NewYorkTimes; "Men cluster to me like moths around a flame," Marlene Dietrich croons over the sound system in the lingerie department at Henri Bendel in New York. Encouraging customers to get into the mood, loose-limbed mannequins wield riding crops, and others flaunt black lace blindfolds and thongs so sheer they expose a wedge of explicit anatomy. In the store's windows, instead of the customary Santas and sprigs of mistletoe, there are a pair of mannequins, one draped in fox and little else, another crouching to show off her lacy white knickers. Induced passers-by to press in so closely that their breath fogged the glass. In a climate in which strip and burlesque shows have been revived as hip entertainment, it not surprising that retailers are flouting taboos of their own. "There was a time when if you wanted a garter belt, you would ask for it in a low tone. Now it's a thing that's out in the open, where grown men and children walk by. Visitors to Saks are greeted by store dummies sporting thongs beneath marabou bed jackets. A handful of shoppers do appear to take offense. Confronted by the central exhibit in the new 6,500-square-foot, seven-room lingerie department at Bendel's, some customers promptly spun on their heels and stalked out. Other customers seemed unfazed. As scholars point out, fetish-style corsetry, blindfolds, black stockings and peekaboo lace date back at least to the turn of the last century. By the 1920's, all these things were in place in the culture, and that just hasn't changed. So familiar are such items in women's arsenal of seduction, that they have become domesticated, Ms. Steele said. Women tell themselves, `We're playing with this naughty cliché. Big deal. So what?' The latest Bendel's innovation, to be unveiled in time for Valentine's Day, is Rykiel Woman, a boutique within the lingerie department conceived by Nathalie Rykiel, a daughter of Sonia Rykiel, the Parisian fashion legend. Ms. Rykiel plans to stock the shop with vibrating rubber ducks and lipstick tubes, displayed alongside cashmere loungewear and garter belts. That way the same woman who sells you a cashmere sweater can show you how a vibrator works, she said."
Well ladies I guess we don't have to be afraid to be nasty!! Because the world is saying play & have fun, but I don't know if I'm just to old fashion for this stuff? Don't get me wrong, my daughter talked me into buying one of those panties that have the thin strip up the butt!!... Well lets just say, I didn't like the feelings it was give my rear..LOL if you know what I mean, so least to say it was a waste of money and made the trash the first day..
