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Is It Offensive For A Lingerie Company To Make Salesgirls Put Bra Size On Their Name Tags?

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women in bras

A Scandinavian lingerie company called Change has a policy that may be popular among men for two reasons.

Making salesgirls write bra size on their name tags is first of all a sexy concept.

Secondly we think it is a useful idea, which will help men figure out what bra size to buy.

The salesgirls, however, weren't so thrilled. Angry employees are suing the company, according to the Daily Mail, complaining that this policy is discomfiting and encourages unwelcome stares from "dirty men."

There seems to be some disagreement as to the company's policy. CEO Susann Haglund said the policy was "completely voluntary" and didn't get why it's "seen as demeaning in any way."

But an anonymous employee said job offers come with a document "which states that 'name tag with size is always worn.'"

A union spokeswoman for the sales team said they would investigate whether the rule — or suggestion, as the CEO puts it — is illegal under Swedish law.

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Italian Lingerie Company Bids A Very Special Goodbye To Berlusconi

These Inappropriate Crotchless Panties For Kids Are Creating An Uproar In Colorado

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A mother who was shopping at a local mall in Greeley, Colo. was aghast when she saw crotchless panties sold in a children's store called Kids N’ Teen (via Jezebel).

"I was mortified. My first initial response was, 'Am I really seeing that?' They're sized to fit a seven-year-old girl," Erin French told 9News.

She quickly snapped a photo and the mall's management office was notified. The inappropriate lingerie has been removed after serious complaints. Kids N' Teen said that they've only been open for two weeks and are still trying to decide what they want to include as merchandise. They also told 9News that although their store offers children's clothing, about 25% of their customers are actually teens.

This isn't the first time oversexed children's clothes have caused an uproar: A couple of months ago, the French line Jours Apres Lunes created international controversy when they featured underwear styles for young girls borrowed from adult lingerie trends.

A snapshot of the crotchless panties below was taken by French:

children lingerie

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White House Denies Report That Michelle Obama Spent $50,000 On Lingerie

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victoria's secret $2.5 million bra

Michelle Obama reportedly shelled out $50,000 on “the sexiest lingerie in the world” at Agent Provocateur, according to The Telegraph.

The first lady’s visit to the Madison Avenue store helped increase the lingerie brand’s sales by 12 percent.

After several British news outlets reported on the shopping spree, a White House official denied the story, according to Politico.

Agent Provocateur CEO Gary Hogarth couldn’t comment on the luxury store’s client list, but he did say that there had been some high-profile clients.

The French company is known as much for its erotic lingerie as it is for its high prices.

The least expensive item in the store is a thong, which retails for $90. Bras and corsets start at $200, and other lingerie goes upwards of $3,000.

Celebrities such as Kate Moss, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Kylie Minogue have all been the famous faces of the brand.

This post originally appeared at The Daily Caller. 

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Why This Maternity Lingerie Line's Ads Got A 'Restricted' Rating On YouTube

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milkman hotmilk ad campaignHOTmilk, a New Zealand-based manufacturer of maternity and nursing lingerie, made a name for itself when one of its ads got a restricted rating on YouTube, requiring viewers to confirm that they were at least 17 years old.

It's because its advertisements look more like a much-racier Victoria's Secret campaign for expectant mothers. 

Co-founder Lisa Ebbing came up with the idea for the company in 2005 when she was pregnant with her first child. She says this was before the "yummy mommy" phase, when the underwear options for expecting and nursing mothers were limited. She and her business partner Ange Crosbie decided to cater to mothers who still wanted to feel sexy.

Starting the company "basically took a lot of hard work and what we in New Zealand call Kiwi ingenuity, which is doing something with not much money and not much time," Ebbing told us. "We pretty much had an idea, scraped up the money, and did it on a shoestring.” When asked to elaborate on what is defined as Kiwi ingenuity, Ebbing explained: 

“We had to go out and buy all the components of a bra and make the first samples ourselves on our home sewing machine. I then became the model, my husband the photographer and graphic designer. We then bought a book on html and built ourselves our own website, and Ange, my business partner travelled the country selling product while juggling another job.”

In order to launch HOTmilk, Ebbing and Crosbie took out a business loan and it took four years for the company to become profitable as it was growing and expanding into new markets. “We've also seen sales plateau for the past two years due to the economic downturn, but we're seeing sales increasing again this year,” she says.

HOTmilk is kind of a family business with husbands of both partners working for the company. The company, which started with three employees, now has 15. Roly Ebbing is heading up the new MILKMAN line, which consists of briefs and boxers for men.

“Originally we just wanted a gift with purchase item for HOTmilk which was MILKMAN, but it was so well liked, we had to do it as its own brand,” Ebbing explained, saying that MILKMAN has met expectations.

After being introduced in September of last year, MILKMAN line introduced additional products containing wishbone technology in December. “Wishbone technology is a fantastic innovation in crotch detailing,” she says. 

Currently in its sixth year, HOTmilk’s annual revenue is $5 million. Its bras are priced at $50 per bra and are sold globally in 900 boutiques as compared to local 25 boutiques, which sold HOTmilk’s products its first year. HOTmilk is looking to partner with department stores, "but only a select few since we still want to work with boutiques," says Ebbing, who describes her ideal partner as a company like Nordstrom.

Ebbing named Triumph International and Bravado Designs as competitors, and says HOTMilk expects to go public in about five years after it reaches its $20 million annual revenue goal.

 

 “It wasn't scandalous as all lingerie brands do sexy commercials and this wasn't overtly sexual, it was simply that the model was pregnant and why should a pregnant woman be treated any differently, she's fabulous at all stages of her life, and in my mind, a pregnant body is one to celebrate even more as it's going through such an incredible journey.” - Lisa Ebbing 

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Turns Out Michelle Obama Didn't Blow $50K On Lingerie, The Telegraph Issues A Groveling Apology

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michelle obama

The Telegraph reported last week that Michelle Obama had spent $50,000 on Agent Provocateur lingerie, giving a significant boost to their profits. 

The story seemed too good (or too bad) to be true. 

Turns out, it isn't

Further to our article “First Lady’s luxury buys boost Agent Provocateur” (Jan 30), we would like to make clear that the “shopping spree” involving Her Highness Sheikha Moza and Michelle Obama that we referred to in fact never occurred, and that Her Highness has never been shopping with Mrs Obama, at Agent Provocateur or otherwise, and has never sought to have any part of New York closed off to enable her to shop undisturbed. We apologise for the distress and embarrassment this article caused.

The Telegraph has even broke all the links to their "original story". Pretty pathetic. 

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CheapUndies.com: The Deals Site For Lingerie Lovers

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cheapundies, underwear, lingerie, daily deals,

Lingerie lovers behold: Cheap Undies is the latest deals site to offer exclusive discounts on underwear.

“People shouldn’t have to pay outrageous prices for a nice bra or a pair of boxers,” co-founder Michael Grider told Washington Post's J.D. Harrison

The two 20-something co-founders, Grider and Edward Upton, run the company from Richard, Va. and work with manufacturers to buy undies in bulk.

The site features two deals daily, one for men, another for women. They expire the next day at noon.

Currently, men can score an N2N Twilight boxer in black for $7.50 (a 69 percent discount from its suggested retail price of $21.00), while women can purchase a Betsey Johnson thong for $5, marked down from $20. 

Cheap Undies also has a 'Last Chance' section featuring a slew of discount items up for grabs. 

Understandably, returns or exchanges are not accepted.

Now see how 8 Groupon addicts saved their expired deals >

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Are You A C Cup? This Startup Has The Secret To Finding The Perfect Bra

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True and company

There's no secret formula to finding the perfect bra -- just a lot of standing around half-naked in a dressing room, trying on dozens of bras until one fits.

So Aarthi Ramamurthy and Michelle Lam figured out an algorithm that could figure out your bra size, so you can skip the dressing room all together.

The two entrepreneurs co-founded True & Co. It takes an Amazon-like recommendation approach and applies it to lingerie.

Size is all relative, depending on what kind of bra you are buying. Not to mention, bras have 20 different components in them. This makes it hard to buy bras online. 

"We wanted to take those unwritten rules and write them into code," Ramamurthy said.

When you sign up, you take a quiz to answer questions like what shape your breast is.

bra company

After you take the quiz, the technology can make recommendations to you. Every bra on the site costs $45.

Ramamurthy used to work on the Xbox for Microsoft in Seattle. She got into consumer tech while she went on her honeymoon. Ramamurthy and her husband created a photo sharing app called Bubblegum, which brought a Instagram-like service to the Windows Phone 7, and this got her featured in the New York Times.

The couple moved from Seattle to San Francisco when Ramamurthy got a job at Netflix. "Netflix was data centric," she said, but she had already caught the entrepreneurial bug.

So last year in October, she co-founded True & Co. with Lam. It took the two entrepreneurs a few months to write the code, and put up a landing page. 

If you want to test out the service, SAI readers get to skip the line, so click here.

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CITI: Big Changes Are Coming To The Women's Underwear Market (LTD, CHS, HBI, GIL)

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american eagle aerie

Major women's underwear brands like Hanes and Maidenform have been losing market share to private labels over the last four years, according to a new report by Citi analysts Susan Anderson and Kate McShane.

Private label brands that are leading the way include specialty retailers like Victoria's Secret.

Some like Chico's FAS Inc's, Soma brand and American Eagle are trying to gain market share by targeting department store customers and by opening retail stores under new brands.

We looked through Citi's report and put together the latest findings on trends in the women's intimates  market and the secular shift in where women shop for them.

Note: Data is drawn from NPD, and NPD changed its methodology in 2010 so market share losses might not be as big as indicated.

Private label brands like Victoria's Secret and other smaller players are gaining marketshare

All major brands have lost dollar share and unit share over the last four years, while private label brands (companies that make products for sale under its other brands like Limited Brands) have gained share. Private label includes specialty retailers like Victoria's Secret.

Many specialty retailers are trying to gain a foot in the intimate apparel market by opening retail stores under new brands, like Chico's Soma intimates stores and American Eagle's aerie intimate stores.

Source: Citi



There has been a major permanent shift in where women shop for intimates

There has been a secular shift (a long-term trend that changes our mindset) from department stores to specialty retailers.

Each of these brands has different demographics. The Aerie customer targets teen girls, Victoria's Secret's customers are those who are in their "20s and fashion forward." Soma has been targeting the department store shopper, the Soma customer is over 30 and similar to the department store customer which is a "30s mom with kids at home".

Source: Citi



Higher than normal prices made Hanesbrands lose market share but this trend is expected to reverse

Hanesbrands Inc lost market share for the first time in the last four years which was because of higher prices and the temporary abnormally high price spread with Berkshire Hathaway's Fruit of The Loom. But the company is expected to regain some market share now that the price spread has normalized.

Hanesbrands does still lead the share in women's intimates which gives the company leverage when negotiating price and shelf space with retailers.

Source: Citi



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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A French Lingerie Shop Makes Great Use Of A Hologram

This New Sports Bra Could Detect A Heart Attack

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Enanoflex sports bra

Women everywhere have another reason to feel healthier when working out.

Interdisciplinary engineers from the University of Arkansas have developed a sports bra that uses electronic sensors to detect vital patient information, like heart rate, body temperature and respiratory rate, according to Ecouterre.com.

This information can then be sent to any person with a registered handheld device — a doctor, hospital, or the woman wearing the bra.

This is all made possible with wearable gold nano-electrode sensors woven into the bra's fabric. Electrical signals from the sensors are first read by small box-shaped module in the bra. Then, the data is sent out from  the module to any specified device — smartphones, tablets or computers.

Vijay Varadan, a distinguished professor of electrical engineering at Arkansas, calls the technology an e-Nanoflex Sensor System.

"Our e-bra enables continuous, real-time monitoring to identify any pathophysiological changes, Varadan said. "It is a platform ion which various sensors for cardiac-health monitoring are integrated into the fabric. The garment collects and transmits vital health signals to any location in the world."

For all the men who feel left out from this development, the engineers are developing a workout vest with the same technology.

Now, read about the world's most expensive sports bra >

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Sex Toy Founder Tells Us How She Keeps Things Professional At The Office

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Patti Brisben

It's hard enough to maintain professionalism at the workplace, but it may be even more difficult when you work in a sexually-charged environment. 

And Patty Brisben, founder of Pure Romance, a company that sells intimate feminine products, told us she's "seen it all." 

"This is not your grandma’s Tupperware party," she said. "Put together a group of enthusiastic women with sex toys and other flirty couple’s products, and that's a Pure Romance party."

During these home parties, the participants discuss certain topics that may be deemed inappropriate for standard work conversation, but Brisben makes it a point to keep things professional.

We recently caught up with her for some workplace etiquette tips:

How is this environment different from any other professional one?

While the parties might be based on letting loose and encouraging women to give themselves permission to ask what they really want, it’s important that our consultants always keep the parties professional. It’s about having fun and bonding with your customer base, but knowing that like any client and customer relationship, boundaries do exist.

For example, in order for women to make an informed decision, we provide in-depth product information to help explain the specific purposes and unique benefits of each item. When this comes to a bedroom toy, the goofiness can escalate quickly. Despite the distraction, it’s still important that the consultant find a way to get her talking points in and get her job done. 

What kind of ground rules do you have?

To protect the integrity of the company, and our brand as a whole, we have both online and in-person trainings for our consultants. Our goal is to ensure our message is consistent and our customers can expect a fun, yet sophisticated party experience every time.  Although each consultant can add their own spin to the actual party, rules are rules.

The easiest way to put it is, just as a teacher plans out her days’ lesson before walking into the classroom, I encourage our consultants to envision the party they hope to create ahead of time, including the party environment – classy, informative, fun, supportive, etc. It’s easier to keep the experience professional by coming prepared with a game plan. That way, consultants are able to hit all their key talking points and avoid potential roadblocks.

Patti Brisben

What do you encourage to keep things professional?

It’s been shown time and time again that women who work in a supportive and social environment are happier, more productive workers.

I try to encourage a strong bond of camaraderie to push our consultants to grow professionally and personally. That means that when we all come to together, we talk about more than work issues, such as our children, our parents, and our hobbies.

So the bottom line is, you can be social while maintaining professionalism. The main focus should always be on your customers and their overall experience. Let them lead the direction of the conversation towards their interests and offer your feedback and advice when solicited.

How do you deal with someone who shares too much information at these parties?

It’s important to remember that you do not have to be a part of any conversation that makes you feel uncomfortable. There is always a way to excuse yourself without being rude. From experience, I’ve learned that people are just as receptive to you when things are said in a light-hearted tone, versus being dismissive and confrontational.

For example, if a co-worker approaches you about the intimate details of her sexual escapades, it’s more than OK if you want to cut the conversation off. Rather than respond with, “Woah, TMI. I don’t want to hear that.” Although that’s what you might be thinking, why not instead, say, “Sounds like an eventful night for sure.” Then excuse yourself, explaining that you’re on deadline.

What is your most awkward moment on the job? How did you get over it?

Well, the first thing that comes to mind would be any time I am on a flight and the person I’m sitting next to asks me what I do. When I tell them about Pure Romance, they almost always have a shocked look on their face. I think it’s for one of two reasons: They either don’t know what the company is, or they have preconceived notions as to what it’s about.

Our main focus is allowing women to have a safe environment to get together to learn about their bodies, ways to improve their relationship, and really giving them permission. Almost always the conversation ends with them asking me for one of my business cards.

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Some British Don't Want To Let Victoria's Secret Onto Bond Street

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Victoria's Secret Model Alessandra Ambrosio

It is hard to miss the glossy black hoardings towering over a corner of Bond Street. As the eurozone teeters, such “event” store openings are increasingly rare. But the latest flagship about to open on London’s famous shopping street isn’t for designer clothes. It’s for affordable lingerie.

And Bond Street, that bastion of buttoned-up reserve, is up in arms. According to reports last week, the new three-floor Victoria’s Secret store – which is due to open with great fanfare (and many of its scantily clad models in attendance) later this month – has prompted claims that it is lowering the tone of the area. Although Fenwick, the 121-year-old department store that will be directly opposite Victoria’s Secret, denied initial reports that it was concerned about “the kind of shoppers it will attract”, the Bond Street Association said it could “understand that some might feel they want to object”.

The American megabrand has made billions selling brightly coloured bras and pants to America, turned its supermodel spokeswomen such as Giselle and Miranda Kerr into household names, and its catwalk show into an annual televised spectacular.

And the arrival of Victoria’s Secret in Britain highlights how at least one area of fashion seems immune to the pinch of recession. In the UK alone, the underwear business is worth £3.6 billion a year. “Lingerie is performing strongly compared to other sectors in the fashion industry,” says Edith Youngblood, brand analyst and “head of intimates” at trend forecasting website WGSN. “It’s like the lipstick effect – people still want to treat themselves but underwear is an affordable indulgence, and so the perfect item: it’s small, it’s pretty.”

Victoria’s Secret has another weapon in its arsenal. While its underwear is highly covetable – its ranges are made with silk and natural fibres, and fill the gap between M&S and high-end brands such as Myla – the prices are decidedly high street.

“A hundred pounds is a lot to spend on underwear, but it will get you something quite special,” says Jordana Morrison, lingerie buyer for Selfridges. “By comparison, £100 of designer outerwear won’t get you much. Victoria’s Secret lets you buy designerwear without the usual price tag.”

Thanks to changes in the way we wear underwear, everyday basics are not what they were even 15 years ago, when Bridget Jones was rolling around in beige support pants. “Women now want something that feels special,” says Morrison. “These are not the bras that our mothers wore.”

That underwear revolution began two decades ago, after Calvin Klein plastered logos on the sporty elasticated waistbands of smart cotton basics, changing the way we thought about intimates – no longer simply utilitarian, but a lifestyle statement – and, with their upscale prices, how much we’d pay for them.

Meanwhile, thanks to iconic and provocative advertising campaigns, Gossard’s infamous Wonderbra made bras and pants into must-have items, and changed the way we were prepared to dress – and undress.

“Lingerie really became a part of fashion,” says Morrison. “There was a huge shift in the perception and desirability of certain brands. Lingerie had always taken a back seat to fashion and suddenly it was in the forefront.”

One of the most significant changes was the way lingerie developed seasonal changes (this summer’s brights and fluros are among the best-performing styles at Selfridges). Morrison believes that the arrival of Victoria’s Secret – the label’s name is supposedly inspired by Britain’s notoriously prudish 19th-century queen – will only help to strengthen lingerie’s fashionable status.

Victoria’s Secret was born in San Francisco in 1977 when Roy Raymond, a Stanford graduate, was shopping for his wife and realised there was a gap in the market for a man-friendly lingerie store. He created shops with traditional wood-panelling and counters, and sales staff who could help befuddled men to buy bras and knickers for their wives and girlfriends. By 1982, Raymond had expanded to six stores and a growing mail-order business, but sold the company well before its peak, for £2.5 million, to entrepreneur Leslie Wexner, who took the brand nationwide. By the end of the decade, Victoria’s Secret was America’s largest lingerie retailer, with £640 million in annual sales. Today, there are more than 1,000 stores in America, and the mail-order catalogue is shipped eight times a year to 400 million households.

Meanwhile, Raymond struggled to recreate his early success with later projects, such as a children’s book store, a mail-order DIY business and a firm making wigs for women with cancer; in 1993, he committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Over in the UK, Agent Provocateur was at the forefront of our underwear revolution. The brand – owned by Vivienne Westwood’s son Joe Corre and his then-wife Serena Rees – opened its first Soho shop in 1994. Its unique selling point was to introduce colourful and often quite saucy styles (modelled on provocatively styled mannequins in the window) to what was then a fairly bland market. In 2007, Corre sold the label for £60 million.

Others started to see the potential of upscale lingerie. Elle Macpherson launched her hugely successful Intimates line in the early Nineties – she now sells about £50 million of undies globally each year. Many smaller brands followed, from Stella McCartney’s spin-off range to quirky British brands with names like Pistol Panties and Spank, through to Mary Portas’s latest venture Kinky Knickers.

But no other brand has set its sights as high as Victoria’s Secret, which held its first annual fashion show in 1995 – a glitzy event featuring top models wearing extravagant costumes in a Rio carnival-style parade of feathers, crystals, lace and lingerie. The most recent show, featuring rap stars Jay Z and Kanye West, cost £7.5 million to produce.

The show is really a showcase for the company’s “angels”, an elite squad of supermodels such as Stephanie Seymour and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who earn multi-million dollar salaries to parade around in the label’s underwear. The angels – and a 2004 television commercial featuring Bob Dylan – have helped to turn the brand into a global phenomenon that sells £3.9  billion of lingerie each year.

Jenny Dickinson, acting editor of Harper’s Bazaar, thinks the high-glamour approach to mid-price underwear will appeal to British women, especially those who lack model-sized figures. “Yes, those Victoria’s Secret women – Alessandra Ambrosio, Candice Swanepoel – are fabulous, but they have something real about them, too. They’re slim, but they also have curves. For the buying public, it’s all about wanting to be those women.”

And what of the brand’s original customers: men shopping for wives and girlfriends? “Underwear buying can be an intimidating experience for men,” she says. “It’s fraught with stress because everywhere you go the sizes fit differently. Victoria’s Secret isn’t about having a huge range – they have key styles and they produce them again and again.”

According to Youngblood, the ability of Victoria’s Secret to sell women’s underwear to men will ensure the brand’s success in Britain. “The in-store sales team seek out male customers, to make them feel comfortable and not embarrassed about browsing. They are trained to know what men are looking for. All the marketing, the ads, that fashion show, the new catalogues that come along every hour, it’s actually very aggressive.”

But if the knickers fit, we’ll surely wear them.

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Frederick's Of Hollywood Is Making Two Big Moves To Stay Relevant

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frederick's of hollywood

Frederick's Of Hollywood is an age-old lingerie brand that has managed to stay relevant after all these years.

It's going to have to be constantly tweaking if it wants to keep up in a a rapidly changing retail world, especially since it's so well-known for its catalog — a retail channel that's quickly becoming obsolete.

Now, the company is revamping its catalog and moving up to luxury with a new brand called Harriett, reports Karyn Monget at Women's Wear Daily.

From WWD:

"The catalogue, which McCourt calls a “brandzine” because of the mailer’s magazine-like look, will feature modern, updated images aimed at younger, contemporary consumers as well as “VIP” customers. It will debut this week and will be part of 5.5 million catalogues mailed four times a year."

The changes are supposed to make the brand feel more "contemporary, aspirational, elegant and engaging," according to CMO Tracy McCourt.

Meanwhile, the Harriett brand is meant to grab a piece of the "accessible luxury" segment and to appeal to a wider base of consumers.

Frederick's has been trying to become more mainstream lately, trying to escape a longtime stigma of sleaziness as it faces mounting competition from lingerie powerhouse Victoria's Secret.

It's certainly continuing in the right direction, but it's a tall order to make people forget something that has built up for more than a half century.

What's your perception of Frederick's? Let us know in the comments.

NOW SEE: Apple, Victoria's Secret And IKEA All Fall Into The Same Brand Archetype >

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Why Victoria's Secret Took Over The World While Frederick's Of Hollywood Failed

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victorias secret fashion show

Frederick's Of Hollywood and Victoria's Secret sell the same thing: lingerie.

But Victoria's Secret has dominated the marketplace, posting record sales every quarter for three years. Meanwhile, Frederick's has struggled for more than a decade.

Frederick's was founded by the inventor of the push-up bra. At one point, pin-up icon Bettie Page modeled its intimate apparel. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2001, and now, the company is launching a luxury lingerie line to try and stay relevant.

Analyst Brian Sozzi at NBG Productions offered us his insight on why the brand is struggling. The biggest difference?

Women feel their Victoria's Secret purchases are investments they can use over and over (versatile bras and underwear.)

Frederick's has made a business off one thing: sex.

"Frederick's is asking customers to invest in sex during an economy with a 16.8 percent underemployment rate," Sozzi told us in an email. "The customer perceives Victoria's Secret's core offerings as more versatile, adding all sorts of benefits to how they appear in public and not just in the bedroom."

Here are some other problems:

  • Frederick's is reliant on catalogues and hasn't made its website a top priority. Victoria's Secret has done a great job of transitioning into e-commerce.
  • Victoria's Secret is designed so mothers and daughters can visit together and find something they like. Frederick's is only aimed at younger women, and moms are unlikely to take their teenage daughters there, Sozzi said. 
  • Frederick's is avoiding promotions, while Victoria's Secret smartly uses them to draw customers in.
  • Victoria's Secret captured the aspirational customer that Frederick's is only now marketing to, Sozzi said. 

Frederick's needs to make major changes to its business model to really succeed. A few new products aren't going to help the brand.

DON'T MISS: How Lululemon Keeps Women Coming Back For More >

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Sears Accidentally Put Up Another NSFW Listing For Lingerie

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sears

Sears seems to be having a problem keeping overly exposed women from popping up on its website.

The latest image, which is for the Morris Babydoll Mesh & Lace, is on sale at Sears for $25.25, and shows a lot more of the model than Sears would want you to see (we've added a black bar.) 

It wants to be elegant and toned down, and it definitely doesn't feel the need to flash any nipple on its website.

A link to the listing was first posted on Reddit.

Now when you head over to the page, it tells you: "While the product you were looking for is no longer available, take a look at these related items."

It happened earlier this year as well. One of Sears' Valentine's Day offering showed far more than Sears would've liked, and the company was pretty embarrassed by it.

Here's the explanation that Sears spokesperson Tom Aiello gave to Forbes' Kashmir Hill the last time it happened:

“The terms on our Marketplace prohibit images from displaying nudity and see-through clothing.  Most often, we see third party sellers blocking out the nudity in the images,” says Aiello. “We perform ad-hoc content audits to remove inappropriate items and  also take customer feedback and react very quickly.”

This one appears to be from third-party seller Fright Depot, and it wasn't changed to be appropriate for the Sears site, according to Neetzan Zimmerman at Gawker.

NOW SEE: The 11 Most Infamous Companies In The World >

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After Another NSFW Incident, Sears Removes All 'Exotic Apparel' From Its Website

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sears

Sears was pretty redfaced after a third party vendor called Fright Depot put up an image on the website that showed more of the model than Sears would've liked.

So, Sears has now made the decision to completely get rid of the "Exotic Apparel" section of its website, reports Scott Stump at TODAY.

The Exotic Apparel section listed items like see-through slips, leather thongs and fishnets. None of the offerings in the section were available in actual Sears stores — they were online-only and from third-party sellers.

The controversy surrounding the purple see-through slip is what put Sears over the edge, but the retailer has had problems with the images in the past, such as an incident on Valentine's Day that the company was embarrassed about.

Sears has regular audits of the images that go up on its websites, but it hasn't been able to catch everything.

Here's what Sears spokesperson Tom Aiello had to say to TODAY:

“We started a discussion about whether we even need that Exotic Apparel section of the website. We have made a decision to take that whole section of the site down. There was not a lot of negative customer feedback. It was more of just looking at it in terms of the benefits of taking it down outweighing the benefits of keeping it up. It’s not something that we need to keep up.’’

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One Simple Way Lingerie Companies Are Tricking Women Everywhere

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Tokyo, shopping, lingerie store, lingerie, Japanese, Japan, women

Lingerie companies are using "vanity sizing" and leading women to believe their breasts are bigger than they really are, according to bra expert Linda Becker. 

She told ABC News that the shift started about a decade ago:

"I realized all the companies about 10 years ago changed all the sizes without telling us," Becker told ABC News. "[They] vanity sized it, they wanted you to think your back was smaller and your breasts were bigger."

In other words, what once was a 36-D is now called a 32-G. So, how can you make sure you get the right fit?

"They should always be halfway between your elbow and your shoulder, if you look in the mirror and you are lower than that, then your bra is too loose in the back," Becker said.

Vanity sizing really matters and makes a tangible impact on what people buy.

A research report published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology by Nilüfer Z. Aydinoğlu and Aradhna Krishna of the University of Michigan and Koç University says that vanity sizing does sell clothes because it evokes that positive mental imagery.

Also, self-esteem about your own appearance moderates the effect of vanity sizing. From the report:

"While vanity sizing evokes more positive mental imagery for both low and high appearance self-esteem individuals, the effect of the positive imagery on clothing preference is significant (only) for people with low appearance self-esteem, supported by the theory of compensatory self-enhancement."

DON'T MISS: Kate Middleton's Dress Designer Has A Secret For Avoiding 'Marilyn Moments' >

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11 Surprising Facts About The Victoria's Secret Angels

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victoria's secret

Becoming a Victoria's Secret Angel is the ultimate success in the modeling business. 

Half of Forbes' highest paid models last year were Angels for the lingerie giant. And the annual Fashion Show drew more than 10 million viewers last year.

Angels don't just make millions of dollars and gain worldwide fame. Becoming an Angel is key to launching a career in fashion, business or television (just look at former Angel Heidi Klum).  

We decided to dig beyond the gorgeous surface and find out who these models really are. 

One model aspires to be a doctor, while another was a high school basketball star. 

Miranda Kerr used to be a competitive gymnast. She competed in her native country of Australia as a child, but had to quit because she became too tall.

Source: Vogue UK



Adriana Lima would like to pursue a career in medicine. She told GQ that she would like to study to be a pediatrician. Lima said she got into modeling by mistake and was too young to know what she really wanted.

Source: GQ



Alessandra Ambrosio had cosmetic surgery at age 11. She was self-conscious about her large ears and had surgery to pin them back. In 2006, she told Tyra Banks she had suffered from complications.

Source: AskMen.com



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Victoria's Secret Employee Dishes On Creepy Men, Gross Dressing Rooms and Annoying Customers

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victoria's secret

Victoria's Secret has been unstoppable in recent years, selling enough lingerie to create a growing empire.

One of the store's former associates recently posted about her experiences working in the store on the forum website Reddit. She just quit working in a store a month ago and provided proof of her identity to the moderators.

According to the 23-year-old Tennessee woman, Victoria's Secret wants its employees looking good:

"We had to wear full makeup and hair for every shift."

Some customers were creepy:

"Sometimes it was like men were forcing their wives and girlfriends to wear the more provocative underwear. One couple I remember, I would go up to the woman and ask her if she needed help finding anything and before she could respond, the guy would say they're doing fine. Guys like that creep me out."

The dressing rooms weren't great, either:

"I've found clothing sensors, panties that were tried on and soiled and miscellaneous pills on the floor."

She had weird run-ins with customers:

"I actually had a VS customer tell me she just had reduction surgery and then proceeded to show me in the middle of the store. She was probably old enough to be my mother"

The lingerie chain's "Pink" customers are the worst:

"The 12 to 14-year-old girls were the worst. They would steal while shopping with their moms, sample all of the make up and make the perfume room smell like middle school and broken promises."

And, finally, do the associates know what Victoria's "secret" is?

"We still don't know."

DON'T MISS: 11 Surprising Facts About The Victoria's Secret Angels >

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