COUGARMANIA!!

Cougarmania

By JANE HAMILTON, Consumer Editor

Published: 30 Apr 2010

SALES of saucy lingerie are soaring among 40-something women thanks to hit TV shows like Cougar Town and Sex and the City.

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Showing lots Moore ... Demi in Charlie's Angels

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Raunchy ... Cox in Cougar hit

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Lacy and racy ... Madonna

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Sales have shot up 117 per cent in the last six months.

Industry experts have dubbed the trend the "Cougar Effect" after the soaring number of older women hunting toyboy lovers.

They aim to copy sexy stars like Cougar Town's Courteney Cox, who often shows off her fabulous figure in frilly undies as the Living TV show's divorced mum Jules Cobb.

A host of other "older" celebs including Demi Moore, Madonna and Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall, who plays man-eater Samantha Jones, have displayed a liking for lingerie.

And ordinary women hunting for a younger fella reckon it's a good way to pull a toyboy just like several of the stars.

Ashton Kutcher, the actor hubby of 47-year-old Demi, is 31. And Courteney, also 47, is wed to actor David Arquette, who is seven years her junior. Kim, 53, has told how playing Samantha gave her the "courage and confidence" in real life to enjoy her best-ever sex.

A total of 35 per cent of single women in their 40s, 50s and 60s are hunting for a man at least five years younger - up from just eight per cent five years ago.

They are snapping up rack-fulls of raunchy embroidered basques, silk thongs, lace-top stockings and push-up bras.

The 40-plus market is the fastest growing at Debenhams.

And head lingerie buyer Annette Warburton said: "It's important that women at any age feel fantastic in their underwear.

"Positive female role models in this age group, such as the women in Sex and the City and Courteney Cox, are giving them confidence to splash out on themselves.

"With the 40s being touted as the new 20s, lingerie designers are stepping up to the mark to feed the demand."