Lingerie: a LOVE affair
I’m NOT a hooker. I’m just hooked on the equipment. I can no longer even close my chest of drawers, because of the lingerie waterfall that tumbles out of it. Underwear is my vice; I guess you could say I have an intimate relationship with my intimates. And somehow, with £2.48 billion spent on lingerie in 2006, I don’t think I’m the only one who is partial to this delicacy of dressing.
But this hasn’t always been the case; the role of lingerie within our wardrobes has fluctuated as violently as VPL have shifted about our behinds. So when did underwear surreptitiously slip into our consciousness as more than a necessity? And why now, has luxury lingerie become a staple of the fashionable woman’s diet?
The bra took the spotlight in Vogue for the first time in 1907, and since then its appearance and function have evolved practically every decade. Originally little more than a means to creating an outer body shape, early 20th century underwear was rather lacking in the aesthetics department. Creators such as J.B. Corsets and Gossard were even marketing lingerie as this one trick pony well into the 1950’s, with slogans such as ‘Gossard: the lady with a line’. They just didn’t mention that it was a pretty ugly sight once you crossed said line.
It was the sixties which saw the first steps taken towards our current fetish for fashionable underwear, with pioneers like Mary Quant beginning wander away from functional tradition to use modern and flexible fabrics like Lycra instead. Such materials allowed support, yet dared to look vaguely feminine; flouting its straight jacket ancestry. The seventies and eighties were dominated by these hybrid creations, seeing both women and their breasts through an enthusiastic assertion of feminism. And is here where the relationship began to deepen. Underwear was no longer simply functional; there was now an element of confidence, womanliness, and dare we say it: power, languishing in each bra cup.
Then boom. The nineties. And we were taken hard and fast by lingerie that was both lovely and Lolita. Agent Provocateur, Figleaves, Myla… exclusive underwear companies have since penetrated the fashion industry with alarming success. They offer women a new ideology for underwear: a concept of indulgence, romanticism and sexual allure, all feasibly hidden under office attire if need be. However more than anything, they offer choice. Long gone are the days of buying underwear simply to replace it, we now buy to expand our ‘collection’. And designers are now following suit, expanding their seasonal collections with additional lingerie lines, such as Stella Mc Cartney who launched her delicate floral range in February. The fact is; basics no longer cut it. Underwear has become an item of frivolity, lust, and female expression. It has even attracted celebrity endorsement, with big names like Kylie, Kelly Brooke and Elle Mc Phereson all slapping their names onto the rears of millions.
But with all this froufrou and frolic, has lingerie entirely lost its role as a solid building block for outer wear? This year’s trend for sheers and chiffons has to tell us no. Catwalks have been glistening with tantalizingly transparent creations that boast beautiful underwear at their core. What’s more, there is a definite leaning towards the original figure enhancing practicality of the fourties and fifties, with designers like Roberto Dell’Acqua creating large satin pants and straight talking pastel bras that shine through chic and sheer jackets. It seems therefore that we have simply re-appropriated the practicality of lingerie, as we once more expect it to play an explicit role in our outer appearance. Only really one minor change since the early 1900’s then; nowadays we prefer to flaunt ourselves full throttle.
Charlie Byrne
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July 14th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Nice first post – Welcome onboard!!