CC Girl: Outfitting Tweens With Their First Bra
Even before Nancy Duncan was a mom, she knew her way around the girls’ clothing department. Duncan has been thinking like a juniors customer since 1985, when she worked as a sales manager, merchandiser and designer for top juniors denim and clothing brands. With her beginner-bras line, CC Girl, Duncan outfits the tween girl with her first bra.
“I look at it now through [my daughter],” Duncan said. “She’s now a real juniors customer. It’s really fun. We shop juniors stores all the time.”
Duncan was inspired to launch CC Girl after shopping at a mass-market retailer in 2002 and noticing the lack of selection for a girl’s first bra in the lingerie and juniors departments. The bras geared toward the tween customer were not graded in small enough sizes, and “the styling was too advanced for the first-bra wearer,” such as leopard prints or “sexy laces,” Duncan said.
Duncan hatched the design direction for CC Girl’s tween beginner bras and perfected the fit design with a technical designer who was experienced in developing petite-fit bras.
“The [bra] spec designer had a 13-year-old daughter. I had one up and coming. So [my daughter] was doing the fits for the beginner bras, and the spec designer’s daughter was doing the fits for the more advanced,” said Duncan, who shipped her first order of CC Girl to Nordstrom in 2004 and added that she will ship to “all the major department stores” and specialty stores across the country by the end of the year. First fit
Duncan and her technical designer developed CC Girl’s fit from scratch, making sure to specifically design the bra for a growing teen’s body as opposed to scaling down the size of a women’s bra.
“The underwire is a wider wire so that it goes across the chest. Underwire normally is for pushing up and all of that. And that’s not what this does. It just anchors,” Duncan said.
The CC Girl style range includes nylon/spandex molded-cup underwire bras, nylon/spandex soft-cup bras, cotton/spandex sports bras, nylon/spandex seamless bras and a convertible strapless bra to wear with special-occasion dresses. Each bra is packaged with a “Find My Size” chart tag to introduce girls to sizing that will transition them into women’s bra sizes.
“I wanted them to be able to pick out their own special bra [and] understand their own sizing. We created this fit and profile chart because at this fit and this age, it’s all about ’How does it fit?’ and ’How does it feel?’ on their body. It’s vastly different from taking a cardboard-boxed bra, and it’s a very feminine thing for them to go through,” Duncan said.
In addition to basic replenishment bra styles offered in 30AA through 38B and matching panties, Duncan offers fashion bra and panty sets designed with “light, friendly, young” soft colors and pretty prints. Wholesale prices for bras and panties range from $5 to $9.
For Spring 2010, Duncan is offering camisole tanks and boyshorts in giraffe, zebra and heart prints that tie back to the lingerie line.
Two years ago, New York–based Charles Komar and Sons—which produces women’s sleepwear for brands such as Liz Claiborne, Donna Karan Sleepwear, DKNY and Eileen West—bought CC Girl. Duncan remains president of CC Girl and designs new collections from a headquarters in Los Angeles.
The founder has her eye on expanding into lingerie specialty stores. CC Girl hangs in the “girls 7–16” section in department stores, and most of her specialty-store accounts are juniors and children’s shops.
“Almost every person that’s shopping [at lingerie stores] has children, and if they have a daughter, they realize, ’Oh, yeah, what am I going to have her begin to wear?’” said Duncan, who asked herself the same question.
For more information contact the Lois Evans showroom at (310) 396-3838. —Rhea Cortado
