Lingerie innovations, Valentine’s Day shopping and what men think of underwear …

Selina Bond recently graduated from De Montfort University’s Contour Fashion degree course and was given the accolade New Designer of the Year at this year’s UK Lingerie Awards - she’s also the first designer to win this award without having a collection ready to retail. So what was it that so impressed the judges who included experts from John Lewis and Rigby and Peller? It was her use of technology, specifically carbon fibre, the material used in Formula 1 racing cars and in space vehicles.

The idea came from her father, who used to work for the Williams Formula 1 team repairing cars damaged in racing - he even helped her create moulds for the carbon fibre lingerie she designed. The pieces, shaped like breastplates or bodices are lined with verve and lace trimmed before being lacquered. Apparently they are lightweight and very rigid, and the models who wore them in her graduate show said they were wonderful for the posture!

Men in lingerie …

If you want a laugh, watch three men trying to get into women’s underwear! There is a more serious point to this video though. The idea was to see what men thought of lingerie if they were the ones wearing it - and their responses are priceless, including, ‘I don’t understand what’s sexy about fishnets, unless you get massive boners at the thought of the sea’ and ‘I feel like a fish caught in a six-pack of beer.’ But it just goes to make the point that lingerie myths are alive and well and as the chaps in corsets concluded ‘girls’ don’t need to be wearing clothes that aren’t comfortable.  We agree - lingerie worn by women for men is rarely worth it, which is why we stock lingerie that women love to wear and men love to see women in!

How to shop online for Valentine’s Day lingerie with your lover

If you’re fed up with receiving the kind of Valentine’s Day gift that makes you cringe or smirk, perhaps this is the year to get organised. By which we mean, set the scene with candles, something good to drink and some music you both find sexy, and then sit and shop for your Valentine’s Day gifts to each other online. There’s some evidence that shopping for sexy gifts is mutually rewarding - not only does picking out a sensual gift together create sexual anticipation but the process of choosing sexy underwear as a couple creates clearer communication and more powerful bonds.

There’s another reason to shop together online - it helps you learn each other’s fantasy vocabulary. Fantasy is one of those strange areas, we all know what we like, but explaining it, even to ourselves, let alone to somebody else can be complicated. This means that discussing why you like the look of something can open up new areas of your relationship. It means you develop a shared language about what turns you both on and stops you being so subtle that your partner can’t actually be certain what you want.

Finally, our love of sexy things will evolve and change throughout our lives, and shopping online allows us to explore new ideas without feeling too challenged. So if your lingerie life begin with a silk nightie, it might still evolve to quite specialist and kinky undies, whilst for those who already have a rich and varied range of lingerie items, there are always other kinds of experience to try such as our MaskedDesires kit with a range of elegant accessories to develop your fantasy life.