Medellin fashion show: racy underwear

International fashionistas have left the Harbour City and turned their fickle attentions to Colombia, where racy underwear is experiencing somewhat of a renaissance.

Yesterday, dozens of South American models showed off the popular lacy creations of local designers at a fashion show in Medellin, which for many years was the home of one of the world’s most infamous drug dealers, Pablo Escobar.

The soaring popularity of lingerie is a worldwide trend, with Australian retailers reporting a sharp rise in sales in recent years.

It was recently reported that Australia’s intimate apparel market is worth an estimated $600 million a year. A growing number of women are wearing bras and undies as fashion items, even though few sets of eyes get to see them.

At last week’s Australian Fashion Week, lingerie featured only sparingly on the catwalk. But two of the local industry’s biggest names, swimwear sisters Nicky and Simone Zimmermann, relaunched their intimate apparel line as part of a collection inspired by the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

And last month, Collette Dinnigan, who didn’t show at Australian Fashion Week, launched her Wild Hearts lingerie range in Sydney.

Wild Hearts, a discount underwear line for Target, is a revamp of the successful collection Dinnigan created for British retailer Marks & Spencer three years ago.

Source: theaustralian.news.com.au