RI Beauty Expert: Your Shapewear Handbook – What to Wear Under That Party Dress
November 15, 2015 by admin
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Saturday, November 14, 2015
Great Grandma had to be trussed into a corset to get that highly-desired Gibson Girl shape and Grandma spent her life in a pinching stifling girdle. Blessedly, shapewear has evolved, thanks in part to the innovation of Spanx, the company that at last gave American women comfortable shapewear. Long gone are the days when women traded inhaling for svelteness. Today’s shapers eliminate muffin tops, VPL (visible panty lines), and all manner of flaws without kidney-crushing. Here’s our shapewear handbook for when you finally find that perfect holiday party dress:
Body Suits and Slips
Flowy dresses cry out for clean lines underneath. Today’s body suits are not body armour and gently nip it all in. The strong lycra is tempered with cotton blends that give. Shaper slips are great for tucking in the derriere and upper thighs.
Camisoles
Muffin-tops are the scourge of the fashion-conscious. If your problem spot is the tummy a shaper cami will smooth down the line to the hips. Find one in flesh-tone for the best coverage – it camouflages better than pure white.
Mid-Thigh Shapers
These jodpur-like pants might look strange but they evaporate the dreaded VPL as well as keep everything leggy and tight. Plus they offer an element of warmth on those cold festive nights. You can’t beat the back-side sculpting too. Perfect for pear-shaped types.
Waist-Cinchers
Admittedly not for the faint of heart, they do give the illusion of a smaller waist. They look scary but they work and with a lot less discomfort than you might imagine. If an hourglass is what you’re after, you’ll get it with one of these shapers.
Shaping Hosiery
Here’s something new: hose with a built-in squeeze. Like control-top pantyhose but for all over gentle tightening. No jiggling thighs and super-comfortable and elegant.
Shaping Panties
This daily underpant gives you one thing above all else: confidence. The elastin fabric holds you in subtly and gives just as much assurance to office pencil skirts as party dresses. Find pretty ones with lace and give up those flimsy cotton briefs that do nothing to enhance your look.
Haute Mess
There’s nothing less chic than starting to sweat as you try to wiggle into shapewear. Choosing the right undergarments can be a tricky because the tendency is to buy one size smaller. Don’t. It will be harder to get into and may cause popping in a place you didn’t expect. Choosing the proper size makes for easy, non-clammy dressing and ultimately better results with your frock.
Shapers can be found in nearly every major department store chain. For truly knowledgeable assistance, check out Deborah Winthrop Lingerie in Portsmouth. Staff know the benefits and limits of good shapewear and can make recommendations. Bring along that gorgeous party dress to actually see results in real time. Bend, sit, stand, even dance to make sure it’s truly comfortable.
Donna Macdonald is a freelance writer who enjoys covering topics of interest to women, especially fragrance, style, beauty. She has also written marketing material for a women’s book that hit the New York Times Bestseller list and netted her an up close and personal discussion on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Donna currently writes her own personal blog, alovelyinconsequence.blogspot.com, where she also writes about issues close to a woman’s heart. Donna believes that when a woman finds beauty in the world, she will find beauty in herself.
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Retail Therapy Beauty Bar
1276 Bald Hill Rd., Warwick, RI
This salon offers manicure and pedicure deals paired with chardonnay, champagne and cocktails!
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Beauty Lounge at Magnolia
1375 Park Ave., Cranston, RI
Get a luxurious facial before you go out on the town at Magnolia’s Beauty Lounge. They offer a variety of treatments including an anti-aging lactic acid peel followed by a multivitamin recovery masque that will help you put your best face forward.
Photo: Beauty Lounge at Magnolia
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Studio B
48 Hillside Rd., Cranston, RI
Located in Garden City, Studio B houses it’s very own beauty boutique! After you get your makeup applied you can actually purchase the products.
Photo: Studio B
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KY Michaels Salon
442 Wickenden St., Providence, RI
KY Michaels is known for providing the “Best Haircuts” around for men and women.
Photo: KY Michaels Salon
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La La Luxe
139 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI
La La Luxe Salon offers special conditioning treatments to tame any difficult hair type: brittle/dry/fragile hair, rebellious to curly hair, and lifeless or dull hair can all be remedied in time for the weekend.
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Tiffany’s Salon and Spa
21 West St., Barrington, RI
Feeling tense after a long work week? Relax with a hot stone massage or Reiki at Tiffany’s. They also offer massage packages so you can feel refreshed every weekend!
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The W Salon
713 Westminster St., Providence, RI
The W Salon has a Brazilian Blowout treatment that will smooth and tame your rogue hair. Their staff is also Deva certified to properly cut your curly locks.
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Moss Salon
114 North Main St., Providence, RI, 02903
Moss Salon is one of the only salons around that offers neo-extensions: a hair technique that uses no glue or clips to seamlessly give you longer locks and change your look.
Photo: Moss Salon
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Flipp Salon Apothecary
38 Transit St., Providence, RI
Flipp provides services using natural, plant-based products, and offer custom-brewed teas you can sip as you relax and enjoy their beauty treatments.
Photo: Flipp Salon Apothecary
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Coiffurium Salon
800 Hope St., Providence, RI
Coiffurium has specialty facials for any skin ailment: acne, anti-aging, and even rosacea. They also have Swedish and deep tissue massages to help you begin the weekend feeling invigorated.
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- Retail Therapy Beauty Bar
- Beauty Lounge at Magnolia
- Studio B
- KY Michaels Salon
- La La Luxe
- Tiffany’s Salon and Spa
- The W Salon
- Moss Salon
- Flipp Salon Apothecary
- Coiffurium Salon
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Netflix Japan’s Original Series ‘Underwear’ Is ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ Of …
November 15, 2015 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
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Perhaps I should be ashamed to admit that a title like Underwear and a cover page featuring a wide-eyed ingénue was a powerful hook to me. While I assure you that its appeal indicates nothing about my broader online inclinations, the program quickly moved to the top of my queue when I fired up my Japanese Netflix account in September.
Underwear tells the story of Mayuko Tokito, a young woman who grew up in the countryside on Japan’s Northernmost island of Hokkaido. After studying textiles at University, Mayuko begins her career at a high-end, custom lingerie atelier in Tokyo called Emotion. (Emotion is the actual name of the shop, and not an English translation of a Japanese word.) At first Mayuko’s devotion is focused only on textiles, as evidenced by her multiple poetic soliloquies on the topic. Over the first episodes, however, her passions expand to include lingerie.
The other central character in the series is Emotion’s Founder and President, Mayumi Nanjo, who is clearly modeled after American Vogue Editor, Anna Wintour, in both appearance and reputed character.
Initially, Nanjo has little patience for Mayuko’s country bumpkin ways. Yet affection develops between the two as Nanjo realizes her approach to the lingerie business must evolve to fit the modern-day marketplace. Forget that the shift from custom-made to ready-to-wear was pretty well complete by the mid 1900s. What’s that? Website, you ask? Emotion is not there yet. Underwear’s creators don’t sweat these anachronisms and the episodes roll on with this tension between the old way and the (not actually) new way underpinning the storyline.
Besides Mayuko and Nanjo, Emotion employs five others. Don’t trouble yourself pondering the implausibility of bankrolling the Tokyo livelihoods of seven people on one brassiere sale at a time. Just as Carrie Bradshaw never could have afforded that apartment, all those cosmos, and the Manolo Blahniks, Emotion’s financials don’t add up.
Roughly once an episode Nanjo, with a solemnity befitting the Gettysburg Address, finds an opportunity to lecture her staff on the power of lingerie and the supremacy of customer service. Aided by a crescendo of ethereal Enya-esque music, I’m meant to feel the gravitas as Nanjo’s teary-eyed minions, literally basking in the illumination of her imparted wisdom, watch her exit the room.
I was getting rather bored with Underwear’s histrionics when, finally, misfortune strikes and two employees quit Emotion to design a new, mass-produced line for a fictional Tokyo department store. Intrigue ensues and, just like that, the series grew more interesting. Nothing like a good swindle to liven things up. Hope restored; I kept tuning in to be rewarded with new secrets and more bad behavior.
In addition to theatrics, Underwear offers a window into the Japanese psyche. Nanjo abhors the idea of mass production as a threat to quality customer service, which she values above all else. A Spanish friend who lives in Japan but returns to Barcelona each summer recently told me she couldn’t wait to get back to Japan. Reason being: she was fed-up with bad customer service. It’s true. If a country exists on earth with better customer service than Japan, I have not yet visited it.
Examples from personal experience abound. I once asked a café barista for directions to the nearest subway stop. Feeling it was too confusing to give me directions, she walked me the ten minutes to the station. When there was a question about our lease car fitting into our garage, the agent took it upon himself to drive to our house one evening to take measurements. I’ve been at big box stores when the skies suddenly opened, dumping buckets of rain. Upon leaving, I found store employees armed with umbrellas stationed at the exits to usher unprepared customers to their cars. The Japanese devotion to customer service is something I witness every day and it really makes Japanese life so pleasant.
For a program about beautiful women designing lingerie, the show bizarrely lacks sexuality. In the world of Underwear, lingerie’s value seemingly has nothing to do with inciting desire. One customer buys a bra and panty set for her daughter to wear to her violin recital. Another customer feels that wearing an Emotion bra will give her the confidence to return to work after maternity leave. And yet another lady, a dog lover, falls into spasms of giggles when Mayuko finds a gold puppy charm to adorn her custom made brassiere. Not a single customer comes to Emotion looking for that smokin’ little number that will turn their man (or lady) into an animal. Even when a crush develops between two Emotion employees and it seemed like, “now the sexy will come.” No luck. The crush remains pure and never really moves beyond sweet text messages.
The divorce of sex from underwear is a paradox that’s difficult to imagine, but it may have its roots in Japan’s reality. Both Japanese men and women are rejecting rigidly defined gender roles that cast the man as breadwinner and the woman as mother and housewife. The roles are so institutionalized that, rather than fight them, some Japanese are choosing to simply opt out. Men don’t want the expense and burden that dating, sex and marriage entail. Women are choosing careers and independence over the messiness of romance and babies. What results is a recognized and studied phenomenon in Japan dubbed “celibacy syndrome.” Such an attitude toward sexuality among even a subset of society is a big problem in a country whose already declining population will likely drop a further one-third from present day by 2060. I can’t be certain that this phenomenon of societal sexual apathy is what Underwear captures. However, it does seem that a show about lingerie that lacks any steaminess is revealing something about a society.
Underwear’s message is that lingerie can divinely empower a woman to become her better, truer self. The shots of lingerie-clad mannequins beatified in sunlight say as much. I like that. However, jaded as I am, I’ll stay tuned ever hopeful that Underwear’s writers will put the sexy back into the lacy panties, as is only proper in this viewer’s eyes.
Underwear is a Netflix Japan Original Series that is not currently available to watch anywhere outside of Japan. Our apologies, but we hope you enjoyed the review nonetheless
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Kristin Jordan currently lives in Nagoya, Japan where she also lived 12 years ago before smart phones, streaming and kids. She loved Japan the first time and finds it even better with all the extras.