Lingerie footballer has beauty and brawn

Stephanie Manou

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B.C. Angels’ Stephanie Manou. (Supplied)

A former rugby player, Stephanie Manou acknowledges the LFL’s skimpy outfits garner a lot of attention, but says “we’re athletes.” (Joe Petro/Lingerie Football League/Supplied)

Stephanie Manou has scored five touchdowns in her first three games with the B.C. Angels. (Joe Petro/Lingerie Football League/Supplied)

Stephanie Manou may have broken her nose in a preseason practice, but it hasn’t slowed down the Lingerie Football League player. (Joe Petro/Lingerie Football League/Supplied)

Stephanie Manou of LFL Canada’s B.C. Angels. (Joe Petro/Lingerie Football League/Supplied)

Stephanie Manou is under no illusions.

She knows sex sells — especially in the sexploitive Lingerie Football League.

But the running back with LFL Canada’s B.C. Angels wants to be appreciated for her athletic prowess on the gridiron and not her … ahem … tight end.

“We’re athletes. We’re not just coming off the couch and thought we’d pick up football,” Manou, a former rugby player at the University of British Columbia, tells Sun Media.

“I’ve always been active and used my body as my means of expression, so to speak. It definitely comes natural to me to be active and healthy.”

Of course, she’s not blind to the skimpy uniforms of the LFL.

“I make money based on my appearance and how I present myself,” explains the 26-year-old Toronto native who lives in downtown Vancouver.

“We don’t have control over how it (the LFL) is marketed. But we do have control over how we play and what we represent as players.”

Manou, a fit 135 pounds at five-foot-eight, seems to have the best of both worlds: an enviable blend of beauty and brawn.

The registered kinesiologist, fitness model and personal trainer has scored five touchdowns through her first three games and leads the Canadian LFL in rushing yards.

“That’s very much attributed to my power and balance,” she notes. “As a running back, when you take the ball, you hit contact almost instantly, and it’s a matter of powering through past the player or powering through past the defensive line to gain those extra yards.”

During this year’s four-game season, Manou is lifting weights once a week. That’s in addition to two-hour team practices three times a week. She also does an intense power-and agility session once a week.

“I’ll usually go out to a field and will do agility drills. I’ve got my own hurdles and cones,” says the former B.C. Lions cheerleader. “My boyfriend (also a personal trainer) does the drills with me and we go over things like straight-arming and cutbacks, which I don’t always get a chance to do in practice.”

After the season winds down, Manou will return to weight training on a more regular basis.

“My philosophy as a trainer is to do functional training on top of just lifting weights and doing isolation exercises. It’s about keeping the variety and that’s what keeps it interesting,” she explains, noting variety helps spur further physical improvements.

“That’s when everybody plateaus is by doing the same routine over and over again. And you hit that mental and physical block. By incorporating the athletics and going out to a field and training and doing different exercises than you’re normally used to, it keeps your body guessing.”

The inaugural LFL Canada season began Aug. 25 and wraps up Nov. 18 with the Lingerie Bowl in Abbotsford, B.C.

Manou has been playing with a face shield since breaking her nose in preseason practice.

“It hasn’t slowed me down,” she says, noting her nose remains tender. “It’s one of those things. I’ve got a nice scar now as a reminder of my first year in the LFL.”

Stephanie’s fitness advice:

• Get out there, learn a new sport and meet new people. You’ll be changing up your routine and making it exciting. You’ll meet likeminded people and it’ll only fuel your success. You’ll be happier and healthier overall.

 

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Edinburgh-born M&S lingerie designer Libby Allan is big in the world of smalls

Indeed, it would probably be a sacking offence should the former Broughton High pupil ever get knocked over by a bus and be found dressed in anything but the very 
latest in lingerie.

The 33-year-old from Stockbridge is the brains behind the trends in MS foundation garments. She already knows what women will wear beneath their summer dresses next year and what the in-colour for bras on show with spaghetti-strap tops will be – as well as the choices male admirers will be faced with come Valentine’s Day gift shopping in 2013.

Her job as trend, fabric and 
innovation designer with the British underwear institution – which is the biggest player in the smalls market, selling 60 million pairs of knickers annually – means she travels the world to spot new ideas in fabrics and fashion, bringing them back to 
the high street store’s design team in London.

It’s a long way from the days she spent scouring the shelves of Edinburgh’s Remnant Kings shops looking for material to make her own clothes on her mum’s old sewing machine.

“I’ve always been interested in clothes, in the creative process,” she says. “I think because I’ve always been tall – I’m 6ft – I needed to make my own just to have something to fit.

“Obviously I would have preferred to buy something from the shops like my friends when I was at school, but my height was an issue so it became kind of a necessity. My mum is an academic, but she’s also creative, and she taught me to sew. So we would buy patterns, adapt them and make clothes. I even made my dress for my high school prom.”

She adds: “Despite that, I never felt in school that I was one of the arty ones, I didn’t want to go to art 
college. But there was a course in 
textiles and fashion at the Scottish College of Textiles in Galashiels which was made for me.”

It was there that Libby learned the fundamentals of putting garments together and the uses of fabrics and on graduating, the self-confessed homebird wrenched herself from Edinburgh and headed to London. For six years she was employed by a trend consultancy, and it was there that she discovered the 
intricate world of lingerie design.

“I had this two-week placement which turned into my first job, first as the general dogsbody, but I worked my way up until I was running three accounts, one of which was an 
Italian lace company which designed 
lingerie. The job is quite hard to explain, but I didn’t design products; rather, I was the person who researched what was out there, what was available to the designers, and made the predictions as to what would be happening a year from now.

“The clients were paying us to tell them what colour or fabric would be popular in a year’s time, what would be the shape and style – so that they were working on the right products and garments.”

However when her current job was advertised by MS, Libby jumped at the chance. “After all, it’s the place everyone goes to for undies, isn’t it? So if you’re going to be in the business . . .” she laughs. “My job is still researching and predicting what I feel our customers will want and need in a year’s time.”

If that sounds like a lot of responsibility, it is. Imagine if Libby is a shade out on colour and women want dusky rose knickers rather than pale pink, or she’s a tad out of shape, and women want to be minimised rather than hoisted up in a balcony bra?

“Well there’s obviously a lot of processes and decisions made after my initial ideas,” she says. “Thankfully it’s not all on me. I’d get far too big a head if I said this is what I think and everybody just jumped. We have 16 designers and a head of 
design who has years of experience, and I have a team which I work with, including experts in colour and print.

“We provide the information and framework and the designers brainstorm with us and the buyers are involved – it’s a team thing so it’s not too scary. And one of the most rewarding things is to travel around the world visiting factories and stores, I’m really lucky to be able to work with 
leading European lace and embroidery manufacturers who have incredible archives to get lost in and find inspiration – that’s what informs our lace ranges.”

The big news in lacy MS lingerie was the launch earlier this year of the Rosie collection for the store’s designer Autograph line. Named after the model-turned-actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, the range 
comprised 33 pieces of silk and lace lingerie sets from cami and French knicker pieces to a playsuit. “The Rosie range for winter is beautiful,” says Libby. “It’s classic black and red in terms of colour, with a beautiful floral print and a vintage feel in wonderfully luxurious fabrics. But they’re all machine washable, so practical too, which is what every woman wants.”

Of course not all undies are about luxury, many are about practicality and shape. “We listen to what our customers want all the time,” says Libby. “Which is why we produced our Amazing Illusion Bra. Ladies above a D Cup complained that bras with under-wiring are sometimes uncomfortable, so we’ve developed a product unique to the market which uses a special silicon instead and gives the same support.”

She adds: “The thing I love most about underwear is that no-one knows what you’re wearing except you. You could be wearing some very formal, black clothes, but underneath have a bright neon pink bra on, or some wild print.”

And what about next year, what can women expect to be wearing? “Well it’s all under wraps at the moment,” she says. “But we’re always doing our best to bring beautiful and exciting new products to our customers. So keep your eyes peeled.”

No lack of support for this sector

LINGERIE appears to be recession-proof. Between 2008 and 2012, the volume of sales in the UK is estimated to have grown 0.6 per cent compared with womenswear, which was flat.

The total annual market last year was worth £1.52bn and Verdict Research has predicted a further 2.2 per cent volume rise this year.

Marks Spencer has the biggest share of the UK lingerie market with a 27.4 per cent share by volume.

It sells 60 million knickers a year, though 230.2 billion women’s pants were sold overall in the UK last year.

This year MS launched model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s Rosie Collection – which became the store’s fastest selling underwear range ever.

The average price of women’s underwear in the UK is just £4.50.

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