The final photoshoot that I styled and shot along with Ellen Mcneelance and Isobel Brady.
I also wrote an article to go along side the photoshoot, with Ellen Mcneelance.
What does your knicker draw say about you?
A brief investigation
A part of dress, an erotic artefact, a mundane task or a consumption practice. It has the ability to empower us, make us feel secure or insecure. But there’s no denying that underwear is strong part of our identity, as women in the 21st century. In this article we have been getting up close and personal with a selection of beautiful and brave women to find out the secrets behind their lingerie, a brief story of the hidden identity.
Grey saggy knickers? Holey vests and fraying bra straps? Sound familiar? You’re not alone. According to a survey… only a third of women bother to push the boat out and match their knickers to their bra, and more than half venture no further than Marks & Spencer for their undies It seems that there is some kind of public problematising of such women and that they have “lost the plot” regarding what they wear under their clothes. Or, on the other hand there is a clear social expectation that women should match their underwear, buy underwear not only when it needs replacing and buy imaginative (sexy or special) underwear? Does your underwear draw look more “hello boys” or “not tonight darling”?
Its overwhelmingly clear clothing plays an important role in our lives, for its often through the way we dress that we substantiate our sense of self and our place in society. It becomes an indicator of our personal worth, values and beliefs. But underwear has the option to be out of sight, perhaps this makes us more daring with the styles, textures and brands we select to place next to our skin, or even perhaps the opposite, which makes us pose the question… What is the most important thing about underwear? The photographs we have taken focused on young women in their home, a place they felt most comfortable show us their underwear and tell us about how it came into their lives…There is something significant in the way that women select underwear.
’Underwear makes our bodies speak’, this woman explained how when she wears her favourite piece’s of matching underwear she gains an enviable presence, she feels like she can make a statement to the world. It may be a small object on her body, but yet has the ability to make a big impact on the way she feels and acts that day.
Todays society clearly implies that underwear has erotic connotations, and that women who do not buy “imaginative” and “sexy” lingerie are committing some kind of injustice against the sex lives of the British nation – and perhaps British men especially. However, women are not necessarily held at gunpoint to engage in routine practices of beauty and feeling sexy. Some women for example would argue that they put on their sexiest underwear when they are home alone because they want to feel sexy even in their most private moments and when no one else is looking.
But i couldn’t help wondering, for women do not pay attention to underwear, women who wear mismatched bras and knickers, who spend less than £10 a month on underwear, buy underwear only when it needs replacing or buy their underwear in Marks & Spencer in multipacks of 8 pairs of knickers… What does underwear mean to them? I have also began to wonder, do other women feel influenced by reading this type of article? And do they feel ashamed of their practical, black and white underwear.
However, women seem to be less bothered about the brand of underwear they had selected, I was surprised to find that not all of the women could remember where they bought their underwear. This is unheard of in a culture that’s becoming increasingly centred around brand. The model expressed the fact she felt we have little choice but to run our lives as if they were a business, and as such, we begin to think of ourselves as if we where brands, her underwear allows her to rest from this pressure and use it as a form of self-expression rather than self-promotion.
Underwear has been historically used to shape the female body into the ‘appropriate’ silhouette, to enchase parts of the female body and in general serve as a way of gender distinction. Every period of history has had its own standards of what is and is not beautiful, and every contemporary society has its own distinctive concept of the ideal physical attributes. We learn the idea of imperfection from a young age, and typically at school girls aspire to be perfect – studies show that attractive children are more popular, both with classmates and teachers, but we must learn to celebrate our imperfections. Most of us didn’t even need the bullies – we did that to ourselves. Correction, are still doing it to ourselves. But it’s only human to not like everything about yourself – in fact it would be weird if you didn’t.
After photographing a selection of different characters and personalities it became clear the image helped to emphasise the quirks and flaws of people in the most organic way, an almost journalistic sense of telling the truth, an important recorded keeper perhaps vital in documenting and mirroring our time, the photos are living refection of our culture and social currents of what’s going on behind the clothing we see daily. Individuality begins at our underwear; it’s about a person telling a story and channeling their personality though the clothing closest to the body. Underwear has moved away from its first generation of its primary purpose of being practical, now even political…
Perhaps underwear has too much to say to be hidden away.
By Olivia Smith and Ellen Mcneelance