Lingerie designers turning to art world for inspiration

By Richard Vincente

“I have always liked painters. It seems to me that we are in the same trade.”
~  French fashion designer Paul Poiret

Art and fashion have been inseparable ever since the first caveman decided to decorate his animal-hide wrap with a few charcoal stick figures.

But even the French couturier Poiret — whose affinity for artists and illustrators of the early 20th Century is well known — probably couldn’t have envisioned the way art (and artists) are influencing contemporary lingerie design.

In case you hadn’t noticed, artistic inspirations are showing up with increasing regularity in lingerie collections these days. Just what you need to feel like a living masterpiece.

Some established brands have been long admired for a painterly flourish that elevates their designs above boilerplate printmaking. I’m thinking of Natori’s exotic couture robes; the exquisite slips from Marjolaine; and even the floral wonderland that is Claire Pettibone‘s world — to name just a few.

More youth-oriented labels like Black Milk and Ed Hardy borrow heavily from pop art classics, while the new California brand Private Arts has a clever idea: creating undies that look like vivid urban graffiti.

Even mass-market brands are turning to the art world for ideas. A couple of years ago, Etam‘s resident model/muse Natalia Vodionova created a wonderful capsule collection based on folk art from her native Russia. And this year, Hanky Panky produced a print alternately known as the Matisse or the Impressionist. It doesn’t really look like anything Matisse painted, but its colorful swirls could be borrowed from his palette.

All of this suggests the awakening of a new sensibility in lingerie fashion, as designers (and their customers) experiment with new styles, colorways and prints that are meant to be savored and appreciated as artistic works in their own right.

And whether it’s coincidence or not, several design labels have found inspiration recently in the worlds of art and architecture, resulting in the creation of memorable hybrid garments that are like living canvases.

Spanish corsetiere extraordinaire Maya Hansen used digital reproductions of Renaissance portraits for her remarkable 2011 collection Queens of Spain, while the stylish British designer Nichole De Carle created bodies, bras and briefs that mimicked the graphic lines of great European cathedrals. Closer to home, Zinke created an original zigzag print (above) as the centerpiece of its new swim collection. If you look closely, you’ll see echoes of Frank Lloyd Wright and other art deco masters in the hypnotic pattern.

And then there are the truly unique modern hybrids that result from culturally inquisitive designers looking to make a personal statement — and push the boundaries of both fashion and art.

Teo Griscom, who owns the experimental New York label Unforeseen Circumstances, created original prints for her latest collection that are a tribute to the late primitivist painter Cy Twombly, whose abstract scrawls polarized the American art scene through the latter half of the 20th Century. Her efforts (see top photo) were made more poignant by the fact that Twombly himself died shortly before Griscom’s collection made its debut.

Arielle Shapiro of Ari Dein didn’t borrow an artist’s print for her spring 2012 lingerie collection; she immersed herself in the life and wanderings of Peggy Guggenheim, the quixotic heiress who assembled one of the world’s great modern art collections in the post-war years of the last century. Ari  channels Peggy’s spirit with a delicate collection in colors inspired by Venice, where the heiress spent most of her life.

The Romanian designer Ruxandra Gheorghe speaks volumes with deceptively simple graphic patterns in the latest collection from her Ludique label.  The pattern above was inspired by the iconic monuments of the great Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, whose Column of Endless Gratitude (right) was an homage to his country’s heroes from the First World War. (Although the shape on the brief looks like a diamond, it’s actually a clepsydra, a kind of ancient water clock.) That reference might be lost on Ludique‘s foreign customers, but for women in Romania these pieces make an impactful political and artistic comment.

And probably no label comes closer to marrying the worlds of lingerie fashion and modern art than The Lake & Stars, the super-brainy line adored by smart girls everywhere. You need a catalogue to keep track of the esoteric references and inspirations in their inventive designs, but one print from their spring collection really stands out.

The Superstudious original print shown above (right) was actually designed by New York artist Francesca DiMattio, whose surreal canvases (think M.C. Escher meets Picasso) involve layered, complex explorations of architecture and geometry — which is probably a fair description of The Lake & Stars‘ aesthetic, too. Is it any wonder that designers Nikki and Maayan call Francesca “their muse”?

What’s most exciting about all this is that the possibilities of such creative cross-pollination are endless … and probably just beginning.

Art bleeds into everyday life in innumerable ways; in fact, it’s an essential part of our experience. Your fashion choices are an expression of your engagement with the world around you. Is there any reason your underwear shouldn’t be part of that dialogue?

Of course, those of us who celebrate the artistic aspirations of lingerie design look forward to the day when this mixing of media doesn’t seem so unusual. And can the first gallery or museum exhibition of modern masterpieces in intimate wear (sorry, last year’s Gaultier exhibition doesn’t count) be far off?

Maybe not. Last weekend, during the alternative fashion week known as Fashion Art Toronto, Canadian artist Karey Shinn created a shredded bodysuit (above) for a runway performance piece called Cosmetic Green. It was, she said, a tribute to the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson‘s eco-bible Silent Spring and was, like so much else these days, heavily influenced by Alexander McQueen‘s radical mashups of fashion, art and culture.

“I am inspired to do this hybrid fashion event,” Karey said, “at a time when fashion designers, in their capacity as artists, are driving more people through the doors of art galleries around the world than conventional art shows. … This is a wonderful time to be an artist doing fashion.”

Learning to Embrace the Transgender Experience

by Richard Vincente

A year ago, a Toronto family made international headlines for their decision to not reveal the gender of their new baby to anyone outside the immediate family — in effect, raising a ‘genderless’ child.

It wasn’t a publicity stunt or provocation. The parents were highly educated and caring people who simply wanted their child to develop (at least in its early years) free from the gender-based behaviors, social codes and expectations that are imprinted on us from the moment we are given our first pink or blue booties.

As you might imagine, their story ignited howls of condemnation from around the globe. Nothing threatens the security of our social order more than people who mess around with gender, those two pigeon-holes we are all slotted into at birth.

I thought about that a lot this week when I published a feature article on Lingerie Talk about Chrysalis Lingerie, a new brand that will be North America’s first fashion lingerie label for transgender women when it launches this spring.

To be honest, I didn’t think most readers of Lingerie Talk (or Lingerie Briefs) would be future customers of Chrysalis, but their enterprise seemed important and deserving of attention. I braced for whatever criticism might follow.

Surprisingly, that article quickly became the most widely read piece we’ve done this year and was retweeted and syndicated all over the web. What was going on? And why would so many people care about what I thought was a niche product and a niche issue?

At about the same time, the discrimination faced by the transgender/transsexual community was getting exposure elsewhere.

In Vancouver, a contestant in Donald Trump’s Miss Universe Canada pageant was kicked out after it was learned she had been born a male and later underwent sex reassignment (or gender confirmation) surgery to live life as a female (she calls herself “a woman with a history” – how awesome is that?!). An online petition seeking Jenna Talackova‘s reinstatement has so far gathered more than 40,000 signatures. Watch for developments in this benchmark case next week.

Then, in another coincidence of timing, the Dr. Oz Show yesterday devoted an extraordinary hour to the challenges faced by TG/TS women and their families. If you didn’t see it, look for it: it was edge-of-your-seat television filled with tension, emotion and plenty of raw truth.

The most interesting person to watch on the program wasn’t one of the heroic women who came forward to tell their stories; it was Mehmet Oz himself, the admired and empathetic doctor who has done so much to transform health and wellness education. Even though he’s addressed this topic before, he often appeared disoriented and nervously struggled to find the words to phrase his delicate questions, like he was tiptoeing through a sexual, social and biological minefield.

He admitted to knowing little about the medical issues related to gender transformation and, in one awkward moment, suggested viewers watching at home might want to have their children leave the room.

This isn’t a rap against Dr. Oz: it was simply fascinating watching him struggle toward understanding the issues faced by TG/TS people and find room for that new knowledge in his own belief system. And I think his experience will make it easier for others to do the same.

I know how he feels. When I interviewed Cy Lauz, one of the co-founders of Chrysalis Lingerie, for our article, we talked about my comparative ignorance and how to communicate Chrysalis’ mission in a way that avoided the stereotypes and misconceptions that dog transgender individuals.

That article would be a big learning experience for me, too. Although I’ve had many, many gay friends over the years, I’ve only had the most peripheral acquaintance with two people who identify as transgender (one M-F, one F-M; both of whom underwent hormone therapy but did not pursue sex reassignment surgery). Their experience, to me, seemed unbearably heavy and fraught with barriers at every turn. I found it hard to imagine the eventual payoff that could ever make such a painful journey worthwhile.

Delving into the topic challenged me to open up, to learn without judging, and to embrace a truth that goes beyond our binary view of gender. Nature, as Cy reminded me, is infinitely varied and for every social or biological template their are innumerable permutations. And all are part of the human family.

Like many of you, I won’t be a customer of Chrysalis Lingerie, but I’ll support what they’re doing in any way I can and I hope the fashion lingerie community welcomes and supports them too. After all, lingerie, as most people in the industry will tell you, is all about your sense of personal identity — how women view themselves, how they want to be viewed, and how they can transform themselves.

The Chrysalis team isn’t just selling undies, they’re inserting themselves into the fashion and media mainstream as a way of advocating for change, acceptance and empathy on behalf of people who have to fight for their chosen identity every day.

Like everyone else fighting this battle, they deserve to be welcomed — in the words of the teen daughter of a transgender woman on Dr. Oz’s show — with an open heart.

 You can read Richard’s profile of Chrysalis Lingerie on Lingerie Talk here.

How to protect yourself from hackers and cyber-thieves.
by Richard Vincente

The picture above is believed to be the only nude photo of the late screen star Elizabeth Taylor, and you were never meant to see it.

Shot by a friend in 1956 when she was 24, the picture was an intimate engagement gift from Liz to her third husband, Mike Todd. When Todd died in a plane crash a year after their wedding, a devastated Liz is believed to have given the photo to her assistant for safekeeping.

A collector somehow acquired the picture in 1980 and kept it private for more than 30 years. Then, last year when Liz Taylor died at age 79, the collector inexplicably released the image as … Read more

by Richard Vincente

Censorship is a weapon that works best when it’s used sparingly, if at all. It’s the cultural equivalent of a nuclear deterrent.

Most people in marketing, advertising and programming understand this and play by the rules. But the shadowy group of individuals and quasi-legitimate authorities who monitor and enforce community standards have itchy trigger fingers. For them, censorship isn’t just a deterrent, it’s a way of defining what’s acceptable by shooting down anyone who strays outside the fuzzy, fluid lines of public morality.

Today, censorship battles seem like a thing of the past — a relic of the 1970s or 1930s or maybe Victorian England. But they’re not. Skirmishes are still common and, with the emergence of the Internet, the battlefield has … Read more

by Richard Vincente

 Lana Del Rey had barely started her new life as the pop music world’s new ‘It Girl’ when she made a curious career move: posing in a What Katie Did bullet bra for I-D magazine and, soon afterwards, a Prada bodysuit for V magazine.

Both photos were published a month before the release of Lana’s first album and her sleepy, much-discussed performance on Saturday Night Live. Even though many people still didn’t know who she was (or whether she could sing), we had already seen her half-undressed.

Sounds a bit calculating, doesn’t it? But it shouldn’t come as a surprise. The lingerie photo shoot has become an essential stepping stone on the path to success for young starlets, especially … Read more

by Richard Vincente

Lingerie and pornography make strangely uncomfortable bedfellows.

You might expect the two industries would be as close as kissing cousins, since they’re often selling the same thing — human arousal — to the same people. The opportunities for cross-promotion should be endless.

But you won’t find La Senza product placements in your favorite Ron Jeremy flick or Hanky Panky ads on the hotel room adult channel. Most reputable fashion lingerie brands don’t want to be associated with porn culture, its explicit and often demeaning products or its grubby commercial values.

Of course, some people still think all lingerie advertising is by definition pornographic (remember the fuss that greeted the first Victoria’s Secret catalogue?), but that’s an outdated misconception. With some notable exceptions, … Read more

For Lingerie Brands, It Might Be Confusion

by Richard Vincente ~
A not-so-funny thing happened last year when HOTmilk, the trendy New Zealand maternity label, was getting ready to launch its new men’s underwear brand, Milkman: someone beat them to market with a similar product, brand name and edgy sales pitch.

To make matters worse, the interloper was another Kiwi label, an upstart indie called Milk Underwear. Their debut just a few months ahead of Milkman‘s long-planned launch was possibly just coincidence and bad timing, but HOTmilk still claimed trademark infringement. Milk at first backed down and announced on its website (without mentioning the dispute with HOTmilk) that it would be starting over and re-branding under a new name.

But … Read more

  by Richard Vincente

There’s been a lot of news coverage in the past few days about the latest victory for women in Saudi Arabia: the right to shop for lingerie and cosmetics in a harassment-free environment.

Yesterday was the first day that lingerie boutiques in KSA were required to have female-only sales staff, a move that will improve employment opportunities for Arab women and give them a tiny bit more freedom (and privacy).

Some people are calling it the “lingerie revolution”, even though it’s a small and somewhat patronizing step: it took a royal decree from King Abdullah to force retailers to heed a 6-year-old labor law that permitted women to work in underwear stores and, even then, an estimated 20% of shops … Read more