Sexy City buy in a plain wrapper

AGENT Provocateur, the purveyor of upmarket saucy lingerie, is opening a boutique in the heart of the City, just a brief distance from the Bank of England. But while a host of sexy celebrities, including Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer, David Beckham (for his wife, of course) and Jerry Hall (she wore hers on stage while acting in The Graduate), are happy to be known as customers of the Soho or Knightsbridge branches, some of the City's more staid individuals may not be so keen to be spotted salivating over a baby-doll-and-thong set or returning to their desk with one of the store's distinctive pink bags.

To get over this problem the store, famed for its nipple-less bras, diamante-handled riding crops and brothel-chic ambience, offers plain plastic bags to shy customers.

The City store, opening in late July, is a new direction for Agent Provocateur's founders, husbandand and wife team Joseph Corre and Serena Rees, who have previously looked to the traditional shopping areas of the West End for expansion. However, the City has changed enormously in the past few years and other designers have been opening branches, eager to tap into the wallets and purses of some of the country's richest men and women.

Agent Provocateur will join Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Hermes at the Royal Exchange, which has recently taken to promoting itself as the Bond Street of the East.

There are now about 124,000 women working in the Square Mile - comprising almost half the workforce - and Agent Provocateur is hoping that many of them feel the urge to slip on something lacy beneath their pinstripes. Agent Provocateur also anticipates that the City's menfolk may blow some of their annual bonuses on presents for wives and girlfriends.