They say that the vice business does just fine in a down economy: Drinking, sex, gambling — all good.

Been to the Vegas Strip lately?

We're not sure if this falls into that category, or if it's a sign that people are feeling flush enough to get freaky again.

But L.A.'s own legendary lingerie retailer Frederick's of Hollywood is getting down (and by that we mean looking up):

The company today announced that its December store sales were up 6.3 percent compared to last year. Taking a nearly six-week span of sales ending Dec. 31 the company says purchases of skimpy, shiny things is up 5.3 percent.

Credit: Frederick's of Hollywood

Credit: Frederick's of Hollywood

Company CEO Thomas Lynch says in a statement sent to us:

The 2012 Holiday season was topped off by strong comparable store sales and healthy store margins for the December period. It is exciting to see many of the improvements made to drive sales for our retail stores, including our new product line introduced in mid-2011, continued to gain traction throughout the holiday period.

Did you catch all the subliminal keywords there, kids? Strong. Healthy. Exciting. Drive. Traction.

Yeah, you know what we're talking about.

We here are LA Weekly World Headquarters couldn't be happier that women and the pervy men who buy this stuff for them are once again embracing thigh highs, garters and other unmentionables that we just mentioned. (And hey, guys, they're having a huge sale).

2012 is shaping up to be a stimulating year.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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