just-style meets Caprice

By: Joe Ayling - 26 February 2008 14:11

Yesterday I attended the Harrogate Lingerie & Swimwear Exhibition, which attracted some top brands and personalities.

The journey to Harrogate was a picturesque one, with great views of the Crimple Valley Viaduct on the way. Having reached the elegant northern town it was time to view the latest lingerie innovations from brands like Wonderbra, Cette, Spanx and Calvin Klein underwear.

Shapewear emerged as a much talked about category, with the appeal of magic pants, corsets and powermesh threatening to squeeze modern day gym memberships to one side.

The Faveo Freedom Bra product rather caught the eye too, being two separate cups without any strap rather than a single bra.

I was particularly keen to canvas opinion on the rate of sector growth, having read in a global review published by just-style this month that the sector had grown just 2.6% between 2004 and 2007.

I was also lucky enough to catch up with model turned lingerie entrepreneur Caprice at the event. She told just-style that sales of her UK lingerie collection By Caprice, which she models exclusively, are snowballing at retailers including Next, Littlewoods and Asos.

So despite her celebrity status, it seems Caprice is more than willing to run exhibition stands and represent the company she owns directly.

Perhaps it was beyond the call of duty to pose for a picture with a grinning news hack representing just-style, but she happily obliged.

By Joe Ayling, news editor.