How to shop for lingerie

In boudoir photos, you wear little, if anything. Make sure each piece is enchanting!

Fun fact we found while researching for this article: all the best quotes about fashion come from Coco Chanel, Google them.

Budget

Your sexy attitude is years in the making, your body is millions of food and exercise choices. Use the same care in picking your clothes.

Prices for good bra, panties and lingerie items – expect to spend a little more than Victoria’s Secret prices.

Time is an important consideration. Plan on getting a professional measuring and having clothing shipped from abroad. This could take 2-3 weeks. We also have some Amazon Prime-able choices below if you need to trade quality for speed.

Next we’ll review all the items for your wardrobe.

Bras

Bras are a sure sign of modern wear invented circa 1900 to cover, reveal or reshape breasts. This staple replaces corsets for nearly all women, styles abound.

Bra styles by Journelle

Fitting advice: There should be no extra room or overflow in the cups, and they should fit snugly across all parts of the breast. Other than this simple advice, try a variety of bras and keep all the ones that make you feel good! Also for people that have had bad experience with “professional fittings”, please check out https://www.reddit.com/r/ABraThatFits/, this is a whole community dedicated to helping you find a comfortable fit.

Panties

Panties also come is all shapes and sizes. However, butts are less varied than breasts so the choice is less about fitting your body and more about fitting your style.

Panty styles by Cosabella

Variations

The choice of fabric and detail will have much more impact on your appearance than the cut.

Various wireless lace bras by Journelle (#5 is Esther Bralet by Eberjey, #6 is Villa Satine Triangle Bra by Maison Close)

Here is a comparison of different materials and sheerness. There are many different opinions on what fashion is acceptable — Europeans use sheer clothing in all types of advertising, and in Asia anything less than a sweater may be considered distasteful in many contexts. Luckily you get to decide for yourself what clothing you buy!

Try a new brand some time, or buy from a new country! You may be surprised how even simple underwear can look and feel so much different if it is made with different stitching or fabrics. Here’s to variety!

Victoria’s Secret Bombshell bra versus Fleur du Mal sheer lace-trimmed bra

For a photo shoot, try avoiding anything with a print, and always bring more clothes than you need. The best portraits usually have solid color clothing — they allow the focus to be more on you.

Expression

In 2017, chokers are definitely in style. Garter belts and stockings are timeless. Or to spice it up, try cat ears, furry wristbands or a tail!

Brands

First, a quick note. Before spending your retirement funds on beautiful and luxurious clothing, make sure it fits. Read the sizing notes and customer feedback online. Especially for bras, see fitting advice above.

In our trip to Milan this year, we collected catalogs of local lingerie brands.

Catalogs and business cards from Will and Su’s trip to Italy

All brands will have catalogs you can pick up, so we have plenty in the studio to check out. And of course they probabily all have websites. Some bigger brands that we saw in Italy are: La Perla, Intimissimi, Calzedonia, Yamamay, Tezenis, Desigual. Some of these only sell lingerie in one department or only sell certain items. Plan to spend 40 to 100 EUR for a good piece of clothing.

However, also check out the many boutiques that help you discover the smaller brands. And best yet, you can find “lace shops” that sell hand made, customer lingerie on the spot. Go in for a measuring and they will have your piece made before you leave. Oddly enough, you will know if you are in an authentic artisan lingerie shop (not a boutique or corporation) because all the good ones also sell baby clothes.

Here are a few extra brands outside of Italy you may consider: Fredrick’s, Playful Promises, Agent Provocateur, For Love and Lemons.

All brands are mentioned here without payment. Although we do have experience with all the brands mentioned here.

Written by William Entriken 2017-01-08.