Floral print padded balcony bra, £8, sizes AA-cup to E-cup; and bikini knickers, £4, from M&S Limited Collection
With thanks to Soozie Jenkinson, Head of Lingerie Design at Marks and Spencer, who took the time to answer my questions.
Marks and Spencer leads the way on the high street, offering more than other stores in the way of colourful, fashionable AA-cup lingerie.
But I wanted to know whether further expansion was likely (greedy aren’t I?) — maybe even offering the beautiful Ceriso collection in AA-cup sizes. Here’s what I found out…
Marks & Spencer’s Limited Collection now includes bras in AA-cup sizes. Why has M&S decided that the AA-cup niche is worth serving?
It’s important to offer a good selection to all our customers. That’s why M&S stocks bras for women from a size AA-J, which means that we cater for 99% of the female population in the UK.
Does M&S have plans to offer an even wider range of bras in AA-cup sizes?
There is now a wide range of AA-cup bras in our popular Limited Collection. That said, we wouldn’t rule out the possibility of offering other ranges in smaller cup sizes in the future. We constantly gather information from customer feedback sessions and continually review our womenswear and lingerie ranges to reflect demand.
Does every M&S store have a representative that has received training in bra fittings and lingerie selection?
There are 3,500 trained lingerie advisors in M&S stores in the UK. 8,000 women are measured in our stores every day. We place a great deal of value in the fact that trained staff are on hand to advise on the correct bra, shape and style for the individual.
What are the key lingerie trends for Spring/Summer 2010?
The M&S Spring/Summer lingerie collection has been inspired by the Underwear as Outerwear look, which emerged as a major catwalk trend for this season. Bright, bold patterns are also a big lingerie story for this Summer.
Talking of Underwear as Outerwear, do you have any lingerie styles that are too good to be under wraps?
Our long-line bras are going to be a must-have for this season as well as our embroidered worn to be seen basques which are just too special to keep hidden away. Both should be coming soon to our stores and site. Just team with a skirt and a beautiful blazer to create the perfect Summer look.
[...] Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to bag a few moments of Soozie Jenkinson’s time. The M&S Head Lingerie Designer spilled the beans on the high street giant’s AA-cup lingerie range, which at the time included a healthy smattering of colourful, flirty bras in the Limited Collection line. [...]
I was excited when I saw in this interview that the m&s ‘limited collection’ did AA cups. But when I clicked on the link to view the collection, I found no AA bras