Underfashion Club lays out revelations in 2024 intimate needs

Search For Survival/ Success

Four years ago today and yesterday marks a tremendous milestone. For one, it was coronavirus being declared a pandemic, followed by the entire world shutting down, changing the habits of our lives as we knew it. Today, those habits we adapted are still near and dear to us. Comforts are in our back pocket, but dressing up and style are finding their way back. However, other consumer trends in the market have seen ups and downs since lockdown, followed by a recession and higher spending thanks to inflation. Intimates with its family that’s swimwear, hosiery, and activewear we’re definitely not immune to these forces. Underfashion Club was live on Zoom tonight to breakdown who won and lost in these last 4 years, plus over the last year, and the forecast for 2025.

All generations young and old were more careful about their spending, not even GEN Z could escape a reduction on where their money went. However, the most effected of all with intimates, as well as overall consumer sectors were the millennials. Millennials still were the biggest consumer spender of all, and the former queen of spending on all kinds of intimates. Millennials not just for economic conditions changed their spending, but also because millennials are going through a shift, spending money on homes, automobiles, necessities, and children, millennials got older.

However, brands like Abercrombie & Fitch escaped the great millennial shift by growing up with millennials, advancing its apparel, swimwear, silhouettes, bodysuits, and intimates to fit their roles as parents and everyday middle to upper class working people. Other brands like Hugo Boss, Soma, Nike also changed to cater to their core audience while finding new audiences skewing younger. These brands tremendously evolved their intimates, activewear, and casual/ dress apparel without hurting their brand, they simply used technology, seamless material, stylish feels, and comfort aesthetics to improve their sales growth, propelled to take on an economy where all ages are cherry-picking what they want to spend their money on aside from their daily needs.

Albeit 2024 apparel and intimate spending are forecast to see challenges. 2025 is a much different story, with stronger spending as consumers desire to return to style instead of comforts, replenish their wardrobe on women’s apparel and activewear. Plus, inflation has dropped from a year ago, and it should dropped even more. And 2025 will not be an election year where voting years tends to show unrest about the future.

Brands in need of a reality check include Victoria’s Secret, who tried to shift their focus away from fantasy lingerie to body-inclusive lingerie, but have not seen an improvement in its sales trajectory. The one smart investment Victoria’s Secret has made is buying Adore Me, who’s native idea of creating whimsical and outgoing lingerie for all body types has been the catalyst keeping Victoria’s Secret after buying Adore Me, which DANIEL PLUS LAUREN covered at New York Fashion Week.

With all the talk of digital native DTC (direct to consumer) brands being the future of consumer retail, and brick and mortar stores becoming a thing of the past, both sectors realize they need each other to bring sales and brand awareness to their buying platforms. No single brand at this point can survive solely on its platform. Plus, trade shows such as Curve and Coterie (both linked pieces written by DANIEL PLUS LAUREN) are great places for well-established multiple buying platform brands to show off what makes them successful each season.

Daniel Quintanilla