Fitness freaks working their a**e off can afford to heave a sigh of relief. A shapely butt is now just a shop away, thanks to ‘bum pads’ or padded panties that are fast catching up in the Capital, with shops — right from high-end stores to those in popular flea markets such as Janpath and Sarojni Nagar — selling between 8-12 pairs a day.
“It’s mostly aspiring models who are skinny who come to buy bum pads. Within three years of stocking bum-pads, we’ve seen tremendous growth in sales. We get email and telephone inquiries, too” says Hemant Gupta, director, Kunchals, one of the many stores that stock the wonder product. They are available in two varieties: cloth with foam (Rs 1500) and one with silicon pads (Rs 1995). “I import the product from a Chinese supplier... it’s a hit with college-goers,” says Ajay Mehta, a shopkeeper in Sarojni Nagar, who sells upto 8 bum-pads a day. Available in skin colour with panties that have pockets to slip in the silicon pads, bum-pads can be worn 25 -30 times before disposal.
The model fraternity, however, denies a rampant use. “Not many use them. Designers anyway want models to look thin,” says model Noyonika Chatterjee.