Market Research on Underwear in Brazil and the Actual Status of the Wear of Underwear as well as Body Perception Among Brazilian Women University Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to obtain an approach to underwear planning and design for multi-ethnic users. The market research on underwear in Brazil, underwear usage (n=241), body image perception (n=229), and the owned brassieres (n=50) of Brazilian women university students (17 to 39 year-old) were investigated. A three-quarter cup underwire, simple design, molded cup, under free type brassieres were mostly observed in the Brazilian market. Also, it was shown that the survey participants’ brassieres tended to be the same type. Shorts not covering all hips were mostly worn by 83%. It indicates that invisible underwear and natural looking silhouette were preferred. The ideal body form was hourglass shape for body figure, hemisphere shape for breast and triangle shape for hips. In order to approach to the ideal breast, using brassieres was most common and secondly plastic surgery was answered by 55%. When comparing body perception between Brazilian and Japanese students, even though Brazilian are thicker than Japanese, they evaluated their own body as thin and did not show aspiration for slenderness like Japanese ones.