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From "The Telegraph" in FCUKLand:
Bondage-look lingerie has Christmas all tied up
Bondage-look lingerie is staging a comeback as a dominant Christmas shopping trend.
BY HILARY ALEXANDER | 01 DECEMBER 2010
Black bra, £82, and coordinating briefs, £52, Nichole de Carle at Selfridges.com
Bondage-style underwear is emerging as this Christmas's dominant trend when it comes to lingerie, as shoppers cast aside their inhibitions in the quest for high-priced exotica for the bedroom.
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Inspired by the raunchy on-stage looks of stars such as Rihanna, Cheryl Cole and Lady Gaga, girls are prepared to pay hundreds of pounds for flimsy bras, knickers and playsuits, embellished with suggestive fetish-look straps and braces.
The UK lingerie market is worth £2.59 billion, with women investing more than ever on luxury labels, but this season, Selfridges reports the average lingerie spend is up by 20 per cent on the more risqué and daring brands, including Agent Provocateur and Myla.
In pictures: Bondage-style lingerie
The store has recently taken delivery of the latest collection by the young British designer, Nichole de Carle, and her luxury, bondage-inspired bras, knickers and playsuits are already a sell out in stores nationwide and online.
De Carle, a graduate of De Montfort University in Leicester - regarded as the best underwear and corsetry college in Europe - launched her career in 2001 after completing the 'Contour' course with first class honours. She worked with Alexander McQueen in London, Donna Karan in New York, and Pleasure State in Australia before establishing her own brand.
This season, her 'Dream Catcher', a stretch-silk bondage-bra, costing £220, with co-ordinated briefs featuring play-braces, at £85, is one of the collection's hottest items, together with a white body-suit, called 'Last Testament', vaguely reminiscent of Madonna's famous 'rocket cone bra', at £225. Other undercover-exotica from the young Brit includes a black stretch-silk playsuit, styled as a camisole attached to suspender-style knickers, at £225, and a more simplified, strappy black bra for £82, with coordinating briefs, £55.
Equally provocative is the latest collection by the Dutch designer Marlies Dekkers, a favourite with Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Nicole Sherzinger, and The Pussycat Dolls. Her designs are sold in London at the chic Apartment 'C' lingerie boutique on Marylebone High Street. The Christmas collection, called 'Dark Theme', includes gothic-inspired bra-and-knickers sets with names like "Beautiful Bat". Prices start from £46 for briefs, up to £100 for bras.
The cost of such designs almost seems a bargain, however, compared to the most expensive bondage-style lingerie in the world, designed by Frenchwoman Maxine Wattam, which arrives at Selfridges next week. Wattam's collection, called 'Kinbaku' (meaning bondage in Japanese), is a criss-cross tracery of strategically-placed fine silken straps, embellished with yellow-gold or rose-gold and jewels, and costing between £1,000 and £3,000. Maxine Wattam will be making a personal appearance at Selfridges' London flagship on December 11th to demonstrate the intricate art behind her bondage-inspired looks.
Helen Attwood, Selfridges' head lingerie buyer, said: "This winter S&M has gone couture. Gone are the days of bondage lingerie looking more back-street than Bond Street. To keep up with demand for lingerie with serious edge, we're about to launch our most expensive erotica yet. Sales of the sexiest designs of lingerie are already up 50 per cent and we predict that this Christmas won't be white. It'll be black silk with a leather trim."
Meanwhile, at the nation's favourite bra and knickers store, Marks & Spencer, a spokesperson said the chain did not really have "anything that's entirely bondage-esque, that's not our customer", but noted that M&S's 'Shapewear' collection did have nods to the trend, with mock-suspender tights, at £9.50, a zip-up slip at £25, and a suspender slip, at £35.