Brag it like Beyoncé and what to expect from your new lingerie

When Queen B announced she was expecting twins, the world went a little insane. The photograph of her in powder blue panties and a burgundy bra (and veil) is now the most popular Instagram picture ever with more than 8.5 million likes. The iconography of the photographs relates to Oshun, the Nigerian Goddess who is particularly associated with fertility and twins.

Pregnancy shoots are becoming a really big business - so how do you look your best when pregnant in lingerie? Beyoncé gave us many clues:

Work with colour - deep, rich or vibrant colours are perfect for the blooming nature of a pregnancy photo shoot so pick underwear that will flatter your skin tones and bring a touch of drama to the pictures. We love the sophisticated blues in the Lise Charmel ‘Sonate en Bleu’ bra which is also a pregnancy winner, being beautifully constructed to offer good support.

Don’t be scared of frills - as Beyoncé demonstrated, this is the time to demonstrate your ultra femininity. Ruffled panties enhance your curves and look romantic rather than overtly sexy, so they are a great accessory to the celebration of your womanly fertility.

Flowers everywhere - the flower wall has become ubiquitous since the Kim and Kanye wedding shoot, but there’s no doubt that a mass of flowers provides a stunning effect and in terms of a pregnancy photo also creates the visual association with ‘blooming’ and ‘flowering’ which is so evident in Beyoncé’s picture. If you can’t afford an entire flower wall, or even a floral halo, consider one big vase of bright exotic flowers like Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise) or passionflowers, where both the flower and its name create the right association in the viewer’s mind.

Lingerie 2018

The Interfiliere exhibition in Paris just showed us what we can expect to see in lingerie trends next year and its pretty exciting. While athleisure is continuing to influence the way that underwear is constructed, there’s a new tendency to focus on colour and decoration, with contrasting bold embroidery with more ‘urban’ themes than we’ve seen to date. Many wonderful designs featured a contrast of subtle colours with bright ones, particularly to emphasise ‘zoning’ in the design of each garment.

There’s also a lot of development in new fabrics such as Naia which is constructed from wood pulp made from certified sustainably managed forests and bamboo, which is being blended with elastic fabrics to create a stretch fabric that is environmentally friendly. Look out for bamboo and wood pulp knickers which are touted as being more body friendly (less risk of thrush) than artificial fabrics.

Finally, there’s a strong tendency to move towards more sophisticated colour blends such as grey with yellow, navy and grey and green with watermelon pink. These colour-ways are linked to the new shapes, such as asymmetric lace panelling and hems made in technical fabrics to create the illusion movement in underwear that is also supportive - a welcome trend after a period in which garment architecture has been largely static.