Why can't I find cheap underwear?

Underwear is expensive. In this world, you can buy a T-shirt for $4, a pair of jeans for $8, a pair of shoes for $12, and a seemingly unreasonable $60 underwear. Why is such a small piece of clothing sold so expensive? But in some respects, nothing is more mysterious than underwear (such as the A-level exhibition: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show). In fact, the underwear industry is still shrouded in mystery. On the surface, a bra looks quite simple, it's an uncomplicated costume, but the real story is much more complicated.

Although it is often labeled as glamorous and lightweight, the underwear industry is actually a highly technical and highly professional fashion industry. People can get a degree in underwear design through four years of study. Underwear design requires very professional knowledge and a full understanding of body structure and physiology. After all, the ultimate goal of a bra is not only to wrap the breast, but also to support, lift and shape the breast-and the time to wear a bra is often as long as several hours. So bras need to be comfortable and durable. In addition, bras must also be attractive! A small piece of clothing needs to meet so many requirements, and be integrated with practicality and fashion; this makes the underwear industry a very challenging field.

You don’t need underwear experts to say, you also understand that a piece of silk or a roll of lace is definitely not a finished underwear. Because underwear directly touches the skin, the fabric it uses needs to be soft and strong. But how to use a few pieces of lace or mesh to support a few pounds of weight? The completion of this work requires many professionals-from fabric manufacturing to sample development-to design a 3D underwear model. Let us analyze the next few steps.

When it comes to underwear, the first thing that comes to mind is the fabric. Although cotton and silk are classic underwear materials, the prices of these natural fiber materials fluctuate with the market and even weather conditions. For example, drought will cause cotton prices to rise, which may cause cotton underwear prices to rise.

The price of artificial fiber fabrics is usually not affected by the weather, but the research and development of new products will take several years and cost a lot. Especially for 'high-tech' fabrics, the research and development costs will increase. Before putting fabrics with sweat-absorbing, antibacterial, and shaping properties developed in the laboratory into production, it takes years of trials and tests (sometimes even government tests). The use of such high-quality materials will greatly increase the cost of underwear (the underwear that uses $300 per yard of lace is obviously more expensive than the underwear that uses $30 per yard of lace). Let me tell you an even more amazing thing. Underwear materials are not the most expensive part of underwear manufacturing. The most expensive cost is labor.

The following sentence is the most important sentence of the whole article: Whether you buy from Target or Agent Provocateur, or La Perla, Forever21, etc. all the underwear are handmade-bras, shorts, briefs , Robes, pajamas, etc. Bergdorf 400 US dollars a women's pajamas and Kmart both 4 US dollars a pair of men's socks need to be handmade. In other words (because this is very important): there is no mechanical automation in a factory that produces bras and panties.

More importantly, making a bra is not just a process of sewing together pieces of rags: it is designing, making patterns, testing comfort, customizing grades, purchasing materials, preparing fabrics, and sewing. Fabric, cut the fabric, inspect the fabric, and finally put a label on it, and transport it to the factory; this process skips a few steps! And everyone involved must be paid.

Remember: these divisions of labor are very professional skills. Making a bra is not like making a pair of pants. If the bra is stitched wrong by one inch, it is scrapped. In some underwear, especially in the luxury industry, a finished product requires more than 100 people to work together. Even the most basic bra has gone through 25 to 30 processes. In contrast, the manufacture of a pair of jeans only has about 15 workforces.

But underwear must not only be manufactured, but also divided into size. On my blog, underwear addicts, the common opinion I hear is, “There is no reason why the cost of large cup underwear (such as G) exceeds that of small cup bra (such as B). People often cite low-priced underwear from Wal-Mart or Target, pointing out The price of underwear should not be higher than $20, but this view is worth considering.

For example, designing a bra is a bit like building a bridge. Each bridge, at its core, is to create the function of connecting two places. But you would not expect a steel suspension bridge to cost the same as a small wooden bridge. They are all bridges, and the purpose is the same, but their functional experience is different in use. For example, a steel suspension bridge needs to have a greater bearing capacity, which means that it uses stronger materials, stronger steel bars, and more trained engineers. These make its cost calculation far more than a small wooden bridge.

Bras are similar. The shape, weight, and design of the big breast cup are different from the small cup. These differences require new designs, new models and new materials. The delicate lace and soft steel ring may be suitable for 36A cups, but not for 36H.