Undergarment Trend Gets New Cheeky Exposure
Thongs--once the badge of exotic dancers and girls from Ipanema--have become so mainstream that 19 million North American women are wearing them and Kmart bins are overflowing with the skimpy undies.
Now lingerie marketers are trying to bolster the trend by pushing women to show off the underwear as outerwear.
In a gender twist on the “grunge” look of the 1990s that gave license to young men exposing their boxer shorts above oversize trousers, women’s thong underwear has started to peek above pant lines on fashion runways and in urban nightclubs alike.
“Anything that draws attention to the bare midriff is hot right now,” said Tom Julian, a New York-based trend analyst.
Although the jury is still out on the widespread appeal of putting one’s undies on display, there is no question that thongs have joined the ranks of bikinis and briefs as undergarment essentials for millions of American women.
Thong sales have unseated traditional women’s underwear as the fastest-growing lingerie niche. Most department stores, discount retailers and specialty chains, ranging from Macy’s to Express to Kmart, sell thong underwear. And Lane Bryant, a retail chain that targets plus-size women, carries thongs up to size 15.
Lanise Ingram, 26, of Los Angeles says she’s more fashion-conscious these days, explaining why she’s been buying thongs instead of conventional underwear.
“It’s not about seduction and feeling sexy,” she said while recently sifting through a table of thongs at a Victoria’s Secret store in Beverly Hills and holding three pairs. “It’s about comfort and looking good.”
Since 1998, thong underwear has beaten the traditional brief as the fastest-selling panty. Sales increased 156%, to $131 million, between 1995 and 1999, jumping 25% from 1998 to 1999 alone, according to NPD Group Inc., a New York purchasing-research firm. According to industry reports, 19 million North Americans--some of them men--own at least one thong, with 70% of buyers 34 or younger.
Victoria’s Secret, the mid-price women’s lingerie chain operated by Intimate Brands Inc., has seen thong sales rise 30% since 1995 while all other panty types have increased just 5%. In 1999 alone, Victoria’s Secret sold more than 20 million thongs. Frederick’s of Hollywood Inc., the original purveyor of sexy lingerie, introduced the thong in 1981 and now claims to sell more than 40,000 a week.
In the same way push-up bras lifted the sagging lingerie business 10 years ago by attracting customers seeking sexier silhouettes, undergarment makers today have overloaded store shelves with thongs, hoping for similar results.
Sara Lee Corp. of Chicago, which sells the Wonderbra and Lovable lines found at such discount retailers as Kmart, has also seen thong sales soar and plans to add two thong designs by next spring.
“The Wonderbra rejuvenated bra sales,” said Marcia Clark, director of merchandising with Sara Lee’s intimate line. “The thong is similar in that we’re seeing more customers and more money.”
The outer-underwear trend was rejuvenated recently when teenage girls began exposing bra straps under dainty tank tops. Since then, slips, corsets and bandeau-style lingerie have also gone mainstream. Thongs paired with frilly bras under see-through outfits are popular in nightclubs and red-carpet runways. Undergarments are being accessorized to form outlandish fashion statements, Julian said. The latest twist encourages women to adorn an exposed thong with bejeweled clips.
One of the new posterior decorators is Pauline Aguilera, a Los Angeles designer who saw an artistic--and business--opportunity in low-slung pants, bare midriffs and exposed thongs. She created a line of rhinestone studs and dangling beaded and feather-adorned clips that retail at $16 to $24.
“It seemed like everyone had their thongs hanging out. I was shocked,” said Aguilera, a former Ralph Lauren consultant who likes to prowl nightclubs and other spots for inspiration on what’s hot among trend-setting youths.
“I woke up one morning and said, ‘That’s it--thong clips.’ ”
Aguilera is banking on the success of the underwear-as-outwear trend to send sales of her thong clips soaring in the next year. Thus far, sales of her handmade clips have been slow since they debuted online in September.
UCLA marketing professor Dominique Hanssens said that fashion trends, including lingerie, usually work in cycles. Retailers create trends on a small scale and later sell their popularity to a larger audience. Because of the difficulty pushing widespread appeal, some trends fizzle before they even take off, he said. “Given today’s short cycles, retailers have to act fast.” He added that this might explain the sudden boom in thongs and thong-related trends, including the outer-underwear trend expected to surge this summer.
Nonetheless, until the thong trend tapers off, new thong styles will continue to be marketed. Billy Martin’s Western Wear in Los Angeles sells a leather thong for $69, and lingerie maker Frisk will print a customer’s name in rhinestones on the front of a mesh thong for $60. Simpler cotton styles at Victoria’s Secret or Gap average about $8 each.
Then there’s MaternityOutfitters.com, a Houston-based Web retailer that started selling thongs for pregnant women. “Thongs are the most popular underwear we carry,” said owner Lorraine Zistler, estimating that she sells three pair for every one pair of regular underwear. “It’s something that women get used to wearing and don’t want to quit wearing just because they’re pregnant.”
Underscoring the growing ubiquity of thong wearing, consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble introduced Alldays Thong Pantiliners in the U.S. last fall after seeing success in Europe. P&G; is currently airing TV ads for its new product in prime time.
The fashion industry, meanwhile, sees one sector in the thong market with room to grow: men. The men’s department at certain Macy’s stores in California are promoting thongs for men to wear underneath form-fitting club wear. And Frederick’s of Hollywood offers a silk male thong in red, black, navy and leopard print in its spring 2001 catalog.
