This is an episode of the Glossy Fashion Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the fashion industry. More from the series →
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As the chief design officer of global innerwear at Hanesbrands, Jane Newman oversees innerwear products for all the brands in the company’s portfolio, including Hanes, Bali and Maidenform — each of which is at least 97 years old. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Podcast, Newman discusses how she’s keeping each brand relevant as the intimates category evolves – among other factors, the DTC boom and the unofficial rebranding of shapewear as “sexy” have changed the space. Highlights from the conversation, below, have been lightly edited for clarity.
The evolution of shapewear
“[Skims] helped reinvigorate the [shapewear] category that was sort of seen as boring. … Actually, shapewear can really be enhancing. Today, it’s being styled really beautifully, and consumers are seeing new ways to use it, and they’re now buying it digitally — they can try things quite quickly without having to go into a store and navigate finding the right brand and style for them. We have a huge portfolio of shapewear, particularly in Maidenform — it’s been a really big part of the brand. But over the last 5-10 years — when it comes to the look and feel and the approach around shapewear — we’ve gone on a real journey ourselves. The same is true of our retail partners, in how they showcase it … and make it more of a fashion item versus a commodity, or a boring must-have. It’s become more than just something you wear for an occasion; it’s something that can be integrated into every day. We have a lot of great, really light, super-fine-gauge supporting garments that you can just wear. They just make you feel good and make clothes skim over you really easily and make women feel really confident in what they wear. So we continue to lean into it. … We’ve also been focused on making it really easy for women to purchase shapewear.”
The perks of a category boom
“The great thing about more players is that it brought a new perspective to this category and probably energized the segment and put more eyeballs on it in a different way. These brands that have been new entrants have opened the consumer’s eyes as to how you can use intimates, including shapewear, as everyday parts of their life — obviously, Skims brought that real sexiness into the category where the product isn’t overtly sexy; it’s letting the woman be the sexy part of the conversation, rather than it being the embellishment that is sexy. And a lot of those things connect deeply with our consumer and how they use our products. And I think it enabled the customer to feel like, ‘Oh, actually, this is a really important part of my wardrobe, my life.’ And it’s put more of a spotlight on the segment, which has been great.”
The economy’s impact on intimates
“We have a lot of workshops with our consumers and tap into where they’re at and seed ideas with them and get a feel of their response based on where they’re thinking about spending and where their spending priorities are in the year ahead. … Everyday underwear, core bras — fresh and relevant takes on the essentials, for themselves and their families, are always top of mind. What we’ve seen is that they may pause on those special items during times when they’re saving money or when things are a bit tighter. They might hold back on buying that sexy bra and lean into one that they may wear two or three times a week. They’re just switching their spending around.”
