Ever heard of underwear blues? Lots of folks have it. Manpreet Singh did. On the eve of her wedding recently, one thought was consuming her completely that cleavage thing. She just didn't have it. But dismay gave way to delight when she discovered the wonders of the wonder bra at Underlines, a lingerie boutique in Delhi. It did more than change her vital statistics. "It changed my life," she gushes.The young missies aren't the only ones swooning. With the revolution in India's lingerie market over the past couple of years, older women and even men are taking a peek at peekaboo styles. "Feeling good inside is a new fashion mantra," says fashion guru Hemant Trivedi. "Wild styles and colours are the new aphrodisiacs for overworked and stressed out people," design consultant Anil Khosla pipes up.So those androgynous swaths of cloth are out. In now are corsets, camisoles and G-strings, detachable straps, wonder bras that show cleavage, padded ones that don't, sports and nursing bras, even high-cut, bikinistyle briefs for men. Lace and lycra are quite the in thing. And while we're on the subject, for heaven's sake, the word's innerwear, not underwear.Any self-respecting lingerie consultant will tell you that. No, you didn't hear wrong. We did say "consultant", a relatively new species that's trained in the art of under ... oops ... innerwear, people who know everything about shapes and sizes, fabric and fit, and will even tell you what suits you best. Like Gurpreet at Underlines who's "in the business of making people happy".It's a pretty serious business: Underlines stocks 150 styles for women, and has branches across the country in Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow and nine other cities. They're not one of a kind though. Eternia, an upmarket Mumbai store, devotes itself completely to innerwear.Says Shamim S of Eternia: "We offer over 100 styles and designs but customers keep on asking for more innovative stuff." Young men in Mumbai even want images of Madonna and Madhuri inscribed on their underwear: made-to-order stuff just might be the next rage. The Burlington's catalogue through which you can place an order also offers a wide range.Which brings us to that little thingie called price. Foreign brands like Vanity Fair, Calida, Liberti, St Michael's, Calvin Klein, Gossard, Felina, Jockey and Lovable, once in the realm of smuggled goods, are now freely available. But if you're in the mood for G-strings, better loosen your purse strings too. Men have it easier: from string-bikini innerwear to thongs, high cuts and wild prints, they could get theirs for Rs 50 to Rs 500, though mainly of Indian make. For women, on the lower side Calida does have panties for Rs 59-Rs 69, but there also are St Michael's, Felina, Triumph, Mey, Ski and Katrine that come for anything from Rs 300 to Rs 3,000 a piece in the open market.Strutting their stuff: The innerwear craze takes over the rampBut who's complaining anyway? Twenty-seven-year-old Minal Kapur, a Mumbai professional, believes "good lingerie isn't about appreciation from others but appreciating yourself ". Even if that means her annual lingerie budget could touch Rs 25,000."The concept is definitely not elitist," says Gaurav Mahajan of Littlewood, a self-help retail chain in Bangalore. "Anyone would like to look and feel good. It is something everyone owes to himself or herself." The big-city-big-budget syndrome is catching on in smaller places too. .preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}"Money is no bar when it comes to buying undergarments," says Radhika Kapoor, a 29-year-old computer professional in Chandigarh, as she calmly picks up a set of St Michael's lingerie for Rs 2,500. Rajesh Sharma, chief salesman at a Ludhiana store, points out that "women are spending more on imported and branded lingerie than on exquisitely embroidered lehngas". Adds Sudhir Mohan, a shopkeeper in Khanna, a small town in Ludhiana district: "Lycra, push and wonderbras that lift the midriff are in great demand among teenage girls."No wonder then that brands entering the market in the past two years have been major success stories. Rivolta for men launched two years ago by Maxwell Apparel Industries Ltd, makers of the VIP brand had sales of over Rs 150 crore this year. Raghav Gadodia, director of LNG International, owners of the Underlines chain, claims a 300 per cent growth over last year in just the first half of the current year. The good news just gets better and better.TAKE YOUR PICK What's on the shop shelves and for how much officiallyPANTIES: Most expensive Felina (Rs 550-Rs 1,100); Medium Liberti (Rs 100-Rs 800); Cheap Calida (Rs 59-Rs 69)BRAS: Most expensive Wonderbra (Rs 1,695); Medium Lovable (Rs 200-Rs 800); Cheap Calida (Rs 175-Rs 195)SETS: Most expensive Lou (Rs 2,850),Marks and Spencer's (Rs 1,500 onwards); Cheapest Mey (Rs 300-Rs 2,500)BRIEFS (FOR MEN): Most expensive Jockey (Rs 110); Cheap VIP Frenchie (Rs 42-Rs 70)Why? Perhaps because the days of blushing before buying are over. Bold ads and coverage by glossy mags like Femina, Cosmopolitan and Elle are rubbing off on the consumer. Lovable lingerie's punchline: "He may not do the dishes but at least he'll make the bed." Calida's: "A s natural and comfortable as wearing nothing." Or take the Rivolta man, brief-clad, briefcase in hand, stepping into a chauffeur-driven Merc: "Undress code for men," says the ad. Quite like 32-year-old Shushant Banerjee, a business manager with Aptech Computers, when he brazenly announces: "When I am in my designer underwear, I feel more confident about stripping even when the lights are on." And why not? If the guy in the ad can bare it, if Brooke in The Bold and the Beautiful can dare it, well then, this guy can wear it.-with Ramesh Vinayak and Anna M.M. VetticadPublished By: AtMigration Published On: Jun 8, 1998--- ENDS ---
