In the last few weeks in the UK a number of small to medium size wholesale lingerie businesses have bit the dust and no doubt many retailers are hanging on by their finger tips if they have so far survived this recession.

This week news broke that Intimas, the company behind brands such as Charnos and Lepel among others, has gone into administration with 200 jobs threatened here in the UK.

Now for those who don’t follow this sort of stuff – administration means that the company could still survive. A specialist firm or firms will have moved in to see if or how they can save the business. But if a big company such as Intimas does follow some of the earlier victims of the recession then the longer term impact on the lingerie buying public cannot be ignored.

Some might say that the lingerie industry is over crowded with far too many designers, manufacturers and retailers, especially after the last few years when so many new brands and companies have emerged. However, as you might expect, I am not one of those people!

The volume and diversity of our lingerie businesses results in wonderful choice for those who buy lingerie. As businesses go under and products disappear choice will decrease and while in the very long term new businesses will spring up and give you choice again, it may be your favourite brand, designer or shop that has gone for ever.

So the money may be tight but this a call to all you lingerie lovers to support your favourite brand, designer or shop where ever you are and who ever they are. This is not a plea specific to our lingerie shop which is still growing nicely, and long may it continue to do so, despite the recession. But it is a plea on behalf of the lingerie industry as a whole. If you want to have choice and diversity in lingerie then spend a little money on it now – after all there are some great offers about.

More TLP reads on the lingerie business and the recession:

• How is the Lingerie Industry Faring in the Economic Crisis?
• The Ups and Downs of Lingerie

Gill Fernandez – Ever So Sexy
A background in finance and sales but a deep desire to do something more feminine brought Gill into the world of lingerie when she decided to form her own company Crysalis Ltd which trades on line under the name www.ever-so-sexy.com and specialises in the glamorous, pretty and down right sexy stuff..

Read all posts by Gill Fernandez right here!

But never fear! Playful Promises has the perfect present for any lingerie-lover – and let’s face it, what girl isn’t!! Seven charming pale pink vintage tins, each with a unique painted lid, reveal pants perfect for any aspiring Pin-Up girl!

Our Pin-Up pants are the brand new addition to our ever-popular ‘Gorgeous Gifts’ range, and are selling out fast! And while you flaunt the pants, you can keep your treasures in the collectable tin!

There is a Playful Pin-Up for everyone – let me introduce you…

First we have Ellie – This quirky and confident Pin-Up is a born performer. She is always center stage and sparkling in the lime-light! Then comes Mai – This foxy femme fatale has it and isn’t afraid to flaunt it!

…and Evie, the glamorous and strong-willed vixen who knows exactly what she wants – shoes and Champagne!

…Lou Lou, the party-loving Pin-Up who can always be found in the trendiest places, with the most fabulous crowd. She is the coolest kid in town!

…Betty, the dark and deadly, unconventional sex kitten is really crazy and fun-loving underneath her mysterious exterior!

…Rose – Wherever there is mischief to be had, this cheeky little Pin-Up is never too far away!

…and finally Dolly! This cute Pin-Up has a devilish twinkle in her eye! She can be very, very naughty or very, very nice!

Our gifting range has proved to be a complete success for Playful Promises.It has opened up a new market for us in really cute, gifting stores and design led boutiques, not necessarily with any previous experience in selling lingerie. So make sure you check the range out this Christmas without all the hustle and bustle of the high street, at www.playfulpromises.com!

Lisa Williams – Playful Promises
Lisa is the PR and general assistant at Playful Promises…. this means she gets to do a bit of everything in the life cycle of a collection from working on new ideas to talking to customers. She is the ideal person to know all the gossip at Playful Promises. The PP homepage is located at playfulpromises.com.

Read all posts by Lisa Williams right here!

After the initial panic of trying to remember all of the days essentials (2 taxis were required to go and pick up our forgotten samples – oops!!) we were served cups of tea from beautiful china teacups by cute 1920’s flapper girl waitresses courtesy of the lovely Bettie Blythe, and devoured way too many cheeky knicker-embellished ‘Eat Me’ cupcakes by ‘The Great Cake Escape’!

The magnificent shabby-chic setting was perfect to view the new SS09 collections from Playful Promises, Lulu and Lush and Kiss Me Deadly!

The burlesque beauties, ‘Two To Tease’ featuring Cordelia and the dazzling Princess of Soho, Cheyenne Raymond showed off Playful Promises and Kiss Me Deadly’s saucy sets with a seductive strip-tease performance!

We have also discovered a great new way of designing future collections! We had a wonderfully hardworking production line of guests busy customising corsets, frilly knickers and candy-coloured girdles with an array of glittering Swarkowski crystals, lace-trims, flowers and bows!

Speak to you all really soon!

Lisa Williams – Playful Promises
Lisa is the PR and general assistant at Playful Promises…. this means she gets to do a bit of everything in the life cycle of a collection from working on new ideas to talking to customers. She is the ideal person to know all the gossip at Playful Promises. The PP homepage is located at playfulpromises.com.

Read all posts by Lisa Williams right here!

DD+

We wanted to make shopping our catalog fun for fuller busted women. So we filled the book with great DD+ bras, and put a little orange “DD+” icon to really highlight those styles. One highlight was the Aragon balconette bra and thong set from Harlequin, a new brand that understands full busted women want luxury too. Full busted shoppers looking for fun, flirty bras (without having to sacrifice any support!) really took to the Arabella plunge bra from Freya. And we’re getting great feedback from our DD+ customers on Ultra lift strapless bra from Va Bien. The patented boning constructed within the cups keeps the girls up and keeps you looking fabulous all day.

Your Summer Bag of Tricks

We devoted a half page of our catalog to Pure Style Girlfriends, so we could show off this new designer of fun wardrobe solutions. Plenty of ‘oh, I didn’t know they made that’ styles that are perfect for summer fashions. Such as Stay Put Double Sided Fashion Tape to keep everything in place (pre-cut in a cute dispenser that is small enough to fit in most purses), or the Haute Stuff Underarm Liner, to prevent unsightly stains on your clothes.

No matter what they say, I still haven’t found a black dress friendly deodorant, so the new underarm liners are key to dancing your summer nights away. Pure Style Girlfriends offers seven different wardrobe solutions in all.

Under Summer Whites

Want to look great in white pants this summer? It’s all about the foundation. Such as Spanx High Falutin’ footless styles, perfect for under long and Capri length pants. Or Spanx footless panty hose, to provide shape from your mid-riff to your thighs and rid you of VPL. Love your white shorts or skirt?? Try Commandos CYA Panty. This laser cut seamless panty is virtually invisible underneath clothes. And of course, summer whites evoke simple luxury. Our catalog features the newest collection from Hanro, Cotton Sensation. The combination of the finest fabrics and classic silhouettes makes this group truly irresistible.

You may view our entire premier catalog here.

Heather – BareNecessities.com
Heather is the assistant buyer over at Bare Necessities. She buys shapewear and the luxury & designer bras (like Chantelle, La Perla, etc.), so she knows her lingerie.

Read all posts by Heather right here!

As on our ‘Chocolate’ menu, our new theme ‘The Sweetie Shop’ ’ will be designed for the P&S goddess, with all the naughty & nice of candies in mind. Influence for your sweetie indulgence were being drawn from the era of classic Hollywood glamour, feminine pin-up sirens and 1950’s and 60’s ultra ladylike swimwear patterns. The indulgence itself is taken from delightfully traditional British candies and musty candy shops, hard-boiled sweets & picks a mix creating a scrumptious canvas for us to play upon.

The sweeties on offer to you will have roots in the community of all sweetie fanatics, though those of you who are not familiar with our selection will develop a Moorish taste for them! Presenting ‘The Custard Creams’ as the opening assortment, this vibrant collection is laced with the irresistible color palettes of a traditional hard-boiled sweetie.

The opening menu includes soft bra, brief, thong & robe. Flavors available for your indulgence include Apple & Custard Rhubarb & Custard and Banana & Custard. The custard creams are scrumptiously crafted by hand with the finest silks, incorporating luxurious silk sashes to be tied in delicious bows and details such as silk covered bra straps to appeal to your sweet tooth…

Michelle Patrick – Patrick & Skinner
Designer of the scrumptious Patrick & Skinner label, director and extrovert lingerie-fanatic. Her homepage is located at patrickandskinner.co.uk.

Read all posts by Michelle Patrick right here!

We did everything in house, which was satisfying, building a simple but sweet canvas to which we can evolve, and the most important thing, Made By P.S.

‘Chocolate’ is on sale at the moment in order to make way for our delicious new indulgence ‘ The Sweetie Shop’ promises to be a yummy one! The first part of our custard Creams photo shoot is done! Though as it drew near, im slowly lost 80% of my body weight, I was so excited I was afraid i may spontaneously combust! It was predominatly a Graphic shoot. I will attach some behind the scenes shots but untill I have final art work, im not giving up too much. I want the surprise to be imense. Our direction has evolved so much over the past year from the beginnings until now. We have finally found home and know that Pantie fanatics will love it as much as we do!I don’t just mean the product, as we are about so so much more than that alone. Too pretty to wear but too good not to springs to mind. The look we are about to deliver, we have come to the conclusion will be like marmite to some. They will either love it ( if you have any alternative taste at all! ) or hate it. I am one of the most unconventional people I know. I have birthed P&S since the beginning, fed, watered, and protected her. Should the brand be more of a representation of who I am… absolutly. Based on that, I will be loosing some of the ‚ conventional‘ items included in the new collection already and focasing on some scrummy accessories. Not your usual wrist and ankle cuff or blind fold. A completely luxurious option that those visiting can explore and still feel completely satified in their choice.

On a boring business note, and one does have to indulge in boring also, I have been doing my monthly research of the industry stats and figures and have come across something that astonded me! 63% of women in the UK only spend £10 on lingerie a month! 63%! That’s over half of all women in the country! Cleo Patra used to bath in milk, setting the example of how women should indulge for us all and we are spending less than a lipstick on panties a month! How glamorous. I will definatly be implimenting a few things that’s put the love back into buying. Guilt free buying sprinkled with ultimate satisfaction. I belive a womans intimate wear should reflect her perfectly . Not to fear! P&S is now hell bent on making it our soul mission to giving the glamour back to women private parts everywhere. Why spend a fortune on outerwear when what is underneath is a shambles! Having no underwear makes more sense! (Done regularly here in the P&S camp) How can you call yourself a goddess if you do not pay attention to fine detail! Booty wear is back with a vengeance and you will defiantly struggle to resist the temptations offered for your indulgence by this camp!

Michelle Patrick – Patrick & Skinner
Designer of the scrumptious Patrick & Skinner label, director and extrovert lingerie-fanatic. Her homepage is located at patrickandskinner.co.uk.

Read all posts by Michelle Patrick right here!

On the high street shoppers mostly buy off the rack with a glance at the sizing label before they head to the check out. Online is really no different except that there is often more sizing information available if the customer wants to read it.

Here at www.ever-so-sexy.com we give comprehensive sizing information to avoid the need to return items. Even so we do still receive a few returns for the reason of wrong size, so we are in the process of reviewing all our sizing information to make it easier for our customers to access and understand.

It is nearly two years since we last reviewed our sizing guides and I was relieved to find that it is still all valid. But I had forgotten just how confusing the different sizing methods can be.

The US and UK use a similar system based on imperial measurements (inches) and US inch and an UK inch is exactly the same but the systems diverge when they get to the bigger cup sizes. Europe has a standard system based on the metric system, except for France who still use metric but different numbers and Italy who do their own 1,2,3 thing and in Australia they base bra sizes on dress sizes. Confused? You would be forgiven for being completely befuddled.

If you then add in the factor that certain styles and manufacturers cut on the small side then you realise just how hit or miss the whole business of lingerie sizing can be.

So what to do?

We in the industry have a responsibility to supply as much information in a clear and understandable way to our customers as is possible. But customers have a responsibility too, which goes beyond reading the information we provide.

We did a poll here at www.ever-so-sexy.com to check just how many of us really know our size. Armed with a tape measure we stalked the office and stores asking our team to tell us their size and then challenged them to a check with the tape measure. 20% of us gave the wrong size information and I wonder just how well our customers know their size.

So customers – get that tape measure out and check. Here’s how to be sure you know your real bra size:

With a tape measure take the measurement of your rib cage just below the bra band. Then add five inches to that measurement to get the band width. For instance if your rib cage measures 29 inches + 5 inches gives you a UK/USA bra size 34 (75 Europe, 90 France, 2 Italy, 12 Australia) If the calculation results in an odd number then round it up by one. Now for the cup size; take the measurement again but this time measure the fullest part of the bust. The difference between this measurement and the band width gives you the bra cup size as follows:
1 inch = cup size A
2 inch = cup size B
3 inch = cup size C
4 inch = cup size D
5 inch = cup size DD (USA E or DD. Italy DD, Australia DD. Europe E)
6 inch = cup size E (USA F or DDD. Italy E. Australia E. Europe F)
7 inch = cup size F (USA G. Australia G)

Starting off with the right size information will definitely avoid disappointment and the need to return a purchase whether it was bought on the high street or online.

Gill Fernandez – Ever So Sexy
A background in finance and sales but a deep desire to do something more feminine brought Gill into the world of lingerie when she decided to form her own company Crysalis Ltd which trades on line under the name www.ever-so-sexy.com and specialises in the glamorous, pretty and down right sexy stuff..

Read all posts by Gill Fernandez right here!

The website will be back up within the coming weeks with a new look. Doing most things in house now, this has taken longer than originally assumed. Patients is a virtue, and being happy with the way the project is unfolding, the delay has been stress free.

I have learnt that it is valuable to have an advice point through the madness. Mine has been one of my fabulous stockiest. They have been a rock to say the least. I also have to thank Kelly over at The Modern Courtesan who has given me a breath of fresh air in regards to taking allot of the technical pressures away. I will not even touch on the sweat she has wiped from my brow.

Sarah and I have been taking ‘research’ trips to a scrummy sweetie shop in London’s Brewer Street after fittings. Gathering endless inspiration sprinkled with tooth ach for our future assortments, it has become a scheduled appointment I refuse to miss before the push and shove of the Underground.

Scrumptious Regards

M.P xox

Michelle Patrick – Patrick & Skinner
Designer of the scrumptious Patrick & Skinner label, director and extrovert lingerie-fanatic. Her homepage is located at patrickandskinner.co.uk.

Read all posts by Michelle Patrick right here!

Top Drawer is also where Playful Promises brand new Beauty range was unveiled to the masses so make sure you keep a look out! We have noticed a trend in Lingerie brands adding beauty and cosmetic ranges to their line. I think this is a natural progression for Playful Promises as we are all about being flirty and dressing up and are aiming to create an ultimate girlie boudoir collection.

Lisa Williams – Playful Promises
Lisa is the PR and general assistant at Playful Promises…. this means she gets to do a bit of everything in the life cycle of a collection from working on new ideas to talking to customers. She is the ideal person to know all the gossip at Playful Promises. The PP homepage is located at playfulpromises.com.

Read all posts by Lisa Williams right here!

We stock Mar Egeu Brazilian bikinis which are both flattering and practical. They are genuinely Brazilian and I am watching them now, via FedEx tracking, making the long journey from Brazil to the UK.

Call me a sad nerd, but I get a strange kind of pleasure watching as each leg of the journey is completed. On the 28th the bikinis left Mar Egeu and travelled to Campinas in Brazil before flying up to Memphis in the US and then on to Newark, again in the States, before taking the big flight over the Atlantic to land in Stanstead in the UK today (31st March). Now I can expect a delay as the bikinis have to clear UK customs before they can be transferred to a UK courier but I know that within a matter of days we will be opening the parcel of 2008 bikinis – and then all we need is the sun.

Gill Fernandez – Ever So Sexy
A background in finance and sales but a deep desire to do something more feminine brought Gill into the world of lingerie when she decided to form her own company Crysalis Ltd which trades on line under the name www.ever-so-sexy.com and specialises in the glamorous, pretty and down right sexy stuff..

Read all posts by Gill Fernandez right here!