Email from Woolworths dated 15 February 2012:
‘With regards to your guide to buying locally produced Clothing, firstly it is Woolworths preference to source locally and we only source abroad if we cant get the Quality , Value and Service levels our customers expect when shopping at WW.
You are right to have identified that we do source a significant amount of Cotton Knitted garments from South Africa but this can change if we are no longer to achieve the attributes listed above. If we cannot source similar product first we look to SADC countries and then Internationally.
Sourcing is a complex and changing process with much volatility and can change regularly across thousands of products which can make the compiling of a guide risky in terms of dating quite quickly.’
Wise words indeed. I had to rewrite the underwear section of this guide, when – out of pure routine – I double-checked the labels of the cotton underwear I used to buy from Woolworths. It used to be made in South Africa. I was very happy with its ‘quality, value and service levels’, but clearly the selfsame underwear can no longer be made in South Africa – or any of the other 14 active SADC member states – it now comes all the way from India.
Previously Woolworths’ 100% organic cotton men’s underwear had been made in India, but now the non-organic women’s cotton underwear comes from there as well. The remainder of the lingerie is also all imported, largely from China.
You can get locally made lingerie, though:
Foschini, Truworths and Edgars sell some locally manufactured bras and panties, although it’s NOT their instore labels (Truworths: Skiny, Intrigue and Peep), those are imported.
Most of the Wonderbras are locally manufactured.
And so are all the Playtex panties and bras.
Jockey, although an international brand, is licensed to a South African company, which manufactures lingerie and sleepwear in the country. Jockey’s bodyshaping underwear is imported, though.
The Storm in a A-G Cup own label brand has a beautiful range of locally made lingerie, for example the ‘FI. Intimates for Africa’ and the ‘Creative Intimatewear’ labels. Not the entire house range is local, but you can enquire with the staff, they know the difference so you don’t need to study labels! Storm in a A-G Cup has stores in and around Cape Town and they sell online.
The lingerie brands Triumph, Calvin Klein, Sloggi, Shelley and After Eden are imported, so is everything you find at Inner Secrets and La Senza.
The entirely locally manufactured boutique underwear label is a man’s label. The Pretoria brand Bone Wear sells good-looking trunks and briefs and comfy-looking shorts.
Male underwear made in RSA that is selling in department stores is Bad Boy at Edgars and Jockey.
