Lingerie looks back to the future

July 11, 2012 by admin
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Designers have also been inspired and are adapting these old styles, but with the modern women in mind.

When bra-fitter Esther Labi discovered in her 30s that she was a size 12FF after many years wearing a 14DD, she says it was “a life-changer in terms of personal comfort.” Not only that: by wearing a properly supportive bra, she acknowledges that she is preventing damage to her breast tissue and looking slimmer to boot.

Her personal experience led her to open Storm in a D-Cup in Bondi Junction which stocks an abundance of sexy styles in sizes from 6D to 26J with patterns ranging from leopard prints and Missoni zig-zags to the more vintage-style lime polka dots. Many also feature pretty lace detailing.

Labi is not the only one whose range is taking bras back to the future. Maria Silvestri, of Heavenly Curves in Wetherill Park, says that cute can also be comfortable. But, for the comfort part, it’s important to seek expert guidance, especially if you’re well-endowed.

“It’s totally realistic to expect your bra to be comfortable,” she said. “Bras shouldn’t be instruments of torture that are endured during the work day only to be ripped off the minute your come home. If your bra isn’t comfortable, then it’s not the right one – or not the right size — for you.”

It’s worth remembering though that your bra size can change. Not just with weight, but also because of menstruation, taking the Pill, during pregnancy and after pregnancy (sometimes you shrink, sometimes you enlarge). Then there’s menopause, HRT, or simply getting older. Which is why bra fitting is considered an art.

Former nurse Margaret McLachlan, of More than a Handful in the city, says that while a tape measure may provide a guide to size, “An experienced fitter can ‘eyeball’ a client before trying different styles until she is happy.” As this can be time-consuming, Silvestri’s advice is “not to try and shop for a bra for your hot new cocktail dress in a short lunch break.”

But, with a little time and help, it is now entirely possible to find a flattering fit that feels good and looks great.

Frumpy and flimsy are out of fashion, sexy and structured is in. Who says style and support can’t sit happily side by side?

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From Sex To Love: Emotional Attachment And Sexual Desire Originate In …

July 11, 2012 by admin
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Conventional (read: antiquated) dating wisdom tells us that men and women have totally different feelings about sex. Women automatically get emotionally attached, and men quickly flee to the next sexual partner. But a new study helps put this myth to rest.

The research, out of Concordia University in Montreal, indicates that emotional attachment can actually grow out of sexual desire. Psychologist Jim Pfaus and his research team sought to discover where feelings of love and of sexual desire originate in the brain. To do that they reviewed 20 past studies that scanned men’s and women’s brains with fMRI machines. They found that love and lust, two supposedly separate emotions, actually originate in the same location in the brain — the insular cortex (insula) and striatum, reported MSNBC. That doesn’t mean love and sex are the same thing, just that they’re not as separate as “The Rules” might have you believe. “Love and sex are clearly overlapping and they are different,” Jim Pfaus, a professor of psychology at Concordia told MSNBC. “You can have desire for sex without love.”

The study found that love and sex fall on a sort of neurological continuum. Both phenomena activate a section of the striatum (the part of the brain that receives messages from the cerebral cortex about emotions, memory and other functions). Lust causes the ventral striatum the part of the brain associated with emotion and motivation — to “light up.” Love activates the dorsal striatum, which impacts decision-making and is associated with drug addiction, reported MSNBC. (So when Ke$ha sang, “Your Love Is My Drug,” she was closer to the literal truth than she perhaps thought.) The researchers also discovered overlap between sexual desire and emotional love in the brain’s insular cortex, further demonstrating that lust can transition into love and vice versa. “Even love at first sight, can it happen? Of course it can happen,” Pfaus told MSNBC. “And when it does happen, do you want to play Scrabble with each other? When it happens, you normally want to consummate it.”

So what does this study mean for women whose brains aren’t being scanned in an fMRI machine? Jezebel’s Lindy West read the study as a confirmation that the “don’t sleep with him or her on the first date” rule isn’t really grounded in reality. She wrote:

So there — love can grow out of a sweaty one-night stand. I’ve seen it happen plenty of times; I don’t know many young people who would admit to being morally opposed to casual sex; and yet the idea that, in general, waiting as long as possible is just nebulously better still completely pervades our culture.

The study also indicates that there may actually be a neurological basis for getting emotionally attached after a sexual encounter. “Love is actually a habit that is formed from sexual desire as desire is rewarded,” Pfaus said in a press release. So if you tend to feel closer to someone after a sexual encounter, that may be at least in part about your brain working correctly — not about you being needy. And according to the study, you probably aren’t ruining your chances of finding love if you decide to express your sexual desires before you act on your emotional ones. The two go hand in hand.

Also on HuffPost:

GALLERY: 5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE BRAIN, SEX, LOVE AND DESIRE

Via author Kayt Sukel

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In recent years there has been a lot of talk about pheremones — chemicals that have the ability to trigger a social (and potentially sexual) response from members of the same species. Some companies have even begun bottling these chemicals, urging consumers to use them as cologne and “enhance your sex life.”

According to Sukel, these bottled pheromones are little more than marketing. “As of now there’s no good scientific study that shows that these sprays actually work,” she said. “But there are plenty of people who use them and claim they’re the best thing ever. The placebo effect really works.”