Lingerie: This season is about luxury and individuality

November 14, 2011 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News

By Constance Harris
Monday Nov 14 2011

As a fashion editor for many years, I have seen much beauty, glamour and wealth.

Yet, for all the stunning looks, houses and jewels I’ve encountered, the only element I’ve ever truly coveted of these so-called fabulous lives is the beautiful lingerie that some of these wealthy women have.

There is something deeply exquisite about a woman’s body in luxurious lingerie. Complexity of garments, delicate lace, sensuous silk-satin, warmed and moulded to her curves, make beauty of the female form. Lingerie truly is an art dedicated to a woman’s body, if not to her very essence.

Earlier this week, looking at the unusually constructed Stella McCartney chemises and briefs in burgundy silk-satin on the lingerie floor of Brown Thomas, Dublin, I had one of those lingerie-lust epiphanies that I normally only experience when in the presence of La Perla. I could well imagine how Stella’s creations would look on and how good the feeling would be.

It is interesting to notice that over the last few years, as we live through a period of retrospection, lingerie is reflecting that in succinct design. In the previous decade, lingerie was about performance: all show, less about the woman’s soul. In this decade, it is meaningful, interior, and private. It is about true beauty.

“People want the feeling of wearing beautifully crafted lingerie. They’re looking for luxury fabrics and detail. They’re looking for something very special,” Kathy Murray, Group Buying Director for Cosmetics, Lingerie, Living and Interiors at Brown Thomas, told me.

Divided in two parts, one area of Brown Thomas’s lingerie floor is dedicated to functional, yet beautiful, daywear lingerie and support wear by brands such as Wacoal, Lejaby, Spanx, Freya, Chantelle, and more, while the other section is all about luxury and individuality.

Apart from the truly stunning Stella McCartney collection, here you will find exquisite pieces by Aubade, Myla, and Mimi Holliday by Damaris, which opens a pop-up shop in the store from November 25.

This season’s key colours are burgundy, navy, purple and black. Brown Thomas does lingerie from 28A and upwards to F- and G-cup, and will do special orders, too.

Kathy is an advocate of telling your lingerie specialist about your wardrobe and your needs. “Your shape changes as you age. Once the fit is correct, everything else is layers. Your lingerie should do an amazing job for you. So getting regularly fitted is important,” she said.

To be better, feel better and be the beautiful woman you are

- Constance Harris