According to a recent study, almost half the women in Pakistan are overweight. However, buying a ready-made dress is like finding a needle in a haystack as the majority of brands in Pakistan usually have ‘L’ as their last size.
While plus-sized women are already struggling with clothes, finding the right undergarments is also a task. Normally, shopping is a very easy process, you walk into a shop, choose, buy and wear.
But for healthier women, bras come at a price. Not only are there limited options available in larger cups, but there are limited designs, colours and fabric choices available.
You’ll usually find white, skin and black, but what about red, purple, or burgundy? Don’t women have the right to choose from options any other girl can get?
Half of the Pakistani Women Are Overweight: World Health Organization
While that problem is there, another issue many women face is the price – while branded bras are priced high, bras sold openly at popular locations like Tariq Road are available at stalls where owners are usually men.
Hence, the price comes into the affordable range, but the size remains a problem as women are highly uncomfortable talking about their size or details with strangers.
Given that markets are filled with men and women from all walks of life, women find it extremely hard to even stop at the stall, wondering what will people say, or think, when they see her in the open.
Women are not the only ones who face issues, men also have a hard time. While the west encourages men to openly buy feminine products and lingerie for their wives, the culture is different in Pakistan. Even if a man wants to purchase a bra, he will have to go through humility in public.
You’ll often see men waiting outside the store, or further away from the stall, but when it comes it women buying male garments for their husbands, there is no shame.
In an article written by Profit,
Ayaz Arshad, marketing manager at Team A shared: “My customer is someone who is more inclined to buy branded global undergarments over a local one. They often have an emotional attachment to certain brands.”
There is also another, lesser-known reason for its (Debenhams) success: “This is the only store where a man can go in and buy a bra in Pakistan… buy it for his wife, his girlfriend.” In fact, according to Arshad, almost half of buyers abroad of lingerie are men. But in Pakistan, most shops are female only, and there is a culture of only women going to buy their own bras (even if the shopkeeper is a man, as mentioned earlier.) “If you had shops where men could also feel comfortable going, you would see sales double.”
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