dun be a chao PCW!
Jan 4, 2007
Extra Perks Women seek cleavage and comfort in their bras, and underwear companies are investing in R&D to give them that. Urban talks to bra experts and seeks out the best support a woman can get
WOULD you buy a bra that can be converted into a shopping bag?
Or one which contains liquid that can keep you warm, or cool, depending on the weather?
Probably not, but Japanese women are game.
When it comes to underwear, Japan is the land where high-tech meets quirky.
Last year, Triumph International Japan launched a 'shopping bag bra' - a lacy red bra which can be turned into a shopping bag. The padding in the bra cups doubles as extra fabric which can be held together with the bra straps to create a bag.
For a step-by-step diagram, visit
www.triumphjapan.com/release/unique/2006110700166.html.
Japanese underwear maker Wacoal Corporation also released its Kaiteki Navi range last year, which includes 'climate-control bras and underwear'. They contain liquid which cools the wearer in hot weather and heats up when it is cold outside.
But don't expect to see these products on Singapore shelves yet.
When it comes to underwear, women here are less adventurous. In fact, when Triumph launched its Fresh Fabric T-shirt bra, which has odour-repelling qualities, in 2004, sales were modest.
Singapore women demand only two things from their bras - cleavage and comfort.
Every major brand selling here says that its top-selling bras are the padded and push-up varieties.
In fact, 95 per cent of Triumph bras sold here are padded, says Doy Teo, director of Triumph International Singapore.
She adds: 'In Europe, where the women are better endowed, the trend is the opposite, with minimal padding preferred. Singaporean women like to dress sexily, which is why they want an additional boost.'
At Wacoal, 60 per cent of the bras sold are padded.
Comfort is also key. When Triumph conducts focus groups, the women always say that 'no matter what the purpose of the lingerie is, it must be comfortable', notes Harold Hinderberg, regional product manager of Triumph International.
But here's the bad news: The law of gravity has deemed that 'the more you try and push something together, the more the degree of comfort declines', he says of push-up bras.
Which is why the race to combine cleavage with comfort has meant that underwear manufacturers are now spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop bras that can give the bosom lift but won't make you squirm with pain.
One major breakthrough in recent years has been the use of microfibre, a man-made fine yarn which is soft and light yet holds the flesh in place.
Triumph's top-selling One-Piece Bra, for example, uses microfibre and is heat-pressed with glue to create a seamless finish.
It was developed over eight years and is a collaboration between the German-Swiss company's research labs in Europe, Japan and Hong Kong.
'A lot of people underestimate how much work goes into developing bras, but for the One-Piece Bra, thousands of researchers, engineers, mechanics and marketing staff worked together,' says Teo.
Janice Munroe, senior vice-president of merchandise at Canadian lingerie label La Senza, says each of her bras has at least 30 parts.
Although she will not disclose how much the label spends on R&D, she says the aim is to eliminate the number of elements that can annoy a woman.
Recent inventions include elastics which don't pinch the skin, two-way stretch foam cups that move with the wearer, and fabrics so soft that you forget you are wearing a bra, she says.
Over at Wacoal Corporation's Human Science Laboratories in Japan, Taiwan and China, engineers conduct experiments on how women's bodies react in different environments while wearing different materials.
They also collate data on thousands of different female shapes and sizes to find out if the needs of women are changing, says Rhindy Yeo, assistant manager of Wacoal's merchandising in Singapore.
For example, a decade ago, the average Singaporean woman was a size 70B, while recent research shows that women here today are a more busty 75B, she says.
'It is important that we make bras that can be just as comfortable for different shapes to wear,' she adds.
One of Wacoal's most ground-breaking underwear invention last year was the Tummy Walker, a panty which puts pressure on selected muscles when the wearer walks, helping to tone up the hips, thighs and abdomen.
Even home-grown lingerie manufacturers have got into the act, with Ero Lingerie creating Skin Cool, a range designed for Singapore's humid weather.
Lee Yee Choon, Ero's managing director, notes that the padding in conventional push-up bras is made from compressed foam and non-breathable fabric, making them heavy and uncomfortable.
Skin Cool push-up bras have 'thermal regulators' - small pores in the foam - and use a more breathable fabric so that air can move more freely.
'One woman wore our padded bra on the treadmill for an hour, and within 15 minutes of stopping, the bra had dried up completely,' he notes.
Although Lee will not comment on how much is spent on research, he says that unlike Triumph and Wacoal, Ero 'is not a huge company with deep pockets to invest in research and development'.
To compensate, it borrows ideas from current technology used in other brands. Improving on that technology and customising it for local customers 'allow us to be innovative and more cost-effective'.
Skin Cool now accounts for 80 per cents of sales at Ero Lingerie, which stocks seven other international brands of lingerie.
Although most customers may not be interested in the effort that goes into developing lingerie, the fact that they willingly fork out an average of $70 for a slip of material shows that the effort is not wasted.
Sales assistant Jean Lim, 30, who owns over 200 bras, says she would rather spend $100 on a nice bra than a pair of shoes or blouse.
Says Lim, who buys at least two bras a month: 'I could be wearing an old outfit, but if I'm wearing new lingerie which looks good and gives me a good shape, I feel confident both inside and out.'
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