Well, they feel great. They really do. They look OK, too; a sort of
lighter, softer version of my usual Tactel pair in a natty jewel-green
colour. It’s just the label inside that’s bothering me.As a Woman of Britain, I usually buy my knickers from M&S, but today I’m wearing a pair from Lidl. Yes, the same Lidl that sells left-field jam and inexplicably na
It’s not surprising. When it comes to shopping, we have never been lazier. We go online, we click and collect – buying socks in supermarkets is completely normal. Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda are excellent at breaking into new markets, and Amazon is going after groceries. For much of the past decade, Florence & Fred (Tesco) and Tu (Sainsbury’s) sat in the top 10 most-used clothing retailers in the UK.
But given Lidl’s usual price point, and in light of the
Rana Plaza disaster, would you feel comfortable wearing Lidl underwear?
First things first: they don’t quite come under the fast-fashion remit in the Primark sense of the term. The garments are made from modal, a sort of rayon (AKA semi-synthetic cellulose fibre), and at £2.99 for two pairs of knickers they’re more expensive than most Lidl products.
What’s more, Lidl has worked hard to choose carefully sourced fabrics. The knickers, vests and socks are produced in Lenzing, a town between Salzburg and Linz in Austria. The fibres, which originally come from beech trees, are produced in a carbon-neutral way (thanks to some sort of oxygen-based chemistry process called Edelweiss. Obviously).
Their spokesperson said: “Lidl is committed to offering quality products at competitive prices across all our food and non-food ranges. Part of the way we do that is through economies of scale: Lidl buys products for 26 countries across Europe as a whole, which means we can get a better deal on price which we of course pass to our customers.” So that explains that.
A straw poll (I asked some friends) suggests that people will buy them. Sure, I had to force them to feel the fabric before telling them where they were from, but having done so, two out of three said they would buy them.
It sort of feels like the start of something. Is the fact that Lidl is resisting the temptation to sell four knickers for a pound a sign of the times? Is fast fashion (or democratic fashion, as Asda used to call it) over?
Probably not – Primark is going international in 2015, which suggests demand is still there. Tesco also had a go at ethical fashion in 2010 and, nice as the pieces were, it felt like a nod to going green rather than a movement.
Still, it’s a start – and like I said, they do feel nice.
med cereal and who as of Thursday, will be selling knickers, boxers, vests and socks.
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