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Bra as a shopping bag! Lingerie design turns funky

A leading lingerie brand is now challenging designers to create innerwear that will both appeal to the fashion conscious and promote awareness on environmental issues as well.

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NEW DELHI: A bra that doubles up as a shopping bag and another that can store chopsticks. Having come out with these innovative ideas, a leading lingerie brand is now challenging designers to create innerwear that will both appeal to the fashion conscious and promote awareness on environmental issues as well.
    
Switzerland-based Triumph International which previously has brought out wacky brassiere collections such as 'the Eco-Globe','My chopsticks bra,' 'The Warm Biz' 'Recycle PET' and the 'No Shopping bag bra,'is now organising the contest for students from more than 40 countries including India to produce "inspiring designs" for lingerie.
    
The winning designer, judged by experts in the field of design, fashion and the media, at the final held in July next year at Beijing, would bag a cash prize of Euro 15,000 and get a chance to sell the product in select stores worldwide.
    
"The winning design will be adapted and interpreted by our design team for commercial production. Also, the winner would also get a chance to get the design to be adapted and produced commercially to be sold as a limited edition along with his or her name," says Thorsten Allenstein, Country Head of Triumph.
    
"My Hashi bra" (my chopsticsk bra), features a pair of foldable recycled chopsticks that can be stashed in the sides of the bra and removed to eat a meal of rice and soup or while eating out.
    
"The product comes with removable , traditional cases on the shoulder straps and a detachable 'chopstick rest at the centre of the bra that is made of paper recycled from wooden chopsticks," says a company official."The idea is to highlight the need to reduce waste and establish a recycling -based society, the official adds.
    
Likewise, in order to create awareness about the need to reduce the plastic bag consumption by shoppers the company had previously brought out a brassiere that doubled up as a shopping bag.
     
The 'No More Plastic Bags' bra can contains folded-up reusable shopping bags within the bra cups, made from recycled polyester fibre.
     
"When worn the folded shopping bags act as padding and they can be removed and unfolded to be used for shopping!," claims the company.
     
"The left and right parts are then clasped using fasteners and attached to the bulk of the bra using hooks. The shoulder straps are then tied onto the top of the bag as ribbons and the lace used on teh cup area functions as an attractive and stylish feature on this cute shopping bag, it adds.
    
Other offbeat and interesting designs include 'Recycle PET' created from recycled bottles and the Warm Biz bra introduced last year again in Japan in a bid to reduce energy consumption during  winter. The bra can be heated up in a standard microwave, and contains a heat-retaining gel.
    
The Eco globe bra, on the other hand, uses fabrics that biodegrade into compost and revert to the soil. "The turquoise-blue material used is an eco material based on corn and designed to biodegrade via the activity of micro-organisms and change into compost over several years and revert to soil. it maintains low-combustible energy
when burnt and does not emit harmful gases," says a company official.
     
The existing lingerie market in India is around Rs 3000 crore and is poised at a growth rate of 10 per cent annually according to industry estimates.
   
The small market in India has been limited to the private and more intimate sphere and only recently has lingerie fashion been seen openly in straps shown openly or trousers worn below the belt. It is only in this year that lingerie will figure on the ramp with the WIFW having a seperate category devoted to innerwear.
     
"The award does not focus attention on the technical perfection of the showpiece," says Jan Rosenberg, General Manager of International Sales and Marketing, Triumph.
    
"We felt that a design competition like this was need in the field of lingerie and we look forward to seeing ideas and concepts of young creatives next spring and summer," says Rosenberg.
    
Various leading institutions like the NID, NIIFT have confirmed participation in the event." We had a very positive response from wherever we approached with heads of departments saying they had never had such a competition like this before," points out Allenstein.
    
Triumph, which currently retails in the country in big departmental stores is planning to expand its operations by opening its own retail stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata.
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