Celebrating our similarities - a week of wonderful lingerie stories

 Women with a difference

A collection of women with Crohn’s disease have stepped up to appear in their own lingerie calendar - their purpose is twofold; to raise funds for the charity Purple Wings, which supports those with bowel disease and to demonstrate that stoma bags can be sexy too.

Every one of the group has had surgery to remove a part of their intestines, which means they require ileostomy bags to manage the function of the missing parts. For a lot of women this can prove challenging - whether its Crohn’s disease, cancer or any number of other causes that have led to needing ileostomy bag or a colostomy bag - learning to redefine sexiness with a bag can be tough. But not impossible. We think the calendar is utterly beautiful, and we love the idea of celebrating the whole range of our bodies and our sexuality, however we are shaped, placed, built or altered by life.

As the women in the calendar say, very few people know whether another person has an ileostomy bag, but in an intimate relationship it’s impossible to conceal the fact. Lauren Henderson who appears as Miss November, said, “It’s so hard trying to get the message out that these women are still beautiful. I'm so proud. It's epic. I really can't put it into words.”

Underwear with a difference

If you, or somebody you love, is adjusting to life with a bag, of either kind, you can rest assured that the team at lingerie.co.uk works hard to ensure that our lingerie collection works for everybody, not just perfect bodies. We’ve got a particular suggestion for those trying to find sexy lingerie that works with a ileostomy bag, it’s our Roza Genesis shorty briefs! Beautifully constructed with an elegant V shaped net insert at the rear, this briefs comfortably accommodate a bag and also look stunning.

 

Recycling with a difference

 

In a fascinating story in Plastic News the link between the underwear worn by Muslim women in the staidest part of Egypt, plastics recycling and the entrepreneurial nature of Chinese business-people has been stunningly unravelled.

Upper Egypt is home to some of the most conservative Muslims in the world, and the racy lingerie worn under the women’s concealing garments is sold to them by a syndicate of Chinese merchants who barely speak the local language. One Chinese couple who were creating a small lingerie business in the region became aware of the amount of plastic in the landfill around the city of Asyut and they imported a PET bottle recycling plant from their home in Jiangsu, China. The ground plastic is sold to a Chinese group in Cairo which makes them into polyester thread which is then used by garment manufacturers who make lingerie … that is sold back to the Chinese entrepreneurs who sell it in Egypt. How cool is that!

Hot, curvy and pink - a week of lingerie from www.lingerie.co.uk

Hot news this week is that curvy is missing. As singer Meghan Trainor has it, ‘Bringing Booty Back’ hasn't made it to September’s issue of American vogue! Criticism of the autumn issue of Vogue, often seen as the trend-setting issue for the whole year ahead, relates to the fact that in the 832 pages of the publication there are plus sized models on only two pages. Those two pages aren’t even editorial, they are a paid for advert from a mysterious organisation called plusisequal.com which has an, as yet unpublished, website.

Vogue USA under the lingerie microscope

The advert itself shows six plus sized women in lingerie and stilettos, but they are in silhouette and there’s a countdown to the date 14 September 2015 with the strapline ‘It’s time for change …’ Overall the approach seems to related to Lane Bryant, a lingerie retailer that has attacked Victoria’s Secret for their ‘perfect body’ campaign by promoting their own versions of attractiveness under the hashtag #Imnoangel in which they showed women of many different body types posing in lingerie to show that you don’t have to be ‘perfect’ to be gorgeous. We’re all in favour of that!

But there’s a bigger question about magazines like Vogue, which have taken to using older models quite regularly, simply because the ‘silver market’ is worth competing for, and that question is - are they simply sticking to featuring skinny ‘perfect’ bodies because they believe many women will still strive to achieve the ‘size 10’ or thigh gap that they think will lead to fulfilment? It was all too common for magazines to only have pubescent or even pre-pubescent models at one time, because all women were encouraged to aspire to eternal youth, now are we being asked to aspire to impossible slimness instead?

Talking about eternal youth and underwear …

We were charmed to see Lisa Snowdon in her latest undies! Aged 43, Lisa, who is a successful TV presenter and radio host, revealed just how good she looks in lingerie. Perhaps it’s no surprise that  the presenter of Britain's Next Top Model between 2006 until 2009 is in great shape, but the wonderful thing about Lisa’s glamour shoot for the Triumph brand is that she’s no skinny wraith, she looks like an ample, beautifully proportioned mature woman, which is what she is.

We also love the bright pink - we’d call it fuchsia - bra and pants set that she’s debuted. While many women think that strong lingerie colours might be difficult to wear, we consider that fuchsia and cerise work for almost everyone. Other colours that just about every woman could comfortably fit into their lingerie drawers include royal blue and a proper emerald green. It is true though that bold underwear takes a little more work. So, taking our Reve de Luxe bra in pink as an example, we’d recommend that any woman aiming to work this hot pink number would probably benefit from:

1.    Finding a strong lipstick to offset the rich lingerie shade

2.    Plan special hair - either a full tousled bed hair look or something sleek and sophisticated

3.    Accessorise with care - dainty necklaces and tiny earrings won’t cut it with such a glowing underwear collection - instead consider chunky bangles, a risqué anklet or even a velvet choker or a fascinator … something to really rock your undies!

Stars, bras and lingerie movers - August’s big stories in lingerie

Stephanie Davis and that tattoo

So … after Stephanie Davis was unexpectedly and unceremoniously sacked from Hollyoaks, she’s taken no time at all to launch her next career. Apparently she wants to emulate Kylie Minogue by writing and performing her own songs, but she’s started in the traditional fashion, but stripping down to her undies for a lingerie shoot for Zoo magazine.

It’s an absolutely classic approach, a front clasp black bra and suspender set, super high black stilettos and sexy big hair. What’s quite novel is her new tattoo - a chest mandala that spans the whole of her upper abdomen, just below the bra line. 22 year old Stephanie, who’s been a Hollyoaks stalwart since she was sixteen years old, speaks in the article about how tired she became working on the soap six days a week, and how she eventually “just walked … the producers told me if I didn't come back they'd have no option but to terminate my contract, but that it was my choice.”

The rumours swirling around her are that she got so drunk she couldn’t stand up, and after telling the production company she was too sick to film an episode, went back out and drank some more. Stephanie’s version is a bit different, “The drunken thing was there for people to believe if they wanted to but I know people in the industry know me for what I really am.”

Top selling bra at a bargain price!

And my, oh my, do we have a deal for you! If you’ve fallen in love with that black satin balconette bra that Stephanie is wearing then you won’t believe your luck because we have a virtually identical sexy little number for a complete steal of a price! The Vikki black satin bra by Insinuate is so cheap you can probably afford a bottle of wine too … although you might not want to invite Stephanie round to share it, if those rumours are true!

Marks & Spencer and that shake up

Since the beginning of this month, beleaguered high street underwear retailer M&S has taken another pounding. At one point the share price dropped 2% overnight, because of yet another reorganisation of personnel. Womenswear head, Frances Russell, has departed, and Jo Jenkins has stepped up. Jo Jenkins was previously the lingerie director but now has a portfolio covering womenswear, lingerie and beauty. Hard on the heels of the departure of John Dixon, this little shake up is rattling the investors badly. Why? Well Steve Rowe, who took over general merchandise when Dixon left, appears to have decided to pull all the ‘female’ product areas under one director. Previously this has been separated to ensure that the perennial M&S woman who buys not only her scanties but her husband’s pants in the store, is not in any way subject to the vagaries of the fashion market. Well … we’ll see!