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!