You’d be amazed the things we end up looking at in our search for all things lingerie to bring to our amazing underwear customers! This month we’ve got high finance, older models and an insight into what women in India are meant to be doing when they are actually buying lingerie online.
First, Yahoo! Finance reports that the global lingerie market has become increasingly significant to the overall apparel market. One of the biggest changes in recent underwear purchasing has been the growth of the bra - which now has the largest market share of all lingerie purchases. And online lingerie sales were the largest underwear selling market in 2015, outstripping traditional high street shops. Does anybody remember those old lingerie catalogues that used to be sent in a ‘plain brown envelope’? Well the growth of online lingerie sales has turned those vintage publications into collector’s items with a growing market auction market.
In the same week, the Times of India reports that toys and nappies are the gateway browse for premium lingerie being offered by Amazon India. It turns out that Amazon’s intensive data-mining process has discovered that Indian mothers who’ve gone online to search for toys or nappies end up buying posh underwear! To be honest, we’re not that surprised … while it might come as news to the Times of India, we know just how often women browse online lingerie stores …
One of our favourite stories this spring is that of Mercy Brewer, the fifty-six-year-old model who’s featured in a New Zealand company’s lingerie PR. It’s worth pointing out that Mercy is not a ‘newly discovered’ model, she was already working for the camera when she was in her twenties, but the lovely, natural photos that feature her reveal just how magnificent a woman in her fifties can look, without being airbrushed out of recognition.
As this has been a month that featured a lot of social media heat about the ‘unreality’ of the images that emerge from lingerie photo-shoots, we thought it would be worth looking in detail at what we can all take away from Mercy’s images:
• Less is more - camisoles and bodies worn under jeans, sexy stockings with ordinary skirts or dresses and beautiful bras revealed beneath an off-the-shoulder T-shirt are all fantastic ways to display your underwear to its best advantage. We’d choose the Ulla Carla body to replicate this picture of Mercy, as its subtle colour ways and rich fabric guarantee a stunning photo.
• Natural is best - at least when it comes to light. Working with natural light gives photographs an unforced, simple air which often rewards the older model.
• Don’t fear colour - but don’t shy away from black and white either! Bold underwear colours can be particularly splendid when worn by an older model, but at the same time, black and white photography is highly flattering and even in monochrome, those bright colours we were talking about will still stand out beautifully against your skin tone.
