Friday 28 October 2016

Online lingerie shopping & Halloween Lingerie

Online lingerie shopping

While Huff Post has an article on buying underwear in your 50s and 60s, where the author says, “I feel invisible when I walk into one of America’s most famous lingerie chains. I don’t exist as a customer.” we’d say that online lingerie shopping was invented for just such circumstances! That’s why we work so hard to describe our online underwear as clearly as possible, so all our shoppers can find just what they’re looking for, because nobody’s invisible to us!

Halloween lingerie

Halloween is upon us, and so is sexy, scary, lingerie! If you’ve already got your Trick or Treating costume picked out, and feel confident about what you’re going to wear to your Halloween party, we have an extra suggestion - get into Halloween underwear!

This is an entirely grown-up activity, not mean for anybody but your lover to observe and as such you can afford to push the boundaries of your relationship. Let’s look at some obvious choices:

Witch

Dressing up as a witch is easy enough, but rather than going for the old hag, or even Maleficent, strike out into true witch territory - something like a sheer gown (Black Illusion is perfect for witchery) with long gloves and high heeled boots allows you, and your partner, to explore your inner power. Allow your hidden dominatrix to emerge and give your partner commands as if you’ve got him, or her, under your spell!

Devil

The two things that everybody knows about the Devil are (a) he has all the best tunes and (b) he makes deals for souls. A rich red body stocking gives you the winning hand when it comes to making a deal with your lover - offer kisses and caresses in return for them doing something for you, and have a list of rewards they can earn. So, if they agree to perform a striptease, you do something sexy for them in return Ramp up your rockin’ tunes and start the action!

Zombie King

Oh yes, if you really want to find out who and what you are, Halloween is the perfect time to swap roles and try out other genders. Zombie King is a fantastic bedroom role play as it puts all the power in the hands of the woman who’s dressed up as the man. Buy some pale foundation and make yourself up to look half-dead, in the sexiest possible way! For an adult costume ee favour a black suit with pasties and a pair of men’s underwear underneath. Strengthening your imagination by wearing the underwear of the opposite sex can give you a whole new perspective on your love life.

The whole point of designing a costume rather than buying one is you get to explore what you think is sexy, who you want to be and who you’d like your partner to be, just for this one night when everything is possible!


Wednesday 5 October 2016

Lingerie displays past and present

There’s something very special about lingerie - and we’re not the only ones to think so. One lingerie store in Abingdon is sharing its history with the whole town. A display at the County Hall Museum will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the shop which was originally opened in 1936 and has undergone four different ones and a change of location.

The exhibition will include pieces of lingerie dating back to the Victorian era, old underwear advertisements and show how the history of lingerie, nightwear and corsetry has changed over eight decades. The special show runs until September 15.

Lingerie as outer-wear … or not?

Business Insider UK has been consolidating responses to a recent Victoria’s Secret campaign in which models appeared to be wearing lingerie as daywear. In one a model wears a slip like a dress, along with a handbag over her arm. Commentary on the campaign has been quietly ironic through to outright outraged. One person wrote ‘You're off your rocker Victoria's Secret’ while another said ‘Stop it, Victoria's Secret. I love your brand, but your advertising is ridiculous!’ and a third claimed that the advertising must be the brainchild of a man. ‘This must be a man's idea in your leadership team. What's next, walking around in our panties?’ Finally, responding to a picture under the heading ‘The (un)dress code’ showing a model in a burgundy bustier under a coat, one clearly sardonic commentator labelled the look, ’How to get fired,' by Victoria’s Secret.

So what’s our view? Well women have been increasingly wearing lingerie as daywear, especially showing stylish camisoles as streetwear, and that’s likely to be a trend that remains, But for us, one of the joys of underwear is that you can NSFW something into the workplace that you’d never get away with if it wasn’t covered up by your serious workwear or standard uniform.

Our current fave ‘undercover lingerie’ picks for autumn are

1.    The rich red Antinea camisole by Lise Charmel - under a dark top, this lush lingerie gives you a sense of utter abandoned luxury
2.    Gothic elegance as provided by our black mesh and scroll corset - this is such a joy because you can wear it under almost anything and know that your nipped in waist and alluring curves give no hint of the romantic corsetry beneath
3.    Stunningly sexy (and surprisingly comfy) Roza Genizes shorty briefs - even under jeans, these lovely lacy briefs  bring a sense of grown-up joy in the most laid-back situation.


So if you’re in the autumn slump and wondering how to get over the end-of-summer blues, we’d recommend investing in something lovely in lingerie that can give you endless pleasure in the working day. It makes it almost worth putting away your bikini, exfoliating away your tan, and accepting the lure of winter clothing. 

Glamour, power and outrageous panties - October opens with lingerie sizzlers

Underwear that’s not safe to hang out?


It may depend on how old you are. An anonymous (and poorly educated) neighbour has taken a pair of Rosamund Perrin's knickers of her rotary dryer and posted them back through the letterbox with a note reading, It is total inapropiate (sic) for this type of garment to be displayed opposite the village primary school. There are member of this community that would welcome a halting of this.

Ros is 65 and a grandmother, but her chic scanties (black frills with a small white bow, very much like our Coquette retro ruffle shorts) might be expected to belong to a much younger woman which might be one reason that the prude took action. Whatever the motivation, when Ros’s daughter posted the ill-spelt note online, with a picture of the knickers, she received overwhelming support for the idea that women should wear, and hang out, whatever underwear they fancy. As one neighbour put it, Such scandalous behaviour: wearing knickers, washing knickers and then drying knickers on the line! Tut tut. Best go knickerless maybe?” Whilst another resident of the Devon village has been inspired to verse:

Roz hung out a line of her frillies,
But a neighbour had a touch of the sillies,
To complain about knickers,
Quite clearly not the vicar’s,
Twas enough to give a lady the willies.

Of course we’re totally in favour of women wearing whatever they fancy, and hanging it out in public too!

Making a business out of underwear


Elle Macpherson has always been a fan of underwear and she had a 25 year association with Bendon, for whom she designed lingerie under licence. This year she’s launched a new bra and briefs business called Elle Macpherson Body with a friend and business partner Simon De Winter. Elle’s comments on setting up an underwear business are true for all women, which is why we thought they were worth sharing. “I find it incredibly fulfilling to be a co-partner and co-owner in a joint ventures …” she said. "You have to find your co-dreamers. People that understand your vision, share your vision and help bring it to life. I believe in co-operation, I believe in collaboration and I believe in commitment. In any partnership those values are really important. Having great advisers is important but more than anything, having people that are equally inspired by what you're doing is key.”


That’s as true when hanging our your washing as when setting up a business empire - being able to rely upon people who share your point of view and believe is you is crucial, which is one reason that we believe our online lingerie shop is more than just a place to buy underwear, we aim to be a resource for empowered women of every age and size, for men who like to wear underwear with a little pizazz, and for every couple, of every configuration, to have a place to browse lingerie without pressure.