Brief encounters on the catwalk
August 22, 2012 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
Lingerie
The opening night of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week at the Sydney Town Hall featuring Bendon Lingerie. Photo: Ben Rushton
WITH bikini lines at eye level, chicken fillets stuffed into bra cups and overzealous applications of fake tan, lingerie runway shows are often fraught affairs.
Underwear giant Bendon has been in the business for 65 years, but had never staged a catwalk presentation until it opened the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival Sydney last night.
The lingerie powerhouse took no chances on the catwalk, recruiting Jennifer Hawkins to open proceedings in a lace-trimmed push-up bra and knicker set by Loveable, for which she is an ambassador.
Youthful looks from Loveable were followed by sophisticated smalls from the likes of Pleasure State and Elle Macpherson Intimates on the runway at the Sydney Town Hall.
“Now is the right time to go ahead with a full-scale catwalk presentation, because we now really offer a brand for everyone in the market place, from small cup sizes for young ladies, through to a G cup and further than that,” said Bendon brand manager Victoria Jubbs.
The show marked the official launch of Evollove, a new fashion-forward range aimed at catering to the increasing number of younger women with a larger bra size.
“We were seeing a lot of feedback from within our retail stores from customers saying they wanted more fun colours and a fuller cup size,” said Jubbs.
“It’s very fun, sexy and flirtatious and it’s giving that customer something she hasn’t had before.”
The affordable range runs from D to G cups, which Jubbs said highlighted another challenge in staging a lingerie show that needed to span all fits and sizes.
“Finding the right models is the most difficult part,” she said.
“You need to have the right number of models for the right number of sizes that you’ve got.”
Larger sizes are performing well for Evollove.
“It’s a big commitment for retailers to take on a new brand in the current market place, and we’ve had a tremendous success with Evollove,” Jubbs said. “In Myer we are already seeing double the average sell-through in stores, which is fantastic.”
With more than 50 bricks and mortar stores in Australia and New Zealand, Bendon also last month launched an online store featuring 1500 products from 12 of its brands.
