Valentine's Day is around the corner and there are ladies who would argue that the present of some lacy lingerie beats a bunch of prickly roses, hands down. Even outside the season of Valentine, lingerie lures... the buyer. Times have changed for Indian women. No longer do they refer to these articles of wear in hushed tones-or lower their gaze as they instruct the salesman to scour the racks for a size-36 bra. The generation x woman marches, chest out, into the costliest lingerie shop and picks the fanciest 'brand' sleepwear, or underwear, she can fi nd.

There is nothing dainty about the size of the Indian lingerie market. It is a 1,700 crore affair. Indian manufacturers supplying that market have their plants mostly in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Tripura. Groversons and BodyCare are based in Delhi. Vanity Fair and Daisy Dee are based in Mumbai. Foreign brands tend to set up in Bangalore and Mumbai -Enamor, Loveable and Jockey, have established units in Bangalore. So how are these various manufacturers supplying the naked masses with bras and panties? Psssst, wanna take a peek at a lingerie factory?

Design
In the lingerie business, as in apparel more generally, R&D is more simply known as design. There are peak times for design, typically in rhythm with the seasons. The fancier the lingerie, the more the business morphs, from a commodity business into a fashion business. The design process is tied to fashion trends. Hence, a lot of time and thought is put into styling. Here is how Nidha Adheni, Brand Manager for Enamor, an up-market brand summarises the process: "First and foremost our designs for the season are based on the latest fashion trends. Once the designs are approved, the technical team starts the fi tting process. All our products are fi tted on actual women to ensure that the end result is the best-fi tting bra."