One Awesome Company Is Reminding Us All That Lingerie Isn’t Just For Women
September 20, 2014 by admin
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Every holiday season, the Angels of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show gallantly spread their wings on the runway for a national TV audience. Who’s to say a man couldn’t don a lace bra and panties and feel just as confident and sexy?
It’s an assumption rooted in rigid, age-old gender roles dictating what men and women should wear, both in public and in their own beds. And while women have made some inroads with more gender-neutral intimate apparel, you won’t find lacy lingerie designed for men in any department store.
Enter HommeMystere, a Brisbane, Australia-based online store and design studio whose sole mission is to make lingerie that’s “fun, unique and comfortable” for men. In the process, the company and the men who model for them are challenging some of our most entrenched gender stereotypes.
Brent Krause, owner and lead designer for HommeMystere, launched the brand roughly five years ago, more out of personal need than for business reasons. As a man who appreciates and likes wearing lingerie with his wife, Krause couldn’t find anything that looked or felt quite right for him. So he struck out into the male lingerie market on his own.
“I never set out to challenge anyone or anything,” he told Mic, noting that many prospective customers often ask if he specifically caters to queer or gender nonconforming people. “I just wanted to make lingerie that would fit the physique of a guy.”
In the years since its founding, HommeMystere has grown from one couple’s side project to a global business with a large client base in the United States, Krause said. The company now has distributors and agents shipping the apparel all over the world, even offering a discreet shipping option for customers from more conservative or heteronormative cultures.
“While our research indicates many wives and girlfriends are comfortable … we do receive correspondence from guys who explain to us that while they like their lingerie, their partners do not approve,” Krause said. “Some social media comments from women include suggestions that they would leave their partner if they discovered he wore lingerie. I think this says more about her than it does about him, but helps explain why some of our customers want some discretion.”
By and large, both the makers and clients celebrate and affirm men wearing lingerie. The brand’s smooth and revealing aesthetic has even attracted acclaim within the intimates industry, having been featured at numerous trade shows including the 2013 International Lingerie Show in Las Vegas.
Talk about a new crop of “angels” wearing hot panties.
HommeMystere could jumpstart a movement, challenging stereotypes while signaling that there is nothing wrong with men, regardless of their sexuality, who enjoy wearing lingerie. In one letter Krause received, a happy customer said he ordered three sets of lingerie based on customer testimonials alone. The fit, quality and comfort alone, he said, were enough to impress his girlfriend.
“Opening it was like Christmases of old. As I took each item out of the bag, I was presented with a beautiful array of colors and textures,” the customer said, according to Krause. “Please continue to inspire the more broad-minded of this world. Perhaps even become mainstream, although perhaps not in my lifetime.”
Of course, the concept of men and male-bodied individuals wearing clothing originally intended for women, otherwise known as cross-dressing, isn’t anything new. Look no further than the steady integration of drag culture into the mainstream. Underwear fetishes have been known among men for many decades, where they enjoy wearing bras, panties, stockings and even heels.
Krause said he hopes guys wearing lingerie will eventually become more acceptable in the public eye, even if he’s not around to see it happen. His company, with its honest and respectful business model, can’t hurt. Krause and men like him are establishing both a trend and a safe space, where men are free to explore fashion and intimate apparel free of society’s many insidious, gendered hangups about the clothes we wear.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if a mainstream department store stocks a line of lingerie-style briefs sometime in the near future,” he said. “It would be adventurous, but I think someone will take a chance sooner rather than later.”
It’s probably safe to say Brent Krause is not alone.
(h/t Fusion)
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‘This isn’t lingerie football’: Sexist or not, Whitecaps video taken down …
September 19, 2014 by admin
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After some fans and Internet commenters cried foul on a new online video promoting the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer team, club management quickly cut the clip.
As is often the case in social media and Internet marketing, reaction was varied and the response was swift: some sideline observers, both male and female, called the video clip offside, while others wondered what the problem was.
The Whitecaps removed the video within a matter of hours, but experts said the story — as quickly as it was over — can provide a “teachable moment.�
The clip in question, posted to the web Tuesday as part of a series of similarly-filmed spots aimed at selling season tickets, consists of about 12 seconds of slow-motion footage of a trio of young female fans at a ’Caps game, caught up in the rapture of the beautiful game, cheering and jumping up and down while orchestral music plays in the background.
Social media reaction ranged from “Uhhhhhhhhh yes,� and “I really don’t see a problem here,� on Facebook, to Twitter user“The headline isn’t just“It wasn’t our intent to offend anybody, and the minute that we knew we did, we pulled it down.“
Instead, Lenarduzzi said, the intent of the eight-part ad campaign was to show a wide cross-section of fans supporting the club. No actors or staged scenes appear in the video campaign, and all the footage shows genuine fan reactions at games, Lenarduzzi said. The use of photos and videos of fans is common in sports marketing.
“That’s the premise that we went forward with: they’re real people, they’re fans at our games, and it’s a cross-section of the support that we get,� he said.
Seven other spots from the campaign were viewable on Whitecaps FC season ticket website Wednesday, featuring men, women and kids cheering on the ’Caps, with a tag line promoting “the best sporting atmosphere in Vancouver.�
Lendarduzzi said all eight ads in the series were meant to be presented in the same way — similar slow-motion footage of Whitecaps fans celebrating, with orchestral music over top.
But even though the ad featured real soccer fans, academics consulted by The Province found it problematic.
Lisa Loutzenheiser, associate professor at UBC’s Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, said when she saw the video, one of the first things she thought of was a 2011 Whitecaps ad campaign featuring a woman’s body painted in the team’s colours.
“I thought, I can’t believe they’re doing it again, in light of the fact they caught a lot of direct heat for using a woman’s body as a palette in 2011,� she said.
Loutzenheiser showed the clip to her doctoral level class at UBC Wednesday afternoon and, she said: “Their take on it was there’s no way that you could buy that this was marketing for female fans.�
Rakhi Ruparelia, a law professor from the University of Ottawa, agreed the video, even in the context of the series, seemed less like marketing to female fans, and more like using females for marketing.
“I could see why this would alienate a lot of women,� Ruparelia said.
Janni Aragon of the University of Victoria’s Political Science department said: “It’s almost like I’m watching the ‘Baywatch’ opening.�
Aragon, who identifies as a sports fan, said while this is far from the most egregious example of sexist marketing, she found it “still problematic.�
“This makes me think the creative team maybe needs to go back to the drawing board, but this isn’t lingerie football.�
Ruparelia and Aragon both said different reactions to the video provided a good opportunity for discussion, both for the Whitecaps organization and the public.
“This is a really good teaching moment,â€� said Ruparelia. “I would applaud them for taking the video down. I think that was the right thing to do … maybe, unlike some other sports organizations, (the Whitecaps) will learn from this.â€�
dfumano@theprovince.com
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