Monday, November 27, 2006

I Dreamed ad fun

Maidenform Bra Ad satire--just how much a part of modern culture is the bra....


And the 2007 Maidenform Bra Ad calendar is for sale--maybe I'll get one....

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Fresh Pair

okay, this looks interesting enough to look at again--although it smacks of a continuous ad.

Update 14 June 2008:

As it turns out the blog was a short-lived (only about 5 months long) marketing campaign for Freshpair.com. It was left behind in the internet dust heap--there does not seem to be a shortage of storage space in cyberspace. The retail sight lives on & has "expert advice" on lingerie care, fitting, National Underwear Day and a glossary as well as clothing for men & women to buy & wear. It is a good, no frills American web-store for the practical, everyday underwear consumer--not a fancy luxury site with splashy graphics and in-house designers.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

The Modern Chastity Belt

making note of a great site (fashion-era.com) providing an overview of "The Fashion History of Undergarments".

Here's a product that is too bizarre not to be true: Forget-me-not panties at $100.00 a pair. They are all sold out--so says the site. Panties include GPS and biometric devices "make sure you will never be forgotten". Billed as a modern chastity belt for domineering male egos--or females wanting to play with their submissives.

After flipping through Flickr for a while I can say that there are many photographers shooting underwear portraits. Most are filler--even some with pretty girls. Camera as penis.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Virtual Lingerie Museum

Vintage clothing websites

Any history of women's underwear requires good reference materials. Going to the library or the museum is part of the job in getting the research done—making up stuff is fun, but not credible. Because the number of reference books available is almost none and collections are only found in urban settings my research is limited to the Internet.

What I've found is an array of sources. However, most of them do seem to be making up stuff; at best, the authors water down watered down information until it is meaningless. It can be like trying to understand the Bible from one of those tracts that appear in big box bathrooms sometimes. The few impressions that come through are so stilted and vague to not resemble religion.

So, I've begun to develop my own resource library—a dynamic museum for the development of modern underwear. There are a few scholarly collections scattered around, and a few researchers out there. Writers, those so far discovered, have two topics through which they trace this history: fashion and sociology/anthropology. (There are some who are collecting out of nostalgia.)

However, the bulk of the material for my collection is from the online collections of vintage lingerie retailers. The resulting linkdump is a compilation of web-based retailers of vintage underclothes. A list of shopkeepers stocking contemporary articles is beyond my scope. I also refrain from new items inspired, or even made from patterns, by vintage clothing. Although I would add a site listing patterns. Much of the material is for sale—and therefore dynamic. What is there today may be gone tomorrow.

These sites are listed in the order of when they turned up in my browser. I have tried to give brief description when it crossed my mind. If you know about other sites that could be listed drop an email & I'll check it out. I am not building a soft porn website and will not put up any listings that range into that area.

If you do not wish your site to be listed, or I've broken your copyright rules, let me know & down it will come.
last updated 20 April 2008.