Underneath it All: Lingerie’s Foray into Inclusivity
*Article from Lexington Line Spring/Summer 2024 Issue, pages 6-7
Check out the full issue here
I remember strolling through the aisles of now antiquated department stores with my mother and asking her why women’s underwear was always decorated with little hearts, stripes, or flowers, and she would always respond that it’s because it’s fun to wear. At the time, I thought that was ridiculous, but now I understand what she meant.
Lingerie has always had a shroud of taboo surrounding it—especially as it relates to woman’s sexual freedom—but all of that is starting to change. Hundreds of lingerie retailers have gained media traction heralding themes of empowerment, self-care, and inclusion: even Victoria Secret has distanced itself from its infamous VS Angel branding.
The message is clear: lingerie is no longer a spectator sport, but a way to identify with your own body.
Lingerie can be a difficult word because the usual connotation is sexual, but it is a much broader spectrum of fashion,” says Laura Henny, owner of The Rack Shack, a lingerie and underwear store in Bushwick that prioritizes inclusivity.
Some say surrounding yourself with and wearing things that are pretty can have a positive impact on your mental health and confidence. Vanessa Gamez, an ex-model with Barbizon Modeling School and Neal Hamil Agency, recently challenged herself to wear lingerie every day for thirty days.
“It does something to you how it makes you feel and how you walk around with more of a power,” Gamez says.
A 2016 study from the University of Chester also found that wearing something nice for yourself can boost your mood and help you feel more confident in your body.
Lily Pierce is a mental health and eating disorder awareness ambassador for Project Heal, an organization that aims to make resources for healing more accessible and inclusive. (P.S.: She is also a musician, and her most recent single is called “Lingerie.”)
“Anything used in the right way can be empowering,” Pierce says. “I don’t know many women who have not struggled with their bodies because of the standards of beauty and diet culture.”
Unfortunately, the lingerie industry in America doesn’t exactly have a great track record for being uplifting. Until recently, lingerie was only ever modeled by extremely thin women, giving the idea that there is only one way to look or feel sexy. But turning lingerie into your own endeavor rather than something you do for someone else can help negate this.
“Lingerie helped me to feel pretty without needing to have validation from another person,” Gamez says.
Underwear is also flipping its reputation by making the jump to “outerwear.” Corset tops, mesh shirts, fishnets, and silk dresses are only a few ways people have been incorporating lingerie into their fashion choices. According to Harper’s Bazaar, the underwear-as-outerwear trend is one of the most popular of the 2020s, but like most trends, has been in and out of fashion for decades.
“I will even wear certain lingerie tops as a part of an outfit—something to go out in,” says Gamez.
The use of lingerie as a part of whole outfits has helped to make the industry more inclusive and accessible. Jackson Helmholtz, a 21-year-old Heidelberg University theater student, can often be found wearing various pieces of mesh and lace accessories.
“I don’t think anything is strictly an undergarment,” Helmholtz says. “Lingerie is something I add to an outfit to give me that extra bit of confidence.”
Helmholtz illustrates that this is not just a big city trend: if students in Nowhere, Ohio can do it, then you can too.
You don’t have to look far into history to see that the lingerie industry has been both exclusionary and exploitative. Pierce says advertisements have historically pushed a specific way to be feminine, which might just make it the most severely gendered commodity since menstrual products.
“Every store or advertisement that I see is exclusively feminine lingerie, which as a male, caused me to view it as an aspect of fashion I can’t be a part of,” Helmholtz says.
Lingerie can be a healthy way to explore sexualities, identities, and styles if we continue to use it positively.
“The more that we put these ideas out into the world, the more normalized they become,” Pierce says. “Anyone should be able to feel beautiful in lingerie.”