Charming Shoppes to Launch Giant Bra Site

Women’s apparel retailer Charming Shoppes said on Wednesday that it will launch what it hopes will be the largest intimate apparel Website in the U.S. by the end of the year.

The Bensalem, PA-based company plans to use its existing catalog and Internet inventories to support sales at the site, which will sell bras and other intimate apparel for women of all sizes and ages. Charming Shoppes chairman/CEO/president Dorrit Bern told investors at the Piper Jaffray consumer conference in New York that with this platform, “we can say we can fit every woman in America.”

Charming Shoppes, which includes the retail store chains Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, and Catherines Plus Sizes, last year bought Tucson-based multittle catalog company Crosstown Traders to broaden its offerings of apparel, footwear, and gift items. Crosstown’s titles include Old Pueblo Traders, Intimate Appeal, Regalia, Bedford Fair Shoestyles, Willow Ridge, Lew Magram, Brownstone Studio, and Figi’s. Charming intends to launch its own catalog after it gets the Lane Bryant catalog trademark back from New York-based multititle mailer Redcats USA in October 2007.