Opinion
Fashion Jam: Underwear matters
November 15th, 2014
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This article is more than 10 years old.
As a Swede who had spent eleven years in London and New York, coming to Denmark three years ago has its ups and downs. Having worked in fashion most of her professional life, Jenny will be giving her opinion on our dress sense: the right choices and the bad ones.
UNDERWEAR is a garment that some women are willing to spend a lot of money on – to pamper themselves or to feel good wearing – while some women just regard it as something to be worn underneath their clothes and not worth putting much thought into.
Do not underestimate it!
UNDERWEAR was originally designed to serve several purposes: changing a woman’s shape, preserving her modesty and for hygiene reasons. Women have worn rib-crushing corsets, bandaged their chests to get an androgynous silhouette and burned their bras as a statement of liberation – put mildly, underwear matters.
From bloomers to thongs, and pointy brassieres to push-up bras, the history of lingerie reveals a lot about women’s changing role in society: both how we perceive ourselves and how we are viewed by others. It’s fascinating to see how lingerie has changed over the last hundred years.
It starts on the inside
JUST because you can’t see underwear, don’t think it doesn’t matter. Nobody can see your thoughts either, but they’re the engine of your life. The truth is that your undies lurk under there all day, sending a message to you about who you are and what you deserve.
If your underwear no longer has the same shape, or has turned into the colour of a weak latte, or simply doesn’t look the same as when you bought it, then it’s time to say goodbye.
Less is more …
FOR MEN’S underwear, one rule applies: less is more. And with that I don’t mean the size of the fabric and looking like a Chippendale, but the colours and the patterns.
I felt obliged to do some research on the subject and went on to the website of Bjorn Borg, which in its glory days did some great underwear for men. Boy, was I in for a shock!
One of its (according to the website) best-selling patterns nearly made me blind. It really caught my attention though, I had to click on it. The description underneath said: “Wearing a dark suit to work every day? With these multicoloured shorts you can still make sure you get your daily dose of colour.”
Don’t believe in Superman
NO! I can think of a million other ways of getting your daily dose of colour. I would rather pour a bucket of paint over my head than have to see those as my daily dose. Please guys – that is not the way to do underwear!!! We do not want men wearing underwear with the Simpsons or Superman and abstract patterns. Black, grey, white and navy go a long way. Underwear is not supposed to be funny.
Bjorn is not the only one getting it all wrong though – he’s got plenty of friends thinking comedy underwear will work miracles. They should have a talk with Calvin. He knows exactly how it should be done.
Raising the wunderbar
Meanwhile, one Danish underwear brand, Alexander Cobb, has taken it to an altogether different level. It uses micro-capsules in its underwear fabric filled with strawberry and vanilla fragrance, which last for approximately ten washes. I’m just at a loss for words!
Well, it’s really nice to know that we can trust the Danes to come up with really useful inventions. It’s sobering to think how we used to survive without the Wunderbaum-effect underwear.
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