Lessons in Lingerie

May 9, 2011

By Siobhan Lam. Photos: Ray Boileau. Model: Sharon Moran. Shoot stylist: Siobhan Lam

Lingerie Shoot

With all the excitement of the Royal Wedding, we still don’t know what Kate wore underneath it all. Just because its not visible, doesn’t mean that it’s not important.

Traditionally speaking, the bride should be wearing white or cream lingerie underneath her wedding dress but just because the lingerie is traditional in colour this doesn’t necessarily mean it should be boring.

Arnotts have some beautiful options for wedding lingerie at the moment; take the stunning two-piece set from Pleasure State (bra €32 & brief €32) as a case in point. The intricate white lace makes it special enough for a royal wedding but the price tag means that you don’t necessarily need to be royalty to afford it.

Another favourite for underneath that glamorous guna is the Passionata slip, pictured (€55 Arnotts). It’s a halter neck slip, meaning that it will work with any type of wedding dress – the delicate ivory lace is beautifully off set with delicious trimmings and adorable bows and the best part is it only costs €55.

Marks and Spencer’s are best for nude

Recently WhatSheWears caught up with Soozie Jenkinson, head of lingerie design for M&S view their current underwear collection including waist cinchers (€44), thigh slimmers (€35) and the two sizes bigger bra (€30).

What really stood out though, was an ‘invisible’ bra which blends perfectly with any woman’s skin – no more catching sight of yourself in the mirror and realising your white bra is showing through your top.

While other stores versions of ‘nude’ underwear have tended to take a one-colour-fits-all approach, the €30 Nearly Naked bra comes in four shades to match a range of skin tones and comes with matching briefs.

Researchers at M&S scanned the skin colour of more than 1,000 customers using a spectrophotometer – a machine which determines the individual shades that make up the final colour of the scanned object.

There’s one to suit every woman in the country.