Polish Lingerie 101: Location | Miss Underpinnings

?I found it nearly impossible to keep myself from comparing the British full bust brands with the Polish ones I encountered. It was the biggest challenge of my trip and I believe it's an easy mistake to make when ordering internationally. If we approach these producers as if they're the British brands in disguise, we will continually be disappointed, frustrated, and confused. The British brands preach a singular and consistent message about correct bra fitting, proper breast appearance, and technical construction. It's inevitable that their devoted converts -- and I count myself as one! -- would want to apply their mandates to other lingerie cultures. However, if we remove our familiar conceptions of how these companies should be, we can understand Polish lingerie in it's own context. This post discusses how Poland's location may have effected it's collections or design direction:?

The United States is a big country and full of eager consumers, but we're also a country that's geographically distant from the strongest full bust manufacturers.? Thus, our options have historically been confined to naive or formerly native brands such as Wacoal, Maidenform and Victoria's Secret. We must remember it's expensive, complex, and time consuming to move European lingerie from their region to ours. However, Poland has a bit of an advantage in the other direction. They have a closer neighbor that is also a big country and definitely full of eager consumers: Russia.

In meetings, I heard a few comments about the Russian market and Polish suppliers which piqued my interest. On one dimension of this subject, lingerie professionals all agreed that their Russian customers prefer dramatic, luxurious designs. One shop employee thought their taste leaned towards the guady side, while another suggested that they were visually bored when lingerie shopping in Poland. A company CEO told me that their largest market was in Russia and another brand admitted that it was a complex process to export successfully there.
This relationship brings up many questions and might be an explanation of why Polish lingerie can seem so...well, foreign? On a previous post in this series, a commenter wrote that the marketing standards threw her off, that the images felt risque or excessively done up. There are also some bras (i.e., Corin's Amanda) that aren't my taste at all, but I was told were bestsellers in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, etc. On our side of things, French companies have had to react to their growing American market and release more padded, beige, or simple styles. Likewise, some of the full bust Polish brands have a deeper bond with, or have evolved alongside, demand in Russia and the surrounding area.

Have you ever noticed photographs of Polish lingerie look 'different'??

Do you like opulent, dramatic bras?? Have you ever considered we might share a "North American" sense of beauty & lingerie??

If you're Russian, of Russian descent, or have ever visited Russia, let me know your thoughts!

I'd love to hear what everyone here thinks of this...

Source: http://www.missunderpinnings.com/2013/03/polish-lingerie-101-location.html

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