How the female lingerie industry in India is breaking free from the male gaze

Women aren’t content to have their innerwear choices dictated through the lens of male gratification—and the industry has no option but to comply

Lean, toned and tanned ‘angels’ tottering down a runway in the barest whisper of silk, lace and ‘wings’—12-feet high contraptions of feathers and plumage. At its zenith, the annual Victoria’s Secret extravaganza was a pop phenomenon, commanding 10 million viewers in 2001. Fast-forward to almost two decades later, and the viewership had nosedived to 3.27 million in 2018, before the show was cancelled altogether in the following year. So, what went wrong? Turns out everything. The brand was launched in 1977 to create a safe space for men to buy their wives provocative lingerie rather than the women for whom the products were intended.   

 The formula seemed to work, as the brand reaped rich dividends for decades, until 2018 when its perception measure dropped among women aged 18 to 49 from 31 to 23 in just two years, according to BrandIndex. Fewer women were now buying from the lingerie brand than ever before. This was at the height of the Me Too movement when Victoria’s Secret’s parent company L Brand’s chief marketing officer Ed Razek’s sexual misconduct and comments about transwomen came to light. The brand’s market share started plummeting—a report by Euromonitor tracked a decrease in value sales from 32 per cent to 25 per cent from 2015-2018 despite favourable growth for the sector. Competitors like Savage x Fenty entered the market around the same time with a clear focus on body positivity and inclusivity, offering bras in sizes up to 44DD.

“Some of the most successful advertising campaigns by Victoria’s Secret’s competitors have featured unedited photos and bodies of all shapes and sizes as women prefer more body-positive messaging. New players are utilising social media marketing to promote messages of empowerment and body positivity, appealing to today’s inclusivity-minded consumers. In comparison, Victoria’s Secret’s static, hyper-sexualised marketing campaigns have garnered backlash from consumers,” the study noted.

Attempting to rewrite the narrative 

Closer home, the sentiment is being echoed by homegrown brands looking to rewrite the narrative. Preeti Gupta, chief business officer of Nykaa, says , “The harsh reality is that Indian women have not interacted with lingerie much. Around a decade or so ago, you would go to a store and there would be a man sitting behind the counter. He would inform you of your size and you'd pick two pieces and leave.”

Jasleen Kaur, associate vice president of marketing at a retail firm, shares the sentiment that the taboo around shopping lingerie can be traced through the generations. “Past generation of mothers and grandmothers have shopped for lingerie secretively. The sensorial element of the experience was denied—without taking the time to touch and feel the fabric, they would hurriedly stuff their purchases into a generic brown paper bag and run away from the shop,” she rues.  

The recent shift in the perception around shopping for lingerie can then be credited to the involvement of women in the decision-making process. “I remember reading a report that a leading FMCG involved in the production of sanitary napkins didn’t have a woman involved in the designing process, for the longest time. It struck me as strange that men were making the decisions about products being designed for women’s comfort. But as we now have more women in the boardroom, they are taking a call on the stories brands should be narrating,” Kaur opines.

An inclusive approach

When Gupta rolled up her sleeves to work on the launch of Nykd by Nykaa, she was cognisant of the fact that the brand had to be relatable to the average Indian woman—kickstarting it with their debut campaign in 2020 featuring body-positive influencer Sakshi Sindwani. “We were one of the first lingerie brands in India to feature a fuller-sized model. We consciously chose to feature different skin tones and body types, so that when you saw them all together, you realised that it could be any one of us,” she adds. The bra segment in India’s online lingerie market, in fact, shows significant revenue generation, notes market research company, Technavio in their 2022 report. This is evident in Nykd’s success story—from an online-only brand offering lingerie that prioritised form and functionality to having an offline retail presence with a focus on tech-led shopping experience in only two years.  

At the other end of the spectrum, smaller brands are keen to get some skin in the game as well—pun unintended. In an industry plagued by whites and utilitarian neutrals, unisex brand Bummer has been injecting a dose of whimsy with its Skittle-hued prints available for both men and women. Sulay Lavsi, founder and CEO, shares, “When launching our brand, we knew that we wanted to devise soft, breathable and eco-friendly innerwear that both men and women would cherish.”

For its part, Victoria’s Secret has lent an ear to consumer sentiment and pulled a 180-degree change in its marketing approach as well as a major rethink of its product line-up to include maternity options, mastectomy bras as well as body-inclusive lingerie and mannequins in their stores.  “It is vital for brands to put more of an emphasis on inclusivity and to take into account the elements that surround the female lingerie market if they want to see the sector’s growth,” says the brand’s spokesperson to The Established. 

So, where do we go from here? Lingerie has long been viewed through the lens of the male gaze, but brands are slowly looking at the end consumer—the women who wear it. The rise of e-commerce and social media platforms has allowed more D2C brands to cater directly to these consumers and this growth is expected to increase at an accelerated CAGR of 18.07 per cent, according to Technavio. “It is important for women to educate themselves on the silhouettes that are best suited for their body type. Lingerie is not just about making you look good but also about feeling comfortable in your own skin,” says Gupta. 

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