Thursday, July 31

Lingerie Gets Upstaged!



photos: Kate Vandermeer

Here are a few images from Pop Magazine, in which the lingerie gets completely upstaged by big hair! Not that there's anything wrong with that.
We think we spy an Aubade 'Bahia' bra in that first shot (it's always fun doing lingerie detective work!).
This blog entry is total fluff (or total puff if you are talking about the hair...lame joke attempt), but it seemed vaguely relevant for today's post!

Wednesday, July 30

1960s Lingerie

We had a little lapse in our 'lingerie through the decades' series, but we're back with styles from the 1960s. During the 60s we see more experimentation with color (of course there's more color advertising at this point), and we still see those bullet bras!
Perhaps one of the more aggressive lingerie advertisers of the time was Maidenform, which claimed success with its "I dreamed I ... in my Maidenform bra" campaign.
Perhaps our favorite lingerie images from the 60s come from artist Rene Gruau who famously created beautiful advertisements for Christian Dior Lingerie (among other things!). His ads would look great framed in your boudoir - we did just that with the Gruau image below!

Tuesday, July 29

Lingerie & Art



images courtesy of Arcadia Fine Arts (artist: Malcolm Liepke)

It is a rare pleasure to be able to find lingerie incorporated into fine art (tastefully represented, that is). Luckily, we have been followers of artist Malcolm Liepke, who captures intimate moments in his paintings and occasionally has his subjects in lingerie. We have been collecting Liepke's paintings for years, and he has quite a fan-base with collectors such as Barbra Streisand, Donna Karan and Brooke Shields (just to name a few)!
Included in this post are a few images that include lingerie, though his portfolio includes much more than that. In general, all of Liepke's paintings tend to share a voyeuristic theme.
If you would like to learn more about Malcolm Liepke and see more of his work, please contact Steve at Arcadia Fine Arts in New York.

Monday, July 28

A Brief Lesson in Hosiery

Whenever someone wants to spice up their lingerie ensemble, they typically end up adding hosiery to up the ante! We just wanted to provide a few basic concepts regarding hosiery, in order to make your purchasing decisions a bit easier.

Basically (and for purposes of this post we'll keep it brief), hosiery can be divided into a few different categories: tights, pantyhose, stockings, and thigh highs (no need to discuss socks here).

We will start with what we consider the sexiest: stockings. Stockings require a garter belt to keep them up on your leg. For those of you wishing to create a vintage look, this is the best way to go. More often than not, stockings are made from nylon rather than silk - this is due to the innovation at Dupont back in 1937. One of our best-selling stockings are those with the black seam along the back, which are very retro-inspired. See images below for example:


Photos below all via Wolford

The next category is the Thigh High (also known as Stay Ups). The thigh high is basically a stocking that can stay up without a garter belt because of the silicone strips around the top of the leg. See image below for an example.
Of course there are Pantyhose, which are nylons that extend up around your waist. Most of you have some experience wearing these! Pantyhose aren't just for the office anymore - they are a great way to accessorize. There are so many tasteful patterns out there that can really glamorize an outfit!

And lastly, there are Tights...good old tights. These are typically opaque and have a heavier consistency than pantyhose (which is why we all wore these to school on cold days when we were young girls). Tights can come in a variety of materials such as cotton and merino wool and have textures such as cable knit and ribbed (we wore the ribbed style back in the early 90s...in red...yikes!). Tights can be incredibly sexy, and we believe everyone should at least own a black pair to wear with high heels or boots. We just added some new hosiery styles to our store - check them out!

Saturday, July 26

Sally Rand

Sally Rand was a world-famous burlesque dancer who popularized the 'fan dance' (the use of large ostrich feather fans during performances). Her claims to fame include her legendary performance at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair where she danced nude* with large feather plumes as her props, and her 'bubble dance' in which she performed with a life-size clear bubble.
Sally Rand certainly had a long, wonderful career which continues to inspire performers to this day! Here are some images of the lady who became the namesake for the large ostrich feather fans we see today!*FYI - It has been said that Sally's World Fair performance wasn't necessarily nude, but that she either wore a body stocking or a body cream...which really means she was a half a step away from being nude!

Tuesday, July 22

Our 200th Post!


It's hard to believe that we are now at our 200th post! When we started the Frou Frou Fashionista back in 2006 we barely knew what a blog was, but we knew it would be a fun outlet where we could share lingerie news. It did take a while for us to warm up to the idea of writing for the blog on a consistent basis because we weren't sure if anyone would read it, but now we're practically writing 1 entry per day (or at least we aspire to)!
Now we see opportunities to write about lingerie all of the time...whether it's about lingerie in fashion/editorial, new arrivals at Faire Frou Frou, a write-up on a brand we're pleased with, or pretty much anything that hints at intimate apparel. We want to show how lingerie can be portrayed in a classy, sophisticated way...we want to share how lingerie can be about fashion, style, fun and sexiness, not just sex (even though it's about that too...but we just don't need to write about it). We want to share how wearing beautiful lingerie is yet another way to accessorize an amazing ensemble.
We truly aspire to make this luxury lingerie blog relevant, and we love what we do so it's a pleasure for us to share our enthusiasm.
We want to thank our readers for their support, and we love the positive feedback we've received! A special thank you goes out to those of you who take the time to leave comments.
We hope you've had as much fun reading this blog as we have writing/researching for it!
xoxo

from deviantART (not sure which artist, though we tried finding out!)

Monday, July 21

Lingerie & Beautiful Photography II

above images by Mary McCartney
We were pleased to discover the work of British photographer Polly Wreford, who specializes in lifestyle photography with a romantic touch.
We posted a few of her pictures that include lingerie, one of a pretty boudoir, and one 'just because' shot.
Her work has a very feminine touch, and she (or her assistants) do a great job with styling the shoot. Polly Wreford is represented by the Sarah Kaye Representation agency. We noticed that along with her work, there were several other photographers that used lingerie in their pictures. Of course we had to share some of our favorites!

Below is the work of photographer Robert Allen, also from the Sarah Kaye agency.The bra above looks like Myla (it looks like one we had at the store a few years ago), the bustier below is most certainly ID Sarrieri!


Photo below by artist Shun + Hideki...the shoes really got our attention!
We don't know whose panties those are, but this picture is really all about those gorgeous chartreuse shoes!

Friday, July 18

The Lake & Stars - Fall collection

It seems like we have waited FOREVER to share these adorable images from the Fall collection of The Lake & Stars (TLS) with you...and now that TLS has posted the new items on their website, we can share these images with you too.
As you may know, we're a sucker for anything ballet-themed, and of course the styling/design for The Lake & Stars never fails to impress! We love that they used NYC ballerinas in a gorgeous loft for their lookbook - it just sets the tone perfectly. The creativity from designers Maayan and Nikki shows in every detail - even their washing instructions are specialized with cheeky comments for each group. If you enjoyed what you've seen from this brand in the past, you will be thrilled with yet another strong collection.
The next new group coming out is called "Love Triangle" - this features pieces made from sheer microfiber and cotton tissue jersey. These pieces are shown in ivory/charcoal and walnut/chocolate (see below). We will have these in store in August - can't wait!!

We will post more images in the up-coming months, but just wanted to feature what's available soon (new pieces will be coming out between August & November 2008).

Thursday, July 17

The PERFECT Bra for A & B Cups!




If you wear an A or B-cup bra, and you are looking for beautifully natural cleavage, then we have the perfect bra for you!
The Little Bra Company (TLBC) specializes in sizes 32-36 A & B, and will soon offer 28 & 30 band sizes. As you know, there are plenty of push-up bras on the market, but what makes TLBC so special is that they are created for the petite frame and therefore offer a better fitting bra with more natural-looking curves.
We just did a fitting with our new arrivals, and love the results! The bras have foam padding and underwire support, and the cups are centered a bit closer together than your average bra so that it creates a beautiful shape.
For those of you interested in purchasing one of TLBC's bras, keep in mind that they are cut on a PETITE SCALE. That being said, you should ROUND UP YOUR TYPICAL BAND SIZE when ordering. If you are between a 32 and 33 band size, you should select a 34 band. Or in other words, if you wear a 32B in other brands, then select a 34B in TLBC (do not change your cup size).
We loved that when the sales rep was showing us the line at Faire Frou Frou, one of our customers bought the bra sample right off of her! She just couldn't wait for our shipment to arrive and loved how amazing the bra made her look (fyi, this was a 34A customer) - now that's a good sign!