Happy New Year's Eve! 2012, for better or worse, is almost over. But, back to business: did you know that in Brazil the color underwear you’re wearing at midnight on December 31st is believed to influence your luck for the coming year? (Red means passion, pink means love, white means peace, green means luck, blue means health, and yellow means money, etc...) So, choose wisely! Our second-to-last resolution a.k.a. ITG Resolution #4: Invest in lingerie. Why?! You're thinking, Not that many people are going to see it. Maybe no one will. Maybe a lot of people will. Maybe that's none of your business! But chances are, if you're like us, sometimes you reach into your drawer in the morning, pull out that grubby, 5-year-old pair of underpants and wonder if life could be different—wonder if you could be that girl who runs around in something lacy and comfy; someone who even, gasp, has a matching set or two to her name.
There's a moment in the Diana Vreeland film The Eye Has To Travel where one of her models (all grown up) recalls the editor always insisting that her models have perfect pedicures, regardless of whether you were going to see their feet in the final photos. It was something about carrying oneself better with a pedicure—even if it was just the way you positioned your feet. Good lingerie is like that. Even if nobody sees it, or just one person does, well, it's not about them— you know it's there, and knowing that, feeling it, can change your life a little. “I love having great bras and great underwear; it’s part of my daily beauty routine,” Jacqui Getty told us not so long ago, laying out some of her favorites on a zebra ottoman [3]. “It’s like how some people put on red lipstick—for me, it’s lingerie. It makes me feel whole, and completes what I’m wearing. I’ve always been like that. I think even if you're wearing a t-shirt, it’s always nice to wear a pretty bra,”
Or, just ask Eniko—we did!—whose penchant for the finer (under)things in life, particularly the ”eby Kiki de Montparnasse (which she has in several colors), inspired our renewed attention to the details:
'One of the salesgirls at Agent Provocateur told me about a stylist who shops there a lot and has such an amazing collection of fancy lingerie that she has them framed and hung up all over her bedroom walls. I immediately thought, 'Wow, I wanna be her!' I love fancy lingerie! It's an instant ego boost. Behind closed doors and in the everyday, too. I would wear a lacy, sexy set on any weekday, because it makes me feel different: playful, cheeky, feminine, and confident. Like women from the '50s, or like Joan from Mad Men. This past summer, I got some Victoria's Secret panties and bras for my girls back home in Hungary, and my friend Anna told me a week later that the day she wore her gift, she received compliments from hot guys and was confident enough to flirt back! In my mind, just because people hide their underwear, it doesn't mean we can't tell what's going on. I have a selection for all different occasions: for a day at work—of course, for a model, it has to be basic and a little boring, unfortunately—but I have some just for the gym, some just to go out, or certain panties that I would only wear with certain dresses. I am obsessive like that, but I don't think I'm crazy. For me, lingerie is the foundation of my day: the first thing I put on, the last thing I take off. I wear it all day, so I gotta love it. And what I love most is when my bra matches my panties. I always try to buy pieces that belong together, even if I don't wear them at the same time. ' Underwear is the greatest hero of the world!' This is something I actually say after a successful tour of my favorite lingerie stores,”
Purveyors of all things Great and Panty-related:
Wylie Wilson (designed by Peta Wilson, the Australian actress best known as Nikita in the 90s show La Femme Nikita)
Eniko Mihalik [1, 2], in a Kiki de Montparnasse corselette and Pamela Love cuff, photographed by Emily Weiss in New York. Get the lowdown on her makeup look here. Jacqui Getty's lingerie collection [3]
