With the visible augmentation of the Indian Intimate wear industry in the past few years, the focus of manufacturers has considerably shifted from aesthetics to functionality. Though aesthetics play a major role in the sales of an undergarment, but due to the increasing awareness about fabrics, sizes, fits and finishes among the women clientele, manufacturers are making swift developments to offer according to the needs for a ‘perfect underwear’. Be it fabrics with extra stretch, finishes to keep away allergies, or value additions facilitating the innerwear to be worn as outerwear; new aspects of surface innovations are entering this niche industry to make the wearer comfortable yet confident…
Coming out of an era of no awareness, the lingerie industry has commendably covered a long distance. With 65% of urban women still struggling with finding the ideal cup size, new innovative developments and consultation services provided by lingerie manufacturers are reflecting dynamic changes in the society. With requirement for all possible aspects of fashion, styling, fabric and finishing going up, manufacturers like Libra Products, experiment with blends of Lycra and modal as they have resistance to shrinkage and 50% more water absorbency with respect to cotton. Elaborating more on the same, Bhavin Gala, Partner in the company shared, “We are designing lingerie sets, regular bras, T-shirt bras, padded bras and double-padded bras using fabrics like stretchable cotton Lycra, high quality supplex Lycra and power knits for superior support. We are also planning on incorporated original Lycra fabrics without blends in our product category, to fit the requirements of the customers.
Corroborating with the statement, Ravi Verma, Partner, Care in Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd. also stated that Modal, in 2015 is going to be India’s most popular pick for intimate wear. The company believes in providing environment-friendly and skin-friendly fabrics to its customers and keeps on innovating to reciprocate to their requirements. Finishes are very critical regarding the innerwear fabrics and trims. Stink-free, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, hypoallergenic and biodegradability have become the set factors on which fabrics are treated before being cut into patterns. Vijay Kumar, Representative, Jai Chand Lal Jain, manufacturers of undergarments for men shared, “We are using SFD dyes aka skin-friendly dyes, developed in-house, which not only prevent the user from getting rashes or develop itching problems and other uncomfortable issues, but also provide vibrant and long-lasting colours.
The credit of this steady metamorphosis of the entire industry goes to the constant upgrading of technology and machineries. Recently, Jockey introduced underwear for men with special innovative 8-way stretch fabric, which is a blend of 90% cotton and 10% spandex. Sharing about the technological interventions in innerwear manufacturing, Manikindin, GM, Gokaldas Images said, “We have specialized cup moulders to avoid manual cutting of the cups, which not only gives comfort to the wearer but also fits the skin perfectly. These moulded cups are sewn into the brassier with in-built silicone padding to avoid unnecessary gapping between brassier and skin.” The company also works with anti-bacterial and stink-free concepts to run parallel with the ongoing global trend.
Value addition on lingerie surfaces doesn’t only happen in fabric construction and finishing steps, but with introduction of various accessories, lingerie as a product category has turned more glamorous in nature. Though comfort is the most important feature that clients look forward to, aesthetic is also of utmost importance for another set of clientele. Discussing about lingerie becoming a more fashion-oriented commodity, Harpreet Singh, Regional Sales Manager, Strawberry Lenceria Pvt. Ltd., manufacturers of premium women lingerie said, “Lingerie is moving towards fashion industry, therefore we are developing a fashion category which includes laces and novelty fabrics. Lingerie is no more the same plain thing it used to be years ago; in fact, now we are infusing the design with technically developed accessories that include plastic and metal rings & slides, cutting, underwire, side bones, hook and eye tapes, Lyrca elastics and laces, knitted fabric, crochet elastics, velvet ribbons, decked with laces, bows, beads and jewelled embellishments.”
Now being considered as an outerwear, lingerie is being treated with various value addition techniques to make it more attractive and aesthetic. With customization becoming the need of the day, many companies are offering wide range of designs in embroidered, fringed, and printed varieties. Further, Manikindin adds, “For the brands we are associated with like Enamor, we are developing different patterns like camouflage, polka dots, floral and checks which can be worn under translucent blouses and in pool parties.”
Another Lingerie manufacturer, Sona, has its premier range starting from Rs. 5,000 and goes up to Rs. 4 lakh. They have especially customized a gold bra for weddings and other occasion with costs around Rs. 4 lakh.
Value addition on lingerie surfaces doesn’t only happen in fabric construction and finishing steps, but with introduction of various accessories, lingerie as a product category has turned more glamorous in nature. Though comfort is the most important feature that clients look forward to, aesthetic is also of utmost importance for another set of clientele.
Embroidery machines adding the glamour quotient to ‘undergarments’…
The main innovation in the field of lingerie is the embroidered lingerie. As usage of laces and conventional fabrics get over-exhausted, and usage of embroidery for decoration came into limelight. Though embroidery needs to be done with lot of care to avoid issues like fabric puckering and pulling, but efforts and technological advancements by many machine manufacturers have resulted into the development of shuttle embroidery machines by Tajima, Saurer and Lasser, which not only give an ornate edge to the delicate fabrics used, but also provides a new variety of the same product. These multi-head embroidery machines offer automatic multi-colour embroidery and achieve the highest degree of precision and performance. With growing information, and changing lifestyles of women and men, the concentration on innerwear has significantly increased in the past years. And with the launch of new machineries and experimentation of lingerie bases with varied value addition techniques rightly points out the bright future of this industry!
