Off the peg Orchid still flowe
テーマ：ブログByline: SANDRA CHAPMAN
Some women's fashion addictions are obvious - shoes, scarves, belts, designer spectacles or handbags.
What is not so obvious is the passion of those who love expensive lingerie. Part of the thrill of course is knowing that though the T-shirt might be from a chain store what's underneath is exotic and costly.
It can put a spring in their step. But maybe their time has come. After all, the current fashion for plunging decolletage and slit skirts gives them the opportunity to flaunt their passion for all to see. Liz Hurley has shown the way.
One of the cheap abercrombie more exotic labels in this area is La Perla . One of their bras for example could cost the price of a dinner for two with wine thrown in. At prices like that it's a pity to cover it up.
Twenty one years ago Eileen Lamb set up her Orchid Lingerie Shop on Belfast's Lisburn Road. It hasn't changed much in that time. Here is a little oasis of calm where a woman can indulge her passion for buying some of the finest car accessories lingerie on the market. Shops have come and gone in the city but the distinctive pink porch and Victorian-style windows remain, reassuring women that no, they don't need to go to London, to indulge themselves.
In the sixties when Eileen was an improverished nurse at the Royal earning pounds 24 a month, she put a little by out of each pay packet to save for some gorgeous underwear.
She says: "I wasn't particularly interested in outer clothes, just underwear and I was prepared to go without to have it. I bought mine in Brands and Normans. I wouldn't have dreamed of buying it in chain stores. I gathered up a few items for my trousseau and packed them lovingly away in tissue paper. It felt so good to be able to do that."
When she became a mother she set up Orchid Lingerie: "I saw the shop as a hobby, something to do in between looking after my family. I set it up when the terrorists were still blowing up Belfast and during a recession, but that didn't stop women coming in to buy. I saw it as a special place and I still have some of those early clients as customers today."
Rich and famous show business people would occasionally pop in when they're in the city. But not all of her customers are from the moneyed classes Some, like her all those years ago, will be in ordinary jobs and have
embroidered patches to save up for that wispy but exotic bit of La Perla, Escada, Malizia or Louis Feraud.
Some of her customers are men, who know exactly what they want for their women. Eileen: "Sometimes I think women feel they should spend the money on the house or their children instead, so it's nice to think they're being indulged by their men who are a lot smarter about these things than you'd image."
Soft lights, deep carpet, pastel colours, the intoxicating smell of La Perla perfume and someone to help ensure a good fit! Orchid is a true Belfast flower that refuses to wither.
CAPTION(S):
LEFT: Eileen Lamb; Alicante from the Marie Jo Lingerie range; ABOVE: Light and see through with floral pattern, this set is by Malizia (made by La Perla); LEFT: The perfect body fit by La Perla; RIGHT: Luxury in lace by La Perla
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