It was not always thus. Even in cosmopolitan Hong Kong, women wanted only padded polyester bras and quilted dressing gowns when beauty expert Marguerite Lee opened the city’s first boutique for fancy lingerie in 1978. But Western pop culture has transformed Asian women’s idea of beauty. Today the chain Lee founded sells $75 thong panties and $150 push-up bras.
The trend is so clear that WonderBra, the brand that popularized the super-push-up brassiere, next month will launch a special product line sized for the slim Asian body. “There’s a strong desire to be sexy,” says Dorothy Lau, a Hong Kong accountant. “People want to marry a good husband, and a push-up bra is part of the package to achieve that goal.”
This is still a limited market. Most Asian women remain shy about their bodies. In Seoul, according to a study by Japanese underwear manufacturer Wacoal, 82 percent of women sleep with underpants and a bra under their nighties. But advertising evidently can erode such conservatism. The study also suggests a direct relationship between the amount of racy ads and the dissatisfaction that can lead women to try to improve on nature. In Tokyo, where 84 percent of women said they are unhappy with their bodies, 48 percent of those polled said they own more than four girdles. In Beijing, exposed to Western advertising for only a few years, 74 percent of the women said they’re happy with their bodies.
It may not be long, though, before the world’s biggest consumer market embraces Victoria’s Secret. Already there are flashy lingerie departments in Shanghai and Beijing stores, selling daring underwear to Chinese women newly made rich by capitalism. And Valentino, an upscale underwear brand, is promoted on Star TV, seen all over China. Where undergarments are concerned, a philosopher of the sixth century B.C. may prove no match for the blandishments of Seventh Avenue. .
