By Agbor Iris
Retailers say young girls rarely come for V-pants again, which used to be among the most preferred brand
Many young girls and women today prefer string pants, but the market too has dwindled, retailers say
Eighteen-year-old Limunga Diana is one in a million of generational girls roaming around without wearing pants. Diana says putting on pants is stressful. The resident of Buea finds it fashionable when she walks around without pants. Not only does she feel freer, it saves her the stress of having to wash them all the time.
“Putting on pants is very stressful. I don’t really like pants at all because I hate to wash them and probably I don’t feel comfortable putting them on,” says Diana.
“And more to that fashion has made me to completely hate them even the one they call string,” she added.
Diana said certain dresses do not require underwear because they are transparent dresses which make the pants to be visible.
Aside from not wearing pants she equally does not wear bra. “I don’t have fallen breast so why should I put them on,” she said.
At first, she had tiny and small breasts and “so putting on bra is stress”
It is phenomenon that is happening in many areas in Buea and, in the student residential area of Molyko, it is at high gear.
A young girl who opted for anonymity said she was not putting on either of the under wears at that time, citing health issues.
“For me, if I put on tight pant it gives me blister, rashes, itches sometimes wounds around my vagina and I’m not comfortable putting loose pant,” said the 20-year-old.
Even when she puts on bra too, she faces difficulties in breathing and as such does not wear them again.
“Like I said, it’s not for fashion. I just prevent certain things from happening. Like they say, prevention is better than cure. But once in a while I put on pants but not the round or V-pants but rather strings,” she said.
Not wearing undies is causing a drastic decline in its sales. Sellers are decrying that their revenue has dropped because they buy pants and they remain in stock because young girls are walking pantless.
Elvira Manka, a retailer of female underwear at OIC Market, Buea, says the business is increasingly losing its lucrativeness. For the five years she has been selling female pants (undies), the 30-year-old says never has her turnover been so low as it is today.
Young girls nowadays no longer wear pants (undies), Elvira Manka complains, and this poses a threat to her business. “I have been selling female undies for almost five years now and the sales I usually make in a few years back is not the same like now. That is, the sales have dropped,” she says. “There has been a decrease in purchase of female undies because majority of young ladies don’t put them on and some proudly say it.”
Unlike when she just started the business, most of her customers today are married women. The younger generation of women either goes pantless or they stop by once in a while to buy particular brands called strings and V-pants.
“Now we usually sell them to married women who see the value of wearing them. The young ladies, called android generation, go for specific pants called strings and V-pants,” she says.
“And some go to an extend of not putting on brassiere because me selling in the market, I always see them passing everyday, some with fallen breast and others with standing and pointed breast, which can easily cause temptation. But one can just say it’s the corrupt system of the world today they call fashion”.
Another retailer of female under wears in Buea called mama Ejema has a similar observation like Elvira. Although she has been in the business for only two years, she says sales are increasingly becoming “disastrous” because many young girls don’t wear pants anymore.
“You young ladies will not make us fall stock because of your so call generation or fashion. My sister sells undies and the business was going on smoothly, so I decided to start a business selling undies too. The first year I made a lot of sales but this year is disastrous,” regrets mama Ejema.
“Last year I can sell 20 dozen of pants in a day and be satisfy, but this year, I will sit in the market for the whole day and sell just four dozen with bargaining price. Even the strings that they were buying, they don’t buy anymore. Do girls even wear pants again nowadays? They walk around ‘sans calecon’. This generation is nonsense,” she adds.