Intimate Insider Report - July 17, 1997

At the recent Intimate Fashion Market Week in New York, several intimate apparel companies unveiled new additions to the public of their lines of clothing and lingerie.

Vanity Fair added a new Venice Lace collection to their Skin-To-Skin line of bras and panties. The line is offers the same combination of fine denier, high-filament fiber found in the Skin-To-Skin line with the addition of elegant lace. Lace prints were also added as well to the Skin-To-Skin foundations.

Also shown was the new Satin Solutions line of full-figure minimizers. The are available in a vast array of sizes, up to DD cup and come in star white, midnight black, and dawn with matching coordinated panties.

Halston unveiled two new innerwear collections; the Lifestyle and the Couture collections.

The Lifestyle collection features several designs of underwire, soft-cup and criss-cross leisure bras and coordinating panties made of microfiber with a geometric patterned fabric.

The Couture line includes a number of feminine and intricately designed underwires and underwire padded bras and coordinating panties in Treliss lace, stretch mesh and Venice lace.

And Simon Perele focused on comfort, quality, fit and color with the introduction of their new Traviatta design featuring a nylon-spandex cotton padded push-up bra and coordinating thong or bikini panty.

It seems that a greater number of women tend to fall into the 'Anti-Bra/Hate It' category than do men. Many dislike the garment due to its restrictive and confining nature, and they feel it to be an unwelcome, though sometimes necessary part of their wardrobe. An often heard statement from a working woman after a hard day is "I can't wait to get home and get this damn bra off!"

The bra burning days of the late '60's and early '70's were designed to be a message of rebellion against what many woman of the day felt was a male dominated society that forced women into uncomfortable and unpleasant foundations soley for the viewing pleasure of the male population. While the bra burning legend is 'slightly' true, it's also a great urban myth. The first reports of women burning bras in the street were nothing more than stories thought up by some nameless individual somewhere. However, as the stories circulated and the seed was planted in the minds of many a disgruntled feminist, fantasy became fact, and women did indeed begin to burn their bras - a true instance of life imitating art, you might say.

There are men who join their female companions in scorning the brassiere, though for different reasons than the ladies do. Maybe they feel that the bra is artificial and unwanted and they prefer the natural, braless look of a woman in a sheer top or tight tee shirt. Or perhaps they may share in their female counterpart's opinion that the bra represents a form of subjugation and restraint imposed on women by men. Whichever the case may be, it's probably safe to say that the ladies outnumber the men in this category.

A much greater number of the men however fall into the "Pro-Bra/Love It" category. Their interest in this most feminine of undergarments comes from a much different realm than does a woman's. Many aspects are involved in the male 'love affair' with the bra. One is the appreciation for the effect it can have on a woman's figure. It can amplify, emphasize and dramatically transform a woman's appearance. It can truly make "mountains out of molehills." Another possible aspect is the attraction for the sheer femininity that this piece of fabric and elastic exudes. The bra more strongly represents femininity more than nearly any other garment there is. To a bra enthusiast, the garment itself - delicate lace, soft satin, and the unmistakable feminine shaping in the form of the bra cup, even when it is empty - seems to exude feminity from its very fibers.

Of course, there are also a great number of women who appreciate the bra for what it does for them and how it makes them feel, and even though they may not 'love' the bra, we'll still put them in this category. Many women realize the shaping and improvement a bra may make in their appearance is worth some discomfort, but then women have always seemed to endure many hardships in order to look their best. A woman may endure wearing an uncomfortable, tight push-up bra, knowing that it gives her a luscious deep cleavage that will have every man's eye glued to her, and when she sees how her beau looks at her, as though she were the most sexy woman on earth, any discomfort she may have felt is suddenly erased, and it all becomes worth it.

So, whether you hate them or love them, bras tend to bring out extremes of feeling in people, and it all may depend on which side of the bra you're looking from.

Canada's Smart Bra company has changed its name after 51 years to reflect its growing diverisification into the intimate apparel industry. It will be renamed The Smart Fashions Group Inc. Smart has served as one of the leaders in in foundations for the full-figured women, and is now looking forward to entering the youth, contemporary and fashion-forward markets.

Former Vice-President of Maidenform Worldwide, James Morgan, has been named the new President of Warnaco's Olga division. Mr. Morgan has spent 29 year with Maidenform and has been President of the Intimate Apparel Council since 1995.

The European luxury lingerie house, La Perla, has made a partnership with Neiman Marcus and Harper's Bazaar to present a 32 page lingerie-inspired 'outsert' titled "Sheer Seductions". The publication is in the April edition of Harper's Bazaar, and is to be a celebration of the sheer fabrics that are making fashion news this spring. The exclusive 32-page ousert is available in the following markets: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dalas/Ft. Worth, Houston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Washingtom D.C., Boston and Florida.

Kimberly's insider column will be a regular feature of the boudoir from now on. We welcome her on board, and wish her success!