Lingerie - what’s hot and what’s not for summer 2016

Underwear fashion seems to largely depend on where you live!

In Ireland it’s all about dark colours, apparently, according to this online article which had one member of the Lingerie UK team dashing home to try out the tip about the red bra under the white T-shirt (yes it works but only ‘sort of’, you can definitely see something under the white but somehow the eye doesn’t really pick out the lines of the bra, also the quality of the T-shirt really matters, a Primark top might as well have been see-through while a Gap cap-sleeved T-shirt was completely opaque to the red brassiere). When it comes to wine coloured lingerie, we are all in favour - as an example our made-to-measure Jane Woolrichburgundy corset is absolutely stunning.

As for plunge bras, we never noticed that they had gone out of fashion - whilst the high street retailer might not have seen these as a consistent seller, for specialist online lingerie retailers like www.lingerie.co.uk this bra style has been a constant. This year our top pick is the Aria Pastel plunge bra from Lise Charmel … it’s so pretty it’s like a flower strewn picnic blanket on a summer’s day!

India has a different take on lingerie

It’s very often the case that Indian fashion news doesn't get covered much in the West, which we think is a shame. So over in New Delhi the claim is that wave prints, marine themes and yellow and orange are key colours whilst camisoles as outerwear are also ‘hot’.

We love the beach vibe discussed in this article but we often find that too much beach can cause you to blend into the background - seriously, in a marine themed bikini on a seahorse printed breach towel with a palm-print cover up you run the risk of becoming scenery!  We prefer the idea of standing out from your surroundings by blending beach friendly colours such as sand, gold, turquoise and marine green with glorious contrasts such as fuchsia pink and hot animal prints. That’s why we like leopardskin swimsuits, for example. And when it comes to cover-ups, what could be better than a feminine sarong in crisp white and at such a bargain price?

So whether it’s Ireland or India, we believe that we’ve got your fashion bases covered!

Underwear as art, lingerie as work-wear, how do you work your underwear?

There’s a theme to this week’s blog - the story of how underwear emerges into outerwear.

Pokemon panties

First, the 20th anniversary of the annoyingly cute Pikachu is being celebrated in Japan with a licensed underwear range including shorts, underpants, a cap (?) and a sleep mask … more than anything else this leaves us asking questions about the habits of the Japanese - we sort of get the sleep mask but underwear lines don’t usually include caps. The mind boggles as it so often does when exploring the peculiar world of the Japanese psyche.

Underwear of the stars

Although to be fair, most of us have some habits that we’d rather not talk about. You know what we mean, the things you do in your scanties that you’d never reveal to the world. Then again, others of us spend a lot of our time making sure the world knows about our lingerie. Instagram appears to have been just about invented for women to appear in their undies. As an example ….while people are still talking about Kim Kardashian’s lingerie dress which totally overshadowed whoever’s wedding she actually wore it too, here at lingerie.co.uk we’ve been quietly fascinated by a different news story - Mariah Carey’s pizza-making outfit. Oh yes, lingerie and pizza making (not eating) is a thing now.

Should you feel the need to cook in your robe, we’ve picked out two that we think fit the bill being as tasty as the food you’ll be producing. First up, Diki’sMimi nightdress and robe, made to order out of gorgeous lace, this is an outfit that you won’t want to splash tomato sauce on - just gorgeous for those red hot days when you don’t want to get dressed too early though. Second, for cooler weather and those gothic midnight feasts, Liliana Casanova offers the stunning Fontainebleaudressing gown, also made to order but featuring a waterfall of mousseline silk and toning lace, this is a flattering garment for all.

Underwear as art

And the final thing we’re talking about this week is a new Zoe Buckman show (in LA sadly so we won’t get to see it in the flesh) in which she has embroidered the lyrics of two rap stars - Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur - on vintage underwear to explore the dichotomy between attitudes to women in the media. The show, as usual, is staggeringly beautiful with lacy panties, flowery robes and even stockings displayed bearing lines like “I swear I’ll never call you bitch again” and “Ain’t that a slut, hell yeah, she even take it in the butt” to reveal the tension between empowerment and disenfranchisement, often in the same song. You can find details of the show online and it’s a fascinating tour through the kinds of language and objectification that many women experience every day, and the range of messages received by women about their places in the world, male expectation, the power of labelling and even the nature of garments to enhance, constrain and carry information about the wearer and what is expected of them. 

British models in the limelight - a eventful end to April with www.lingerie.co.uk

Classroom lingerie controversy

Until very recently, Gemma Laird worked as a teaching assistant in County Durham. But when parents from the school discovered she was a model for Lexi Fashions, they reported her to the school, after which the 21 year old says she was fired. The photographs of Gemma included pictures of her in cocktail dresses and lingerie which seems to have been the problem.

The school’s head teacher said that it was a failure of social media use that couldn’t be ignored as it broke the schools guidelines on appropriate images. It’s a tricky scenario, isn’t it? We all want the right to do as we please but we also want young people to be protected from images or experiences that might threaten or disturb them.

Wedding lingerie tips 

April is the biggest selling month for wedding underwear apparently. We have a few tips on how to get the perfect wedding lingerie for your big day:

1.    Choose your dress and lingerie together - it’s important to have your dress fittings with your wedding lingerie on, as underwear can really affect the fit of your dress

2.    Don’t feel compelled to pick white, or even ivory or cream - for many brides a shell pink, nude or even a primrose lingerie set may be a better idea than a stark white or off white.

3.    Get your bra fitted by an expert and be prepared to go down a size before the big day! Many brides who lose weight will find that it goes from their cleavage quicker than anywhere else, so if you’re somebody who becomes skinny through nerves, it’s a brilliant idea to be sure your favourite bra comes in a small cup size, just in case …

4.    A body or corset can define your shape and help you look more curvy. It’s a real investment garment and choosing a new body or corset for your wedding is one way of being certain that you’ll wow as much with your wedding dress off as you did with it on!

Lingerie limelight

This week we’re celebrating Nicola Griffin, the latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue model - at the age of 56. The British model says that she had no idea she was being photographed for Sports Illustrated and equally had no idea how big the magazine was in the USA. As she puts it herself, she’s still in shock! But she’s also excited about the effect her image might have, ‘Young girls open magazines and it influences them so much about body image. I particularly think it's very good for them to see different sized women, because otherwise they can feel bad about themselves if they don't look like the models they are constantly viewing.’

We loved her photo shoot, her confidence and her beautiful relaxed face. And if you’re half in love with that gold swimwear, we’d like to introduce you to our shiny copper flower bikini - there’s no doubt that metallics are going to be big on the beach this summer and we’re willing to bet that you’ll wow the world in our beautiful, very feminine, micro-bikini.