If you don’t just want to serve your own fantasies, but really want to make someone happy, you shouldn’t reach blindly for lingerie. That’s what an expert advises.
Manuel Almeida Vergara
The mood rises: designs from the current Love Stories collection.Roshanak Amini for Berliner Zeitung. Photos used: Love Stories
Who is actually giving presents to whom? That should be a question that is often discussed on Christmas Eve. Especially when the beautifully packaged corpus delicti is fine women’s underwear. The gentlemen don’t always choose something that their girlfriends or wives really like, says Marloes Hoedeman – sometimes it’s just about their own fantasies.
But something is happening, says the lingerie expert, who runs her own label in Amsterdam. We asked her whether lingerie is still one of the classic Christmas presents, what men who want to give a gift should consider when making their choice – and why giving a gift to yourself is always best.
Ms. Hoedeman, giving a girlfriend or wife lingerie for Christmas – is that still a good idea in 2022?
In any case, it is an idea that is still often taken up. The pre-Christmas period is still a very important time for the lingerie business. But we don’t necessarily have the men giving gifts in mind. I think women should give themselves gifts more often – whether for Christmas or just because. I find this form of self-esteem very important. And I think it’s just as important, if you’re the person giving the gift, to really want to show some form of appreciation to the recipient. And when it comes to lingerie, we are actually noticing in our stores that this is happening more and more.
Specialist for fine things: Marloes Hoedeman.Love Stories
How is that made clear?
We’re finding more and more often that most of the men who come in are very knowledgeable about what their partner likes. Precisely because they really listen to her and follow her wishes instead of her own imagination. Sometimes they come up with real lists of what the girlfriend or wife needs. I also don’t think it’s a bad idea to have a little chat beforehand, to ask your partner questions or to look in her drawer to see what lingerie she’s buying herself.
Do you see that as a good sign that many men are now listening better in this area as well?
Yes – and also that women apparently communicate very clearly what they need and want. It’s no longer the case that at Christmas they unwrap some lingerie that they don’t like at all, but then squeeze into it for the sake of peace. Instead, they make it very clear what they’re comfortable with. That has changed in recent years. And that’s what men should focus on.
How have the needs in the laundry sector changed?
What was already apparent before the pandemic has intensified again with it: there is a much greater need for comfort. You notice that, for example, with regard to the bralette as a more comfortable variant of the classic bra. It is becoming more and more popular, especially after the days of the home office, when women either wore more relaxed models or no bra at all. But as I said, this trend was already apparent before the pandemic. It’s more and more about what women feel good about, how they see themselves. And less about how they are seen or want to be seen by men. In this respect, I believe that there will be a lot of lingerie under the tree this year, but different than ten years ago.
Something for everyone: Hoedeman wants to satisfy a wide variety of needs with its brand.Roshanak Amini for Berliner Zeitung. Photos used: Love Stories
The great crisis that Victoria’s Secret has been in for a number of years also speaks in favor of this development. A label that was not only developed by a man, but also explicitly aimed at men who are looking for lingerie for their wives.
Yes, this year there was even a documentary about it with “Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons”. I would say this brand just missed the boat. Now you try to do a lot of things differently, for example there is no longer this big fashion show in which models wear angel wings with their underwear. I don’t know if this is a serious attempt to make something better. In any case, there are also big brands like Fenty or Calvin Klein that do a great job and, for example, make different body shapes visible. They cast a positive light on the lingerie industry and that also helps smaller brands like ours.
You founded your own label Love Stories in Amsterdam in 2013, and since then it has been known for flamboyant lingerie. Are you still trying to really step on the gas when it comes to designing at Christmas time?
Sure, at this time we like to turn it up again. Crystal stones, feathers, sequins everywhere. While we don’t want our customers to look like a Christmas tree, we might want them to feel festive. This is also based on the idea that lingerie is being worn more and more visibly. They are often too beautiful to hide. For example, I personally really like a pink bralette that is completely covered with sequins at the moment. If you wear it with high-waisted pants and only a nice blazer over it, you have a great look for the evening. Other customers might like to show a bit of lace from the bra, which they wear under a cozy sweater with a large neckline. I like the idea of underwear that is really a piece of clothing in its own right.
To person
This season you also have red slip in your range, which plays an important role at the end of the year: In Italy, it is said that whoever wears red underwear on New Year’s Eve will have good luck in the coming year.
For us it is the first time in ten years that we even have red lingerie in the collection. I actually always found that a bit too cliche in the past. But this season, it just felt right to do something really banging for the powder shades we usually work with. I’m excited to see how our customers take it. How comfortable they feel in this classic lingerie color. As I said, that is the main thing today.
It is often said that emancipatory processes of change can be seen in dealing with underwear. Would you agree with that?
I do think that underwear and lingerie depict such processes or even help shape them. From the liberation of the corset in the early 1900’s, to the bra burning days of the ’60s and ’70s, to the story of the Victoria’s Secret Angels we talked about earlier. And now it’s been turning again for a few years. That’s what I find so exciting about underwear: that it’s deeply personal and sometimes also political. In this respect, when you look into a woman’s underwear drawer, you learn a lot about her – but also about the world.