I meet regularly with various lingerie manufacturer representatives.  It’s always interesting though, when I meet with manufacturers who are not based in the United States.  For example, Chantelle, Fantasie of England, and Panache are all designed in Europe.  Without a doubt, European women have different taste and preferences when it comes to bras and lingerie.

The first curious comment from these manufacturers is that women from the UK have considerably larger breast sizes.  The average cup size is a D rather than the C in the US.  Now, their band size is not unusual – UK women are in good shape from all their walking.  But, in general, a British woman has larger breasts.

European women buy lots of white and ivory underwear.  The concept of nude underwear has either not caught on, or they dismiss it.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  First, European women are very accustomed to hand-washing their lingerie and then putting it up to dry.  US women have more washers and dryers than European women.  Truly white undergarments are a sign of them being clean.  If they get a little dingy, you bleach them or throw them out.  If you have nude colored underwear, there is no gauge as to whether or not it’s getting dingy.  The color ivory to European women is considered their version of nude.  It can still look clean, but has enough cream to better match their skin tone.

Now, having said this, European women are big purchasers of lingerie in wild colors – purple, red, citrus, chartreuse.  And they don’t care if it shows under their clothing.  American women buy very little lingerie that is colored.  In fact, colored lingerie makes up less than 8% of lingerie sales in the United States.  American women buy mostly nude and black bras and panties.  You will see beautiful colored lingerie in US department stores, but it’s really put in there just to show some contrast and keep the department from looking like a sea of nude.  Chances are if you like a colored piece of lingerie, hold off buying because it will be on sale shortly.

American women are obsessed with seamless, contoured and invisible underwear.  We don’t want anyone to see any sign of lingerie under any of our clothing.  We are on a constant quest for that lingerie item that won’t show.  European women, by contrast, could care less.  Let there be seams showing, let their lace show through, who cares if someone sees a panty line?  European women love buying pretty lacy and expensive lingerie and don’t care if it shows or not.

Viva la Difference!

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