for their ad campaigns. The annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show now always has several Chinese models walking the runway. This year’s lineup included Sui He and Ming Xi, while past shows have included supermodel Liu Wen—who has also appeared in La Perla ads.

These brands face mounting competition from local market players as well. Chinese lingerie brand Aimer has succeeded to defy stereotypes that Chinese brands are “cheap” and charge $60 to $290 for bras, and has employed creative marketing campaigns such as a Valentine’s Day promotion that asked men at a Beijing mall to guess their girlfriend or wife’s bra size to win a free bra for them.

Although the Valentine’s Day promotion was meant for couples, local brands like Aimer generally focus less on romance than international players like Victoria’s Secret. According to the brand’s marketing manager in an Ad Age interview, the brand’s name means “to love” in French but is positioned more around “family love, friends, and society” with a focus on comfort in addition to aesthetics.

 

Tag: agent provocateur, aimer, china, china lingerie… , Moreagent provocateur, aimer, china, china lingerie, china luxury, etam, la perla, lingerie, liu wen, Luxury, ming xi, sui he, victoria’s secret, victoria’s secret fashion show

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My Husband Didn’t ‘Settle’ For A Fat Wife

Image via Kat Stroud/House Of Winter

This post originally appeared on Bustle.

By Kat Stroud.

Most humans are taught from a very young age that in order to be worthy of a fairytale ending, we must remain as thin as possible. It’s likely why we don’t see plus size women with thin men in our media streams, because thin, conventionally attractive dudes should only be paired with thin, conventionally attractive ladies. There are no plus size cartoon princesses riding off into the sunset with Prince Charming. There are no Rebel Wilson’s starring in films alongside Brad Pitt as the love interest. Fat bodies go with fat bodies; thin bodies go with thin bodies. And that is all.

Most of us can agree that first world cultures tend to perceive plus size people as second class citizens who should hate their bodies. We’re constantly bombarded with weight loss campaigns, commercials for slimming pills and surgeries, and mocking by fat-phobic groups like Project Harpoon and Thinner Beauty. Sadly, this means that when a lot of plus size individuals are approached by a conventionally “good looking” counterpart — both in real life and on-screen — it can be difficult to believe that the attraction is legitimate. From my experiences, I know that compliments from a potential S.O. are often regarded with suspicion. But I also know that this self-hatred and doubt are toxic to any relationship, and especially the relationship you hold with yourself. My conventionally hot husband taught me this.

The first few months of dating this handsome man were filled with insecurities and doubt on my part. This guy was gorgeous, and not just by my standards, but by society’s, and I couldn’t help but question his motives. What was he doing asking me out? Was he just experimenting with a big girl? Was this like that movie thing where the hot guy asks out the “pig” as some kind of cruel joke? I wanted to believe that I was “on his level” — that the interest was really there. But doubts implanted into my psyche by our culture would creep in, destroying any confidence I had once felt.

Even once we started dating, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t good enough for him. Was he checking out that thin blonde walking by in the sexy heels? Was I the largest woman he had ever been with? The stream of negative thoughts were only fueled by the looks we would get when he would take me out. I could feel the disapproval, purely in the facial expressions and under-breath comments cast in our direction. We were clearly considered an oddity.

When I finally plucked up the courage to confront my husband with the stream of questions pouring into my head, the combination of rage, surprise, and outrage that came from him was palpable. It had never even occurred to him that people were judging us, and he was flabbergasted at the thought that I had been perceiving myself as less than beautiful. And you know what? Being presented so clearly with this man who didn’t see my fat as a problem to overcome, but who saw me as a desirable, beautiful, caring, and independent woman made me realize that I’d been spending far too much of my time concerned with the petty perceptions of others and not nearly enough time concerned with my own feelings about my body. While our validation shouldn’t stem from the validation of others, sometimes having someone shut down any negative self-talk in your head is the push you need to acknowledge just how absurd the negative self-talk is to begin with.

And so, the more I allowed my confidence to grow, the more I discovered that it was said confidence that made me feel sexy. It wasn’t lingerie, jewelry, or high heels. It was the secure feeling of knowing that I am beautiful. And that I get to define what that word means to me.

In a society that profits from our self-doubt, choosing to love oneself is an act of rebellion. When people see my husband and I — he, the “good looking” male and me, the “fat” woman — supporting each other and showcasing our love, it challenges stereotypes. Sure, it makes certain people extremely uncomfortable. But if you are not ashamed of your body and if your partner is not ashamed of your body, those outsider opinions begins to grow mute.

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