European lingerie: Bras for 8 year olds?

The majority of bras sold in supermarkets for girls between 8 to 10 years-old are designed as “push-up” – stuffed with extra foam to give volume to developing breasts….

When contacted for this article, almost all supermarkets refused to answer. The two stores who agreed to questioning, 3 Suisses and La Redoute, immediately removed the bras from their catalogs.

Bikini scandal in the UK

In April 2010, the British tabloid Daily Mail condemned Primark (a chain clothing store in the UK) for marketing padded bikinis for girls as young as seven – giving these girls the impression they have breast several years early than they should.

“As victims advocates we know why you should never sexualise children or help to normalise the sexualisation of children,” explains Shy Keenan, a representative from The Phoenix Chief Advocates organization created for victims of pedophilia crimes.

It never fails to amaze us just how many ordinary high street household names are now prepared to exploit the disgusting ‘paedophile pound’ to feed a dark market that has no place in our society, let alone near our children.

Faced with scandal and their products being boycotted, Primark immediately apologized and removed the stuffed bikinis from their shelves. The profits generated from the bikinis were donated to a child advocacy organization.

The Daily Mail reported that several other chain stores had previously created scandals for marketing padded bras to young girls between the ages 7 to 9 years-old.

Sizes 65A to 75B for girls 8 to 10 years old

Driven by my gut instinct, I decided to investigate this subject in French supermarkets. I was armed only with the camera on my smart phone, (a camera would have been too obvious) and I ventured to discover first hand if France’s marketing was better than that of the UK.

To say this task was awkward is an understatement – imagine a bearded man in his forties discreetly taking pictures of bras for little girls. I was careful to avoid dangerous security guards, sales associates, and nearby mothers who might have misread the reasons I was roaming around the shelves clearly for children’s underwear.

The findings from this investigation was astounding – almost every single chain store sold stuffed bras. There was a 65A bra size designated for 8 year-old girls, but also sizes 70 to 75B for girls between the ages of 8 to 10:

Discount supermarkets (such as Babou) normally didn’t offer “Wonder bras” for kids. Yet in conventional supermarkets (Auchan, Carrefour, Super U) bras with “ampliform” accounted for half of the products. Some of the major brands like DIM, Kiabi, 3 Suisses and La Redoute also offered “enhanced” bras for 8 year olds (70A).

None of the supermarkets contacted by OWNI replied to our inquires, except for one responsible communications representative at 3 Suisses. She justified the company’s actions by explaining the product was the result of “marketing research,” which indicated that more girls would be hitting puberty sooner and the “push-up” bra would soon be a standard in the industry.

In terms of the questionable imagery, she insisted that people do not see the girls wearing the underwear, that there is no “visual suggestion.” Nevertheless, after our interview both La Redoute and 3 Suisse recalled the 70A padded bras from their website.

Sandrine Pannetier, Director of Marketing for Martine Leherpeur, explains these products in relation to the Asian market:

Marketing lingerie is an extremely difficult skill to master. It is much easier to manufacture padded bras or those molded from a shell than an unpadded version. Also, when you have a small chest and want to hide the nipple the covering must be stuffed. This is why the Asian Market is flooded with padded bras – it’s to hide the breast and avoid an erotic appearance.

For the European observer, this can be interpreted as sexualizing a preadolescent body instead of creating a modest form.

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Translation: Stefanie Chernow