Seamless underwear sewn up

By DITA DE BONI

Virtual underwear has not yet arrived, but lingerie-maker Bendon is hoping its newest next-to-knickerless experience will revitalise customer enthusiasm for the company's mid-price products.

Under siege from cut-price imports, Bendon launched its new "virtual" seamless underwear range under the Elle Macpherson label in Auckland on Wednesday night.

The move is an attempt to improve mid-price garment sales in New Zealand and a precursor to the introduction of Elle Macpherson concept stores in main centres this year.

Seamless underwear - made from knitted "tubes" of blended microfibre and elastane - has been developed in Italy in the past few years and was snapped up by Bendon for the Australasian market ahead of the fabric's European debut later this year.

While industry watchers at the launch agreed the product's technology will be "the next big thing" in underwear, several also observed that the new garments - which do not require the cutting and sewing processes of conventional undergarments - will be considerably cheaper to produce.

Apparel magazine editor Paul Blomfield says clothing that can be knitted to shape is "the future of clothing," and garments with built-in stretch will cut manufacturing costs incurred by having to sew stretch elements into garments.

"It's the dream of the fashion world. You don't have to have a messy operation."

Managing director Hugo Venter took the stage after a short visual presentation and described how former losses sustained by the company had forced it to "rethink what [it was] doing, and decide to become much more creative in both the product and marketing of our garments."

Mr Venter said that in New Zealand "70-80 per cent of underwear is bought at a discount or mark-down" and it was a formidable market to operate in.

"What we've done is aimed our entry price points at the slightly lower end [of the market] as New Zealand is a deflationary market and we would be silly to ignore that."

"Virtual" sells for between $15 and $30 depending on the garment.