underwear

Fashion
Can Indiana Handle Sexy Fashion?
September 13, 2016
charles i. letbetter - is indiana ready for sexy fashion

Fashion is here to help make people look very important. If they have good taste and choose what suits them, I give them options on how they can do that. It’s always sexy, and it’s always with the same result: making women look fantastic. —Vivienne Westwood

 

charles i. letbetter - Is Indiana Ready for Sexy Fashion

We’re seeing a lot of sexy looks on the New York runways, but will they work in the Midwest and, if one dares, what are the social ramifications?

New York fashion is different from what we see in the other three fashion capitals, London, Milan, and Paris. Fashion here doesn’t have 150-year-old brands with house aesthetics that can’t be breached. New York fashion tends to run more current, more realistic, more “street,” and more accessible. Yes, we have some designers who make lovely red-carpet gowns. We also have a handful that are very experimental. For the most part, though, New York designers like to keep it real with collections that run from casual daywear to luxurious eveningwear with something for just about everyone.

That “something for everyone” approach may have gotten American fashion into trouble, though. A recent article in Fast Company explores how major American brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren have lost their luster. Speculation in the article runs along the lines that the labels spread themselves too thin, discounted too much. In trying to be everything to everyone, they risk becoming nothing.

Business of Fashion questions whether Tommy Hilfiger’s partnership with model Gigi Hadid was enough to revive a brand that’s no longer cool. Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren announced this morning they’re moving to the popular see-now, buy-now concept. What we’re actually seeing on the runway, though, is that New York brands are being much sexier.

Mentioning The Unmentionables

I’ve mentioned multiple times this past week in our reviews on Pattern that we’re seeing a lot of bras on the runway this season. While that’s not too unusual for brands such as Desigual, and certainly understandable for labels such as Chromat, we’re not as accustomed to seeing them from designers such as Jill Stuart, Altuzarra, and Jason Wu. Victoria Beckham even designed her entire collection around the bra concept.

Then, we’re seeing a lot more sheer this season. Sheer has been a normal part of European design for several seasons. American designers have tended to stay away, though, because many community decency laws would prohibit them being worn without a camisole or something else underneath. However, as I’m typing this, I just finished watching a Very Wang show in which half the collection was sheer, and not necessarily in the most modest of ways. We’ve seen a tremendous amount more sheer this season than ever before.

Some are blaming the exhibitionism encouraged by photo-sharing sites such as Instagram. While almost all the sites prohibit outright nudity, the closer one gets to exposing everything the more one’s list of followers increases. More followers mean more sponsorships so seeing models in their underwear is a relatively normal occurrence. Fashion designers would seem to be merely following that trend and taking the look to the street. The question is, are the streets ready for the look?

Will It Play In Indy?

With all these new, sexy looks dominating the runways, the question becomes one of whether Indiana women are interested in wearing these clothes, will they be able to find them in local stores, and if they do, what are the social and legal implications? Here’s where I would like to start a serious dialog because, quite honestly, I’m not sure of the answers. I would like to think that people can wear whatever they want and not have to worry about it. We all know that’s not the reality of the situation, though.

I do know that some buyers for local department stores stay away from current season clothing in part to give people here some time to become comfortable with what is being worn on the coast. As they see their favorite celebrities dressing a certain way, Midwestern shoppers then become more interested in mimicking those styles. However, that process takes a while, As a result, some stores routinely stock fashion that is off by a season or two. Not everyone is that way, though. Fast fashion stores such as H&M are more likely to duplicate whatever is selling best on the two coasts.

The  Midwest has a well-deserved reputation for dressing more conservatively. Even as people see their favorite celebrities dress certain ways, is that enough to convince people to cross social barriers that have existed for generations? Are women okay with wearing a light jacket open with nothing under it but a bra? Or consider the low-plunging hoodies shown at DKNY. Are local gyms likely to be tolerant of women wearing sports gear that is intentionally sexy? There are a lot of open questions that probably need to be answered.

Let’s Start Talking

These are almost all spring/summer looks that are doing the boundary pushing. Designers doing current season are keeping people bundled up so the issues are not too pressing. We have time to talk. I would love to see Indianapolis be a safe place for people to wear anything, anytime. For that to happen, though, we all need to be talking with each other. Perhaps Polina can help us start a conversation with city officials so everyone is clear on exactly what is legal without getting into trouble. I also wouldn’t mind seeing a conversation between shop owners and store buyers as to what their criteria might be for stocking new fashion this next spring.

There is a lot of really great fashion coming up for this spring/summer. Why should those opportunities be limited only to those who live on either coast? And as Indianapolis continues to draw ever-growing numbers of people here for conventions and trade shows, we increase the likelihood that people visiting will have some of these more forward-thinking styles in their suitcases. How will the city respond to them?

Watching fashion shows is a lot of fun, but ultimately I want to see people actually wearing some version of what I see on the runway. Are you ready Indy? Here comes the sexiest fashion we’ve seen!

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Advertising  /  Current Issues  /  Just For Fun
Friday Follies
April 29, 2016
charles i. letbetter - Firday Follies

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies – it is the first law of nature. —Voltaire

 

charles i. letbetter - Friday Follies

Oh, wait, we forgot to talk about a few things

Oh geeze, it’s Friday already. How did this happen? The lawn needs to be mowed, the house is a mess, the laundry is piled up and I don’t have anything thawed for dinner. I’m so behind on editing I don’t even want to think about it at this point. On top of that, there are no fewer than a dozen topics on my board that we haven’t had a chance to talk about this week. Writing takes up a lot of time and there just hasn’t been enough of that time available.

So, since most everything is somewhat timely, let me see how many of these follies I can reduce and get into one article. You can click the links for full stories in most cases. Or not.

Leica announced a new stripped-down version of its digital camera that sounds exactly like what I need. No LCD screen, no stupid video eating up battery, no wildly high ISOs, none of the stupid filters and shit that all the amateurs think make their cameras cool. This is a real photographer’s camera. One has to know what they’re doing and not rely on presets and the “auto” setting. I like the look and sound of this camera. What I don’t understand, though, is why the damn thing costs over $5,000! With all the nonsense stripped down I would expect a price significantly lower. I  was all ready to put one on my shopping list until I saw the damn price tag.

I’ve always thought that, being a child of the 60s and 70s, we grew up with some of the best music ever written. Now, there seems to be some evidence that as, for the first time ever, older catalog music is outselling new music.  Some are trying to blame this on streaming services while others say that the whole retro vinyl thing is a factor. To an extent, both arguments may have some validity to them. But, the bottom line, and we all know it, is that older music is just better. Only a fool would choose Taylor Swift over the Beatles or Stones, One Direction over AC/DC or Three Dog Night. We had the best music ever, and now even the kids are beginning to recognize that fact.

Durham, NC ad agency McKinney has the perfect response to their home state’s controversial HB2 law: flush it. To make that action more accessible to people, they’ve printed HB2 on toilet paper. The rest should be self-explanatory. The only problem with the concept is they didn’t seem to make any provision for it being widely  accessible. If you write the company, they might send you a roll. You should know what to do with it.

Funniest thing I’ve seen on Twitter all week:

Speaking of funny, if you’ve not followed Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County on Facebook this week, you’ve missed a special collection of real gems. Since Breathed decided to publish his work on Facebook rather than through the creative-squashing syndicate, we’ve seen some delightfully wonderful strips, but this week has taken the hairball (so to speak) as the cartoonist stretched Monday’s World Penguin Day into a full week. Well, almost. Bill the Cat got his dues in today. Still, this week’s strips have been a prime example of why Breathed is a treasured talent.

There, that clears out the most important stuff. Follies are best on Friday, I suppose. That’s the only way the alliteration works. There are still a couple of scraps lying around, but I’ll leave those in case I get desperate over the weekend. The grass on the lawn isn’t getting any shorter with me sitting here. Not that I’m going to cut it. I just need to find someone in the neighborhood who can use an extra $4.37.

Follies. Hehe.

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Advertising  /  Fashion
Fashion + Advertising = Porn
January 13, 2016
charles i. letbetter - fashion, advertising, porn

What we see in advertisements is just selling fake dreams, fake things, this impossible beauty. I think we have to be honest. Yeah, this is an ad, we’re selling shoes. But it’s in an interesting way, and people smile.– Nicola Formichetti, creative director, Diesel

 

charles i. letbetter - fashion advertising porn

Can people not wearing clothes actually sell clothes?

Diesel‘s creative director, Nicola Formichetti, has had a peek at your browser history. He knows where you really spend your time, and now he’s going to make sure you’re seeing ads for his clothing while you’re there.

Of course, the majority of people who are regular visitors to the sites Formichetti is targeting, Tinder, Grindr, PornHub, and YouTube, actively deny that they have ever been there. Yet, somehow, PornHub is the 66th most visited website in the world. People on Tinder swipe left or right 1.4 billion times a day. Grindr has 7 million users. Clearly, someone is visiting these websites and they’re visiting them often. But, even with the high traffic numbers, does it make sense to sell underwear next to ads for penis enlargement scams?

“We’re a sexy brand. To support the launch of our underwear line, we’re going to be the first brand to ever advertise on Grindr and we’re the first fashion brand to be working with Pornhub, too. The message is simple: before you jerk off look at this,” Formichetti says with a wink. I don’t think I want to know how hands on Formichetti was with this research. Is the natural marriage of fashion and advertising really porn?

Okay, before we get too terribly upset and all the prudes on the planet swear they’ll never buy Diesel, let’s do a reality check. Number one, if you are truly offended, chances are pretty good you aren’t a Diesel customer anyway. “We’re not scared of these places, we’re not high fashion. We are street,” Formichetti says, and he’s right. Diesel sells denim, not silk.

Second, only one set of underwear ads is going to run on the aforementioned websites. The remainder of the campaign can be seen in all the typical places. Formichetti is very much aware of what’s going on in the digital world, though, and is very comfortable using it to the brand’s advantage. If he sees a website capturing an obscene number of viewers, chances are he’s going to put an ad there.

Third, he’s neither the first nor the only designer to make a connection between fashion and adult material. Remember the pole dancers at Alexander Wang‘s show last season? And just recently, JW Anderson, not typically considered the sexiest brand on the planet, streamed its menswear show on Grindr to the largest online audience the brand has ever seen. Fashion is taking a very sexy turn that may well challenge Tom Ford’s Gucci ads for raw sex appeal. Fashion ads have long been criticized by more conservative segments of society as being porn, so why not embrace it?

Luxury brands have struggled this past year and there’s not a brand in the industry that hasn’t considered what it might have to do to turn sales around. Some are switching creative directors. Others are swapping ad agencies. Still others are employing runway gimmicks and media tie-ins to garner attention. That Formichetti would follow the digital trail to adult-oriented websites fits with the “try anything” attitude currently dogging designers.

Once again, Formichetti tries to explain his reasoning. “I want to portray the world we live in today, and the people in it – so it’s very important that we have different genders, body types, colours, that’s our norm. And then we all live through the phone and the computer, so I wanted to be honest about that.”

Be sure, every other designer is gong to be watching to see whether the porn approach works. If it does, we may just see clothing ads next to naked people on a more regular basis.

charles i. letbetter - fashion, advertising, porn

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Fashion  /  PotD
All About The Booty
July 9, 2015
charles i. letbetter

charles i. letbetter

Painted Angels (2010)

“The bottom of a cup of coffee is not as good as the bottom of her body—which is actually in the middle of her body.” ― Jarod Kintz, I love Blue Ribbon Coffee

[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]Boy shorts.
Briefs.
French cut.
Hipsters.
Bikini.
Thong.
G-string.

Covering women’s posteriors is a style of fashion all its own. In contemporary society, no part of the female anatomy is more celebrated than is the gluteus maximus and the underwear chosen often has a specific purpose and, perhaps, even a non-verbal message. When it comes to what sits between them and their jeans, women are often quite picky. Sure, there are certain stages in life where one might only be concerned with which pair is clean as they stumble out of bed, but for the majority choosing underwear is a matter of both comfort and practicality. Sensual qualities may be a secondary consideration, but no one wants a pair of underwear that doesn’t fit well and results in chaffing, no matter how good it might look.

For men in a relationship, the matter of women’s underwear is dangerous and threatening territory. One day she’s wearing a thong, which he finds attractive and sexy. The next day she’s wearing briefs, aka granny panties, and he’s confused why she would choose a look so much more conservative and decidedly not sexy. When she wears something french cut and lacy, he may find them more challenging to remove during a moment of passion. And if he goes shopping with her for new underwear, the inevitable question of, “do these make my butt look big,” looms like a guillotine above his head.

Yes, not every woman bothers with underwear. We get that. But most do and for many what they wear down there may be a more significant matter than what they wear over it.[/one_half]

[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]From a position of pure practicality, each style has it’s purpose. Boy shorts, for example, minimize panty lines when one is wearing a style that hugs one’s rear end. “That time of the month” is when many women choose briefs, though they also work with high-waisted pants and sometimes even come with some form of tummy control. The high cut of French cut panties works well with skirts and dresses that have slits up to there. Bikinis are always popular because they work with just about anything, though the elastic sometimes shows depending on the style. Low-rise jeans have made hipsters more popular as they provide the comfort of boy shorts without being visible. Thongs work for the tightest of clothing and G-strings are something one wears when one has to wear something but doesn’t really want anything.

As with any fashion style, variations abound and the type of fabric and finishing can play as much into the comfort and sexiness of any given piece. Not every style works on every body and figuring out what’s best changes as one ages. Life experience, childbirth, heredity, and even some medications can dramatically affect the shape and size of hips and surrounding muscles. There are times when no amount of diet and exercise can remove what an over-active thyroid has delivered. Lycra and similar fabrics work great for those who are athletic and active, but cotton breathes better and helps avoid certain infections. Every woman knows that there’s not just one type and one style that works for them.

One thing for certain, though, is that no matter what a woman is wearing on her bottom, people are going to always look on with admiration at a well-ensconced posterior. The Western world especially is so fascinated with booty that we sing about them. Song titles ranging from Queen’s “Fat-bottomed Girl” to Sir Mix-a-lot’s infamous “Baby’s Got Back,” and even Megan Trainer’s catchy “All About That Bass,” among dozens of others. With all that attention on their back sides, it’s no wonder that what women choose to wear there is a rather important matter.[/one_half_last]

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Fashion  /  PotD
A Shape That’s Unforgettable
July 8, 2015
charles i. letbetter

charles i. letbetter

Corsetted (2011). Model: Carrie Pennington

A girl should be two things: sexy and fabulous. –Coco Chanel

[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]Society seems to have always been obsessed with the shape of women’s bodies and women have always been looking for ways to alter their body shape to meet whatever the current fashions might dictate. Pretty much every body type imaginable has been “in” at one point in history or another. Never mind what might be natural or healthy, manipulating body proportions has been a consistent issue for women forever, presumably even dating back to the earliest cave dwellers. The ability to find a mate once depended on how a woman’s shape for her child-producing potential. If the woman didn’t meet that current standard, she could well be left out of the clan and would have to forage for herself. Women’s body issues go all the way back.

No one is exactly sure when women started undergarments designed to alter their shape, but there certainly have been many over the years. Petticoats and hoop skirts both created the illusion of broader hips while, presumably, protecting a woman’s purity. Precursors to the bra actually pushed down a woman’s breast to keep them from appearing too large. Most have, thankfully, gone so far out of style that they are now nothing more than museum pieces. Yet, at least since the 16th century, one piece has adapted and endured to become a cherished piece of a woman’s lingerie collection: the corset.

While there’s no documentation as to when corsets were first used, we do know that some of the earliest versions bordered on cruelty. The ribs were made of iron and pulled impossibly tight. Some speculation exists that they might have originally been meant as an orthopedic device, which makes a little sense despite the fact they were probably not very effective. By the mid-16th century, corsets, which were then known as stays, were more decorative and worn as external pieces over the bodice of a dress, but by a century later they were demoted strictly to underwear, beneath the bodice or other clothing.[/one_half]

[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]Corsets softened considerably and became much more kind during the 18th century, though pulling one tight could be both comical to watch and deadly to experience. By the early 20th century, they were all but forgotten until photographer Horst P. Horst took the iconic photo of a woman in a corset that is the inspiration for today’s photo. That photograph brought new attention to the corset as a fashion piece with a number of variations being developed that were less restrictive to the abdomen and more supportive of the breasts.

Popularity waxed and waned over the mid-century decades, but then designer Jean-Paul Gaultier brought the corset back as an external garment in the 80s and they’ve not gone away since. Every season someone tries a slightly different variation, working them into styles from evening wear to casual streetwear. Look around and one can find a corset, or corset-type garment, for just about any occasion. They have almost become a standard part of a woman’s wardrobe and look sexy and alluring on many different body types, which give them a universal popularity.

We see a lot being said today about body shaming and its detrimental effects. While there is unquestionable validity to the movement, what ultimately matters is how a woman feels about herself. Corsets are attractive and for some women help them to feel more sexy and confident. While no one should ever feel forced to wear anything or feel obligated to look a certain way, one needs to feel good about themselves and corsets help do that. Whether over, under, or as the only garment, corsets produce a shape that is as unforgettable as the person wearing it.[/one_half_last]

 

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Fashion  /  PotD
All The Possibilities
July 5, 2015
charles i. letbetter

charles i. letbetter

Pondering Possibilities (2006)

I was the child who would leave school and take her clothes off the second I got into the house. I made my mom buy me lingerie when I was 5 years old. I was a sicko. My mother must have been mortified. -Alessandra Torresani

[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]Eleven billion dollars. Think about it. That’s how much revenue lingerie generated in 2014. Eleven billion dollars for bras, underwear, and related frilly things that cover less physical real estate than a bath towel. Oh, but we love every minute of it. Since the mid-70s there hasn’t been an adolescent boy in the US or Britain that didn’t somehow manage to get his hands on the Victoria’s Secret catalog. Before that, there was always the Sears & Roebuck catalog, which could get surprisingly racy for two or three very important pages. Lingerie is that one thing on which both men and women are willing to spend severe amounts of money with rarely any complaints.

Okay, women complain more than men do. Bras are uncomfortable and depending on where purchased never seem to fit exactly right. Of course, lingerie shops counter that most women don’t know how to buy bras correctly. Most young men I know would happily volunteer to help women figure out just exactly how to find the perfect bra, but women have never been too terribly keen about taking them up on that offer. In fact, when I’ve specifically gone to a lingerie store to help a friend or model, the store hasn’t been all that accommodating to my services. Lingerie clerks seem to doubt our intentions. I can’t possibly imagine why.

Still, lingerie is one of those things on which most men and women can agree help define sex appeal. As much as we might find nudity enticing, there is still something about the tease, about the hint of what might be there without actually seeing it, that drives men crazy and elevates a woman’s self-confidence. I would dare say that with the right lingerie a  woman can get a man to do her complete bidding with eagerness without the poor sap ever realizing the degree to which he is being manipulated. Lingerie puts women all the more securely in the driver’s seat for any sexual activity their lover may desire with an element of beauty and fashion that is every bit as high-end as the fanciest evening gown.[/one_half]

[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]Yes, there is the practical aspect of lingerie. Some women need bras to help prevent sagging, especially after they’ve nursed a child or 15. Some women use bras to make up for the fact there really isn’t much there to hold. Others use lingerie to help define their shape and there are even lingerie pieces that help those who’ve had surgeries maintain a sense of femininity. Not everything within the lingerie segment is meant to be sexually enticing. In fact, the practical element is most likely the larger part of that eleven billion dollars, though if there are any real numbers in that regard I couldn’t find them.

Still, say the word lingerie and it is the sensual side of the business to which our minds most immediately turn. We think of lace, silk, and satin, carefully design and crafted to entice, to capture our attention, and arouse our senses. We want lingerie to be sexy whenever possible. No one likes wearing boring underwear, though every woman has some. There are, after all, laundry days, or that time of the month when the last  thing one wants is to attract attention on which one cannot follow through. Women would much rather slip on the silk and the lace, to feel the soft fabric next to their even softer skin, and to think throughout the day about the encounter that might come at the end of the day.

So, this week we look at lingerie and consider just a few of the more common possibilities. We won’t cover everything, mind you, and if you look around the Internet you’ll find plenty of lingerie designers that even more enticing and provocative than Victoria’s Secret ever thought of being. Lingerie gives women the chance to be naughty beneath their nice, soft beneath the hard, and sensual beneath the strict. What could possibly be more wonderful? We hope you won’t miss a day![/one_half_last]

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