Lingerie sales are soaring and it has been reported that it's women in their 40's and 50's who are doing the spending. Gone are the days of frumpy big knickers and dull bust containers. Bridget Jones either raided her grandmother's attic or sneaked off to a Bulgarian peasant fayre for those disastrous bloomers, so far were they removed from the styles now seen in the window of any lingerie boutique. The growing trend over the past couple of decades is to reveal an amazing new-found confidence among women, with a direct effect on their shopping decisions.

The roles women play today have given them the extra confidence boost that was previously suppressed. Even the word 'maturity' no longer reflects the death of all things sexy; it's now a symbol of excitement and innovation, the replacement of blandness with experience. Look out guys, we know who we are and what we want, we're not afraid to show it and we're no way ready to move over for the next generation. One of the reasons women formerly gave up frivolous underwear after they hit the big four oh was that it was seen as incompatible with being mature and sensible. You couldn't be sexy AND powerful. Oh how wrong that's becoming now.

The film Sex In The City 2, though an extended glorification of shallowness and self-obsession, works today in a way it couldn't possibly have done twenty or thirty years ago, using characters in their forties and beyond in roles that at that time would have invited derision. Hollywood's amplification of this larger than life image of the maturer sexier woman is drama to the max. In reality women need to feel self worth and this means skin close indulgence. To use the L'Oreal slogan, 'Because you're worth it'.

In the UK, stores such as Marks&Spencer are launching ranges of sophisticated and sexy underwear for the 45 plus age group. There is an obvious desire and the demand is great. Elle Macpherson with her passion for all things beautiful has used her experience and maturity to create the most exquisite lingerie collection. She's 47 and has two children, by the way. Liz Hurley, aged 44 and famous for 'that dress' has also marketed an underwear range aimed at a more mature market.

Back to the boardroom, a confident woman is a successful woman. Here lies the wonderful opportunity to combine the two B's; beauty and brains - fuse them and women will go on to conquer the universe.