Retail Advice: Small Bust Lingerie Market

It might be hard to believe that a market for smaller bust and petite lingerie exists. After all, the trend in intimate apparel over the past decade has been in the expansion of bras sizes to meet the needs of women wearing deep and/or plus sizes. Many more new full cup brands have been launched. And established manufacturers have extended their ranges up to J and K cups and beyond. Intimate apparel retailers have designated separate full bust or plus size shopping sections, either online or in their brick and mortar stores. All this attention to the D+ customer was long overdue. They have style, fit, and size issues that needed to be addressed. And rising sales and continued growth in this market proves that a demand for fashionable and well-fitting lingerie across many sizes has few limits.

But the pendulum may be swinging too far to one side of the alphabet cup. Another group of sexy lingerie consumers still feels neglected. And these smaller busted women (who might be considered the C- crowd) feel they have few choices when it comes to intimate apparel.

They may be right. A quick search of one popular on-line lingerie retailer shows as many styles offered in 34F as in 34C (approximately 650). The same retailer carries only 220 bras in a 34A, and a mere five bras in 32A and AA, with none in AAA.

According to some small bust intimate apparel manufacturers, the demand exists but continues to be ignored for a variety of reasons:

First, assumptions regarding petite-busted women undermine the growth of the petite bust lingerie market.Second, retailers aren’t aware of the needs of the small bust customer, which translates into a lack of inventory or misunderstanding of specific petite bust fit issues.Third, even though brands and stores don’t offer much in petite lingerie sizes, most lingerie advertising creates the illusion that they do.Both small bust manufacturers and several intimate apparel retailers agree that what’s needed is a change of mindset when it comes to filling this lingerie market gap.