IN FORM®

By Rachel Rumsey
Naomi & Nicole®

Since I began working in the underwear and shapewear industry, I’ve had people ask me a variety of questions about intimates. More often than not, I’m asked questions that have been asked of me before. I’ve always tried to provide answers in a way that puts people at ease because I realize they may feel a little awkward asking them. And since people sometimes become self-conscious asking such questions, I know that there are some that are too embarrassing to be asked in person. Looking at online forums, I’ve seen confirmation of that. In an effort to help, I’ve asked and answered some of the most common and embarrassing ones below: (more…)

By Adam Welsch
Naomi & Nicole®

Last month, it was the Golden Globe®, People’s Choice, and Screen Actors Guild Awards®.  Later this month, it’ll be the Academy Awards®.  But tonight all eyes of the intimate apparel industry will be focused on Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City for the 2011 Femmy Gala.  Presented by the Underfashion Club, Inc., the Femmy Awards recognize the achievements of members of the intimate apparel industry. (more…)

By Adam Welsch
Naomi & Nicole®

Since their invention in 1959 and subsequent widespread dissemination during the 1960s, pantyhose have taken a central role in the wardrobes of many women.  Replacing the previous need for wearing stockings with garter belts or garter-equipped girdles, pantyhose changed the hosiery landscape forever and gave women new-found comfort and fashion flexibility.  But since their creation, their makers have tried to position pantyhose as products that do more than simply smooth legs.  They’ve been sold as panty substitutes, VPL erasers, light control shapewear, rump raisers, and functional (if not shaping) leg wear.  Given that, are pantyhose merely hosiery, as most retailers and consumers view them,  with lofty but unjustifiable aspirations to sit aside conventional panties and shapewear, or are they a unique class of intimate apparel – a hybrid of hosiery, panties, and shapewear – that complete the “under-things” spectrum from socks to bodybriefers? (more…)

By Adam Welsch
Naomi & Nicole®

What is it that inspires you, the consumer, to make a purchase of intimate apparel?  Econ 101 says that you rationally take a bra’s or panty’s price and quality into consideration when shopping for one to address one of your needs.  It’s a straightforward process when you’re buying something you’ve bought before; you know how well the piece of lingerie is made and how well it functions, and you’re able to judge whether or not the utility it’ll bring you is worth the price being asked for it.  But what happens when you want to buy a particular bra, pair of panties, or piece of shapewear for the first time?  How do you know whether the item’s price is justified by its quality since you have no personal experience with its performance?  The answer is that, to a certain extent anyway, you become a lemming.  And while this has always been the case for consumers since the inception of capitalism, the rise of the internet and its rapidly evolving social structure has made it easier, and more rewarding, than ever before to act like one of those mystical little creatures. (more…)