Madhulika Tiwari on India’s Innerwear Market 2025: Growth Drivers, Segmentation & Consumer Trends

Introduction: From a Hidden Necessity to a High-Growth Powerhouse

The Indian innerwear retail experience has undergone a revolution. What was once a hushed, often awkward transaction conducted in the back of a small shop has transformed into a confident, informed, and expressive act of personal choice.

Today, a consumer in a Tier-2 city can browse an endless digital aisle on their smartphone, consult a sophisticated online fit-calculator, and make a purchase guided not by a reticent shopkeeper, but by a trusted social media influencer discussing comfort, style, and body positivity in a candid Instagram Reel. This seismic shift from a hidden necessity to a celebrated lifestyle category is the engine behind one of the most dynamic segments in Indian apparel.  

The Indian innerwear market presents a compelling growth narrative, projected to expand by nearly 11% from approximately $8.52 billion in FY 2024 to $9.43 billion in FY 2025 (The Knowledge Company estimates).

A strategic analysis of the market segments reveals that this growth is not uniform; instead, it is overwhelmingly dictated by the women’s innerwear category.

The women’s segment is not just the largest but the market’s primary anchor, valued at $5.39 billion for FY 2025 and accounting for a commanding 57% of the entire industry.

While the men’s segment provides a stable and significant contribution, growing from $2.38 billion to $2.62 billion, its scale is less than half that of its female counterpart.

This segmentation underscores a critical strategic imperative for any brand or investor seeking to capitalize on the market’s potential: a women-centric portfolio is no longer an option but a prerequisite for achieving scale.

Furthermore, the data highlights a noteworthy asymmetry in the kids’ category, where the girls’ segment ($1.04 billion) is nearly three times larger than the boys’ ($0.37 billion), suggesting distinct consumer purchasing behaviors and a significant opportunity for focused product innovation and premiumization.

For incumbents and new entrants alike, this data provides a clear roadmap, emphasizing that market leadership will be determined by the ability to win with the female consumer.

This explosive growth is not merely an economic phenomenon; it is the result of a profound cultural and consumer revolution. The industry’s future will be defined by brands that master the complex interplay of fabric innovation, digital-first community building, and an authentic commitment to inclusivity and wellness. As innerwear graduates from a functional commodity to a statement of personal identity, the brands that understand and champion this evolution are poised to lead the next chapter of Indian fashion.

Table 1: Indian Innerwear Market Snapshot (FY 2024-2025)

1. The New Indian Consumer: Redefining Intimacy and Comfort

At the heart of the innerwear industry’s recalibration is a new Indian consumer—one whose priorities, values, and purchasing behaviors have fundamentally changed.

This consumer is digitally native, globally aware, and increasingly introspective, demanding more from the first layer of clothing they wear each day than ever before.

From Function to Fashion and Self-Expression

The most significant evolution in the consumer mindset is the re-categorization of innerwear from a purely utilitarian item to an essential component of fashion and self-expression.

Driven by rising disposable incomes, increased media exposure, and the powerful influence of social media, innerwear is no longer just a basic necessity but a lifestyle product that reflects personal identity.

For a growing cohort of consumers, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, the choice of innerwear is a deliberate act of curating their personal style, demanding products that are not only functional but also align with their aesthetic sensibilities.

This has catalyzed a market-wide shift from being “price-sensitive” to “brand-sensitive,” where the brand’s story, values, and design language become as important as its price tag.  

The Comfort Revolution: Fabric and Innovation as the New Luxury

While style has gained prominence, comfort has unequivocally become the new luxury and the primary driver of purchasing decisions. The modern Indian consumer, navigating a diverse and often humid climate, is highly educated about fabric technology and actively seeks materials that offer superior performance.

This has fueled a mass migration away from traditional cotton towards advanced, functional fabrics like modal, bamboo, and microfibers, prized for their exceptional softness, breathability, and moisture-wicking capabilities.  

Technological innovations that were once considered premium features are now standard expectations. Seamless construction, 3D knitting, anti-microbial treatments, and tag-free labels are no longer differentiators but prerequisites for brands aiming to compete in the modern market. This relentless pursuit of comfort is not an isolated trend in fashion.

It is deeply intertwined with the broader health and wellness movement sweeping across India. Consumers are not merely purchasing a “soft garment”; they are making a conscious investment in their physical well-being. This reframes innerwear as a foundational layer of self-care, where the physical comfort provided by an ergonomic, breathable garment contributes directly to mental peace and daily performance.

The rising demand for hypoallergenic and skin-friendly materials further solidifies this connection, effectively moving innerwear from the fashion closet into the wellness cabinet. 

The Wellness Imperative: Intimacy, Hygiene, and Self-Care

The conversation around innerwear is broadening to explicitly include intimate hygiene and sexual wellness, areas once shrouded in taboo. This is propelled by a significant cultural shift, particularly among younger demographics, where sexual health is being destigmatized and integrated into a holistic self-care routine.

The Indian sexual wellness market, projected to reach USD 2.5 Billion by 2033, is creating a powerful halo effect. As conversations around consent, pleasure, and reproductive health become more mainstream, driven by sex-positive content on social media, the stigma surrounding intimacy—and by extension, lingerie—is rapidly eroding.

Brands are responding proactively by incorporating features like anti-bacterial properties into fabrics and marketing products that actively promote intimate health, aligning themselves with this new consumer priority.  

Breaking Taboos, Embracing Positivity

The global body positivity movement has found fertile ground in India, profoundly reshaping market expectations and challenging the unrealistic, often exclusionary, beauty standards historically perpetuated by the fashion industry.

Consumers are no longer passive recipients of marketing; they are actively demanding to see themselves represented and are vocal about the need for innerwear that caters to a diverse spectrum of body shapes and sizes.  

This has compelled brands, both legacy and new-age, to radically rethink their approach to sizing and marketing. Offering inclusive size ranges, especially plus sizes, has become a commercial necessity, and featuring diverse models in campaigns is now a key strategy for building brand resonance.

For a new generation of D2C disruptors, this is not merely a reactive marketing tactic but the very foundation of their business model.

Brands like Tailor & Circus and Andcircus have built their identities around radical inclusivity, offering sizes up to 5XL or 6XL, creating gender-agnostic designs, and actively engaging with underrepresented communities.

This strategy goes beyond just expanding a product line; it fundamentally reshapes the brand’s value proposition. By actively seeking out ignored body types, working on custom orders, and, crucially, maintaining consistent pricing across all sizes, these brands are making a powerful statement that all bodies are valued equally.

This approach forges an intensely loyal community and creates a formidable competitive advantage against legacy players who may be perceived as slower or less authentic in their adoption of inclusive principles.  

2. Market Dynamics: A Landscape Reshaped

The Indian innerwear market is a theater of intense competition and structural transformation. As consumer demands evolve, the industry is being reshaped by powerful cross-currents: a widespread move towards premium products, a dynamic clash between established giants and agile startups, the geographic expansion into new urban centers, and a wave of strategic consolidation led by corporate behemoths.

The Premiumization Wave: Trading Up for Quality and Brand Value

A definitive trend across all consumer segments is the shift towards premiumization—a conscious decision to trade up from basic, unbranded innerwear to higher-quality, branded products that offer superior comfort, durability, and style.

This movement is fueled by the potent combination of rising disposable incomes and a growing aspiration among consumers to enhance their lifestyle and self-image through their purchases.

The men’s premium innerwear market provides a clear illustration of this trend, with projections showing it will nearly double from USD 768 Million in 2024 to USD 1.38 Billion by 2033.

This lucrative shift is not going unnoticed by legacy players in the mass market; companies like Lux Industries and Dollar Industries are actively implementing strategies to move up the value chain, launching premium sub-brands to capture higher margins and cater to this aspirational consumer.  

Battle of the Brands: Legacy vs. Disruptors

The competitive landscape is characterized by a fascinating duel between entrenched incumbents and a new guard of digital-first disruptors.

• Legacy Players: Page Industries, the exclusive licensee of Jockey in India, remains the undisputed leader in the premium segment, commanding immense brand equity built on a reputation for comfort and quality, backed by robust financials. In the mass and mid-premium segments, titans like Lux Industries, Rupa & Co., and Dollar Industries have historically dominated, leveraging vast, deeply entrenched distribution networks that reach every corner of the country.
• D2C Disruptors: Over the past decade, a wave of direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands has emerged, challenging the status quo with innovative business models. Zivame and Clovia were pioneers, revolutionizing the women’s segment by leveraging e-commerce to offer privacy, variety, and fit-focused solutions. In the men’s category, brands like XYXX, DaMENSCH, and Bummer are redefining the market with a sharp focus on advanced fabrics, contemporary design, and a modern brand narrative. Meanwhile, brands like Tailor & Circus and Andcircus are carving out highly defensible niches by centering their entire philosophy on sustainability and radical inclusivity.

Top players: Market shares and dominance

The table highlights the market share distribution of India’s innerwear industry in 2024, based on publicly reported revenues of leading players and industry size estimates.

• Page Industries (Jockey, Speedo) dominates the organised segment with a ~5.7% share, making it the single largest branded innerwear company in India.
• Lux Industries, Dollar Industries, and Rupa & Company follow, each holding between 1–3% of the total market, together accounting for an additional ~6% share.
• VIP Clothing, though a legacy brand, contributes a relatively small slice with ~0.2% share.
• Niche players and licensed brands like Calvin Klein India, Amul Macho, and Zivame add fractions of a percent each, underscoring the limited but growing influence of premium and online specialists.
• The most striking insight is the dominance of other local players, the unorganised and fragmented sector, which commands ~80–87% of the total market. This includes regional brands, private-label products from large retailers, and unbranded offerings sold across India.

Overall, the organised players collectively represent only about 15–20% of the innerwear market, while the majority is still driven by price-sensitive, unbranded, and regionally distributed products.

This fragmentation not only highlights the growth potential for branded players but also explains the aggressive expansion strategies of both Indian incumbents and global entrants.

Table 2: Competitive Landscape – Legacy vs. D2C Disruptors

This table, “Competitive Landscape – Legacy vs. D2C Disruptors,” provides a snapshot of the Indian innerwear market by contrasting its established, traditional players with the new-age, digital-first brands.

Here is a synopsis of the themes:

• Two Competing Factions: The table clearly divides the market into two groups.
  • Legacy Players: Brands like Jockey, Lux, Rupa, Dollar, and VIP that have been in the market for a long time. Their strengths lie in strong brand recall, vast offline distribution networks, and a reputation for comfort and value. They dominate the mass and mid-premium segments.
  • D2C Disruptors: Newer brands like Zivame, Clovia, XYXX, DaMENSCH, and Bummer. These companies built their business online, challenging the status quo.
• Contrasting Strategies:
  • Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Legacy brands sell on trust, comfort, and affordability. D2C brands, on the other hand, focus on innovation—using new-age fabrics (like TENCEL™ Modal), technology-driven features (like ‘Deo-Soft’), data-led fast-fashion designs, and specialized services (like Zivame’s Fitcode).
  • Distribution Model: Legacy players are overwhelmingly offline-dominant, relying on traditional retail stores. D2C brands are digital-first, selling directly to consumers online, though they are now expanding into physical stores.
• Financial & Strategic Insights:
  • The legacy players are financially massive and generally profitable (e.g., Page Industries’ ₹729 Cr profit), but some are facing profitability challenges.
  • The D2C brands have smaller revenues but are showing rapid growth (e.g., XYXX’s revenue surge). The acquisitions of Zivame and Clovia by Reliance signal a major strategic consolidation in the market, validating the success and potential of the D2C model.

In essence, the table illustrates a market in transition. It shows how established giants with deep market penetration are being challenged by nimble, innovative startups that are winning over the modern consumer through product differentiation and a direct digital connection.

The Great Unlocking: Tapping into Tier-2 and Tier-3 Cities

While metropolitan hubs remain crucial, the next chapter of growth for the innerwear industry is being written in India’s Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.

Rapid urbanization in cities like Jaipur, Lucknow, Coimbatore, and Surat is creating a new class of consumers with rising disposable incomes and aspirational lifestyles.

The proliferation of organized retail, particularly large-scale shopping malls, and the deep penetration of e-commerce are unlocking this vast, previously untapped consumer base.

E-commerce platforms now report that a significant and growing portion of their sales originates from non-metro cities, demonstrating the immense potential of these emerging markets.  

Consolidation and Conglomerates: The Reliance Effect

The innerwear market is entering a new phase of maturity, marked by significant consolidation. Reliance Retail’s strategic acquisitions of Zivame, Amante, and Clovia signal a major shift in the competitive dynamics.

This move signifies more than just a change in ownership for these D2C pioneers; it marks a pivotal moment in the industry’s evolution. The initial ‘gold rush’ phase of the D2C model, where agile startups could relatively easily enter the market and capture share by leveraging digital marketing, is maturing. The new game is about achieving massive scale, mastering complex supply chains, and building a formidable omnichannel presence—capabilities that a conglomerate like Reliance provides almost instantaneously.

This strategic shift forces the remaining independent D2C brands into a critical decision: either carve out a highly defensible, community-driven niche (as seen with brands focused on deep inclusivity) or seek their own strategic partnerships to compete on scale.

However, the path to synergy is not guaranteed. Zivame’s reported widening losses and declining sales in FY24, post-acquisition, adds a crucial layer of complexity. It suggests that integrating a nimble D2C culture into a massive corporate structure presents significant operational challenges, making the outcome of this consolidation wave a keenly watched development for the entire industry.  

3. The Influencer Effect: How Social Media Rewrote the Retail Playbook

No single force has been more transformative to the innerwear retail landscape than the rise of the social media influencer. By turning a private product into a public conversation, influencers have not only reshaped marketing strategies but have also fundamentally altered consumer behavior and cultural norms surrounding intimate apparel.

From Awkward Aisles to Authentic Advocacy

To understand the impact of influencers, one must first recall the historical context of lingerie shopping in India. For decades, it was an experience fraught with taboo and discomfort, often involving hurried, discreet purchases with minimal information or choice. The advent of e-commerce provided the first crucial solution: privacy. However, it was the influencer who provided the next, arguably more powerful, layer: normalization and education. They took a product hidden in brown paper bags and brought it into the open, fostering conversations not just about style, but about comfort, correct fit, body confidence, and self-love.  

The New Trust Brokers: Education, Normalization, and Credibility

In a market where consumer trust is paramount, influencers have become the new arbiters of credibility. Over 70% of Indian brands now strategically employ influencer marketing specifically to build consumer trust, a figure that is even higher in personal categories like beauty and innerwear. Their role extends far beyond simple product showcases.

They function as educators, demystifying complex topics that brands have historically struggled to communicate. For instance, influencers have been instrumental in teaching consumers about proper bra fitting—a critical issue, given that an estimated four out of five Indian women wear the wrong size—and providing practical advice on fabric care and product longevity, thereby empowering consumers to make more informed and satisfying purchases. By openly discussing and modeling innerwear in a relatable, non-sexualized context, they effectively break down long-standing cultural barriers and destigmatize the entire category.  

The D2C-Influencer Symbiosis: A Blueprint for Disruption

Influencer marketing is the cornerstone of the modern D2C playbook. This symbiotic relationship allows digital-first brands to bypass the high costs and gatekeepers of traditional advertising and retail, enabling them to speak directly and authentically to highly targeted niche communities. The strategies employed have become increasingly sophisticated. While celebrity endorsements still hold value for mass reach, the focus has shifted towards micro- and nano-influencers, who often deliver higher engagement rates and are perceived as more authentic by their followers. Furthermore, brands are now strategically collaborating with regional influencers to penetrate the booming Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets, using local voices to build trust in new geographies.  

Campaign Deep Dive: Strategies that Worked

Several brands have masterfully leveraged influencer marketing to build brand equity, educate consumers, and drive sales. An analysis of their campaigns reveals a clear shift from simple product placement to sophisticated, narrative-driven content.

• Triumph: The brand’s “Cracking the Bra Code” campaign was a masterclass in educational marketing. By collaborating with leading fashion and lifestyle influencers, Triumph created a series of informative and visually appealing Instagram Reels on practical topics like how to measure bra size correctly and proper bra care. This content-first approach achieved over 5.9 million organic views, positioning Triumph not just as a seller of lingerie, but as a trusted authority and an expert in the category.
• XYXX: This men’s innerwear brand has successfully used its brand ambassador, cricketer KL Rahul, to redefine masculinity in innerwear advertising. High-concept campaigns like “#MyComfortZone” and “Ultimate Undie-pendence” moved the narrative away from stereotypical portrayals of ruggedness and instead focused on authenticity, vulnerability, and the universal desire for comfort. This approach has allowed XYXX to connect with a modern male audience that values self-expression and well-being.
• Zivame: A pioneer in the space, Zivame continues to lead with a content-driven strategy that champions body positivity. Its groundbreaking “Museum of Boobs” campaign was designed to educate women about the diversity of breast shapes and normalize different body types. The brand consistently partners with body positivity influencers to foster open, honest conversations, building a powerful community around shared values of acceptance and self-love.
• Clovia: Clovia’s strategy is built on being quirky, fun, and relatable. The brand frequently collaborates with influencers to create humorous memes and reels that address common lingerie problems and the awkwardness women often face. This lighthearted approach makes the brand highly accessible. Their decision to sign mainstream Bollywood actress Shraddha Kapoor for their first television campaign was a major strategic move aimed at bringing the conversation around lingerie into the living rooms of mainstream India, further destigmatizing the category on a mass scale.

Table 4: Influencer Campaign Analysis

The Authenticity Challenge: Navigating the Pitfalls

Despite its effectiveness, the influencer marketing landscape is not without its challenges. The very success of the model has led to new complexities.

Influencer fees are reportedly rising by 25-30% annually, while customer acquisition costs have also surged, putting pressure on marketing budgets.

More critically, audiences are becoming increasingly discerning and skeptical of overly polished or inauthentic sponsored content. The emergence of “de-influencers”—creators who gain popularity by critically reviewing products and calling out misleading marketing—poses a significant reputational risk for brands that prioritize reach over authenticity.

For brands, managing a diverse network of creators while ensuring brand safety, consistent messaging, and transparent communication has become a major operational hurdle that requires sophisticated management and a genuine commitment to the values they espouse.  

4. Wading through the Headwinds: Challenges on the Path to Growth

While the outlook for the Indian innerwear market is overwhelmingly positive, the path to its projected USD 20 billion valuation is not without significant obstacles. Brands must navigate a complex regulatory environment, persistent supply chain inefficiencies, stiff competition from the unorganized sector, and the growing, often costly, demands of the conscious consumer.

The GST Conundrum and Supply Chain Complexities

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) framework underwent a significant overhaul in September 2025, a move aimed at simplifying the tax structure and addressing long-standing industry issues. The reform, dubbed “GST 2.0,” replaced the previous multi-slab system with two primary rates: 5% and 18%. For the innerwear and apparel industry, this had a mixed but largely positive impact.  

A key change was the expansion of the 5% GST slab to cover all apparel priced up to ₹2,500 per item, a substantial increase from the previous ₹1,000 threshold. This made a vast range of mass-market and mid-range innerwear more affordable, as products in the ₹1,001-₹2,500 bracket saw their tax rate fall from 12% to 5%. This is expected to boost demand, particularly in price-sensitive Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Conversely, apparel priced above ₹2,500 was moved from the 12% slab to the 18% slab, making premium and luxury innerwear more expensive.  

Crucially, the reform directly addressed the “inverted duty structure,” a major challenge where taxes on raw materials were higher than on finished goods. By reducing the GST on man-made fibres and yarns to align with cotton, the government created a “fibre-neutral” policy that was widely welcomed by the industry. This correction is expected to ease working capital blockages and improve supply chain efficiency.  

Industry bodies like the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI) lauded the changes, particularly the correction of the inverted duty structure and the expansion of the 5% slab.

However, they also expressed significant concern over the 18% rate for garments above ₹2,500, arguing that many essential items like woolen wear, traditional occasion wear, and artisan-made clothing fall into this category and are not luxury goods.  

The Unorganized Sector’s Enduring Grip

Despite the remarkable growth of branded players, a substantial portion of the Indian apparel market remains unorganized. Projections suggest that this informal sector will still account for around 55% of the total market in 2025.

In the women’s innerwear category, the dominance is even more pronounced, with unorganized players accounting for nearly 60% of the market by volume. This enduring presence poses a persistent challenge for organized brands, creating intense price competition and making it difficult to enforce standardization and scale operations, especially when penetrating deeper into price-sensitive rural and semi-urban markets.  

The Sustainability Question: From Niche Concern to Mainstream Demand

Consumer demand for sustainable and ethically produced innerwear is undeniably on the rise. A growing segment of the market actively seeks products made from eco-friendly materials like organic cotton and bamboo, produced through transparent and responsible manufacturing processes. While this presents an opportunity for brands to differentiate themselves, it also introduces a significant strategic challenge.  

This challenge can be understood as the “Sustainability-Price-Scale Trilemma.” While consumers increasingly voice a preference for sustainability, the broader market, particularly in the mass and mid-premium segments, remains highly price-sensitive.

Brands are therefore caught in a difficult balancing act. Implementing genuinely sustainable practices—from sourcing certified organic materials to ensuring ethical labor conditions—often increases production costs.

This can compromise a brand’s price competitiveness, which in turn can limit its ability to achieve mass-market scale. This creates a strategic tension that will be a defining feature of the industry’s next phase. Niche D2C brands can successfully build a loyal community around a strong sustainability ethos, as demonstrated by Tailor & Circus. However, for large-scale players aiming for broad market leadership, mastering the delicate balance between these three competing priorities—sustainability, accessible pricing, and scalable production—will be a formidable operational and strategic test.  

Conclusion & Future Outlook: Weaving the Future of Indian Innerwear

The Indian innerwear industry has irrevocably shed its utilitarian past to emerge as a high-growth sector at the intersection of fashion, wellness, and personal identity. The journey from a functional commodity to a symbol of self-expression has been catalyzed by a new generation of digitally-empowered, globally-aware, and increasingly conscious consumers. They are demanding more than just a product; they are seeking comfort as a form of self-care, inclusivity as a reflection of their reality, and authenticity as a prerequisite for their loyalty.

The market’s trajectory towards a valuation of USD 20 billion by the early 2030s appears robust and well-supported by strong macroeconomic and cultural tailwinds. The brands poised to capture the lion’s share of this growth will be those that demonstrate mastery on multiple fronts.

They must continue to push the boundaries of product innovation, particularly in developing comfortable, functional, and sustainable materials. Simultaneously, they must excel at building authentic, community-centric marketing ecosystems, moving beyond transactional relationships to foster genuine connections with their audience.

The future of retail in this category is unequivocally omnichannel. The pure-play D2C model that sparked the initial disruption is now evolving. Success will require a seamless integration of digital convenience and physical experience. The “click-to-brick” strategy, pioneered by brands like Zivame with their ‘Fit Studios’, will become increasingly crucial.This hybrid approach offers the best of both worlds: the privacy and vast selection of online shopping, combined with the essential tactile experience and expert guidance that consumers still value, especially for a product as personal as innerwear.  

Ultimately, the Indian innerwear industry is no longer just selling undergarments; it is selling confidence, comfort, and a sense of belonging. As cultural taboos continue to dissolve and consumer expectations for quality, transparency, and representation continue to rise, the brands that listen most closely and respond most authentically will not just win market share—they will define the very fabric of modern Indian fashion.