Half-naked women just a day at the office for French lingerie brand chairman

Not a lot of incentive is needed to get people (especially guys) to attend a lingerie fashion show. That's why even though most of the guests weren't overly familiar with the girlie wear boutique Innee, Star Street's Cinecitta was full last Thursday night, when the suave Italian eatery was dressed for Parisian romance.

In addition to displays of the various French boudoir labels, beret-wearing artists offered portrait sketches for patrons. One wonders why they didn't just book a Gallic restaurant instead?

'We're a French company,' Innee's tuxedo-wearing chairman, Terry Broderick (right), said. 'It was only two years ago that we turned from just manufacturing lingerie into a retail brand. We have 11 outlets in China and three in Hong Kong.'

Two of which are shops within a shop in department stores (Sogo in Causeway bay and Yata in Sha Tin), which explains why their profile is still quite low.

Whatever. Unless you were right at the front on Thursday night, it was hard to see behind the wall of dudes craning their necks at the skimpily clad models. However, you could judge the sauciness of the underwear by how many people whipped out their camera for a photo souvenir.

For Broderick, half-naked women parading around is just another day at the office. 'I got into this by luck,' he said. 'I was an operations guy and I got asked to go into this side of sales and marketing, and entered the field this way. No, I didn't complain.'