Lusciously large, Life Peer and Losing Out … a week of lingerie surprises

Large women model for empowering photographs

Brazilian photographer (that is, she’s from Brazil, not a photographer of Brazilian trims!) Mariana Godoy has a new project that’s been winning attention in the international media. Her portfolio entitled Empoderarte Me, which roughly translates as ‘empowering myself’ features five self-proclaimed fat women. The aim of the project is to remove any stigma associated with the word ‘fat’ and the photographs are a loving and lively series of portraits of semi-clad and topless women who are clearly very much at home with their bodies. Some of the women have chosen to write slogans on their bodies in Portuguese such as “My Body My Rules” and “Fat and Healthy”.

Interestingly, Godoy sheds a sidelight on the project that might not be instantly recognisable to us. She commented that whilst curvy brunettes are the dominant body type in Brazil, it’s slim blondes who are seen as the epitome of attractiveness. Now, while many larger women have experienced the negative response to their size that comes from a narrow view of physical perfection, the surprisingly strong ‘blonde standard’ that operates through much of Central and South America often passes under the radar. In linking the two attributes of slim and blonde to reveal the unrealistic demands made on many women in the name of beauty, Godoy explicitly shows us that such standards are based on media representations of women rather than on a realistic view of women’s bodies.

When she began to post photographs on social media of the project, Godoy was impressed by the amount of interest and support she received for the work which has inspired her to continue.

Michelle Mone, Ultimo Founder, will be a Tory Peer

Lingerie boss, Michelle Mone is going to become a Tory peer! Apparently she received the news of her potential life peerage from David Cameron himself in a phone call. The elevation is thought to be in part due to her strongly declared support for maintaining the England/Scotland Union in the Referendum debate. Michelle left school at 15, was pregnant at 19, and founded her international lingerie empire from scratch, essentially at her kitchen table.

Business predictions say that Victoria’s Secret may lose market share

A couple of business gurus have suggested that Victoria’s Secret, which has a massive 35% of US market share, might be going to lose a considerable proportion of that share simply because of the way it refuses to carry plus-sized lingerie in its lines.

The claim is based on market research that suggests that in the next half-decade plus size women’s underwear will be a $9 billion income generator - and Victoria’s Secret will not have any of that share.  Several top lingerie brands offer up to size 28, and a couple of high profile campaigns have attempted to get Victoria’s Secret to carry larger sizes, including online petitions requesting bigger clothing and feedback on marketing campaigns such as “The Perfect Body’ which has been criticised as denying women with less than ‘perfect’ bodies the right to legitimacy.

Given that the USA has more than 100 million plus sized female consumers, it’s going to be interesting to see how Victoria’s Secret deals with this increasing public awareness. While we’re on the subject, if you want to see what stunning plus-size lingerie looks like, our ribboned babydoll comes in the gorgeously named ‘queen size’ and is utterly, utterly sexy - empowering myself indeed!