I've had many ~many~ requests to write a blog post on my layering "skills" or "techniques" over the past couple of years. I've never actually done it because honestly there's no great thought process behind my lingerie layering. I throw some stuff on and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I've always thought that if i wrote up a blog post, it would fall in 'well duh' territory and no one would find it helpful. I was also beyond reluctant to even bother because i've seen people piece for piece copy my layering styles, and get blasted when i dared point out that there's something very uncreative and stifling about spending your money to dress exactly like someone else and then allowing people to praise you for it. But i digress, as i'm drawing further and further away from lingerie communities in favour of friendships that are built on something more than just body and wealth worship, i've come to care a lot less about these things. I now keep most of my collection and my 'outfits' to myself (or rather to my real life) anyway and since the blog is a bit quiet recently, it is probably a good time to share my very basic thought processes and maybe someone will find it helpful in getting their creativity flowing to utilise their own collections to the fullest.
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| Agent Provocateur Annoushka over Whitney |
As with any 'well-structured' essay, after the introduction comes the history; I've been layering bras since i was a young teen. I wore two, occasionally three bras at a time because none of them fit me. The ultimate pleasure of being small busted in a world where being small busted is dismissed as being flat chested, i wanted to have the appearance of larger boobs and i wanted my bras to stop gaping badly at the top. There's nothing quite like spending years avoiding the low cut tops you oh so want to wear because you know anyone taller than you will have a great view of your nipples, down the front of your bra. And i had a lot of friends who were taller than me. Eventually i stopped and one day i was fitted (incorrectly but much closer to my true size) and i now have a select few basic bras that don't gape. But a LOT of exciting lingerie just does not come in my size, nor my sister size, nor my other sister size. It's always too large and for a while it used to really get me down that i'd never be able to own the pieces i really wanted.
A couple of summers ago, i came off the contraceptive pill and my tits swelled ever so slightly. On a trip to Paris, i tried on the newly released Agent Provocateur Annoushka and a combination of the temporary hormonal imbalance and the terribly low lighting in every AP boutique (someone needs to tell AP, diffused side lighting is so much better than low, overhead) made it look like it was a flush fit. Actually when i got it home, it was clear the fabric wrinkled at the bottom and didn't sit flush. It was also exceedingly impractical for me as it didn't give me a great shape under clothes. Inspiration struck when i was musing on how i used to try and force bras to fit me as a teen and i layered it over my recently tailored (thanks mum) Whitney bra and everything kind of came together, not only did it make the fit miles better but it was also more suitable for everyday wear. And ever since then it's been my go to for all occasions, both bras have been worn to death (but are still hanging in there) as outerwear and it opened my eyes up to how i could recycle lingerie i was bored of or didn't fit great into something wearable and exciting for me.
So i guess here are my four (five?) starting points for layering lingerie and incorporating it into outfits. I'm aware that these aren't rocket science, that my examples and outfits may not appeal to you, that you may find this wholly unhelpful, etc. That doesn't concern me so cease fire on your lengthy hate emails (stop hate stalking man, go volunteer for a charity or something), i just hope these tips can help people who are here for advice.
I also know that layering is a pastime of the privileged, something that you need a decent sized lingerie arsenal to produce many combinations. But if your goal is to layer then guaranteed you already own pieces that would compliment each other.
So i guess here are my four (five?) starting points for layering lingerie and incorporating it into outfits. I'm aware that these aren't rocket science, that my examples and outfits may not appeal to you, that you may find this wholly unhelpful, etc. That doesn't concern me so cease fire on your lengthy hate emails (stop hate stalking man, go volunteer for a charity or something), i just hope these tips can help people who are here for advice.
I also know that layering is a pastime of the privileged, something that you need a decent sized lingerie arsenal to produce many combinations. But if your goal is to layer then guaranteed you already own pieces that would compliment each other.
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| Lascivious Basque under Sonata Bodysuit |
Opaque Under Sheer
The most obvious layering tip of all time, is to layer up your sheer stuff. It basically takes anything from underwear to outerwear if you stick something you can't see your nipples/genitals through under something you can. If i'm treating my sheer garment as the showstopper then i pick something opaque that compliments the shape and colour of it. Likewise if you have a particular combination of lingerie you want more people to see, then sheer garments can be used to make them more 'public-friendly'. This example is one i wore fairly recently to The Lingerie Edit. I actually wore my black bodysuit over my black basque (but thought the white would be easier to photograph for this post) and threw a tennis skirt on the bottom.
There doesn't have to be just two layers either. If you have a sheer bra you want to show off, layer it over an opaque bra and under a sheer top. When i'm feeling particularly uninspired, i drag out all my sheer outerwear and my sheer underwear and see if i can somehow make them work together in a way that is fit for public.
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| Agent Provocateur Jena bra layered over Hopeless Bralette and Knickers |
Matching Colours
Taking the prize for being the second most obvious tip is to match up pieces that have similar colour palettes. Obviously endless black is the easiest to layer as most lingerie is produced in the same shade of black, but other colours such as pinks and reds tend to go well no matter the subtle differences in shade. I always feel layering looks more impressive when it's colour matched and i'm pretty well stocked up on red lingerie that all happens to nicely go together (pure fluke). There's not really much to say about this point. Just pull out all your lingerie of one colour and try and wear it all at once. Then when that fails take off pieces until you find something that works together. I'm terrible at giving advice but clearly i also have the strangest methods.
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| Made by Niki String bra layered over Ludique Lustful bra paired with Made by Niki knickers |
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| AP Annoushka and Whitney |
Juxtapose Your Shapes
Got lingerie that leaves a patch of skin bare? Fill it with something else. I personally like to take the main feature of a piece, be it lace up detailing, or harness detailing, or a cutout detail and draw attention to it by layering it under a piece of lingerie that doesn't cover it. Sounds complicated in words but you'd be surprised how many pieces work well together when your goal is to just fill blank spaces with architectural designs. A good friend Toots is the queen of filling the blank space left by low cut tops, cardigans, etc with her Ludique Lustful bra but any piece that has a detailing with a high apex is going to layer wonderfully over a piece with a low apex too. Same goes for cutouts. If your lingerie has a large cutout feature, layer it over lingerie that encroaches on that space with something equally as exciting.
Anyone who went to uni with me will recognise my go-to lazy outfit above too. If i had to be up for 9am lectures, and stay up until pub at 4pm and beyond, then throwing on an oversized shirt or cardigan and leaving enough blank space for my Whitney and Annoushka bra to add some detail was my favourite option. Same goes for conservative work shirts, leave a few buttons undone (less than shown here if you're actually at work) and wear a bra with a high apex to peek out of the top. I also like to wear dresses with plunging necklines and make my lingerie a feature in this way too. I'm basically very lazy and this is how i incorporate lingerie into 99% of my outfits.
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| Topshop bralette under Ann Summers Bra |
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| Missguided bralette under H&M crop top under Creepyyeha Ravish Me bra worn with Topshop hotpants under Creepyyeha Ravish Me garter Get Creative If i'm bored on an evening or i have time to kill then i play dress up. And that's basically how i find my favourite combinations. Sometimes what works in your head doesn't execute well and sometimes it executes so much better than imagined. For me it's a trial and error process and so it's important to just get creative. Throw on stuff with reckless abandon and see what sticks. Experiment with textures, shapes, fabrics and colours and most importantly, a mixture of underwear and outerwear. One of the examples above is something similar to the items i nervously threw on for my first date with Beau, almost a year ago, matched it with a tennis skirt (seeing a pattern here?) and totally got laid for an entire year (success!). |
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| Agent Provocateur Robyn bra and knickers worn under Sandra bra and knickers with Raive waspie layered under Sandra suspender belt. |
Failing that, Straps. Lots of Fucking Straps
Yeah, it's mind-numbingly obvious how i pick most of my lingerie combinations. Does it have strap detailing? Can i wear this strap detailing with other pieces with strap detailing? How many pieces of lingerie can i wear in one go? You get the picture.
I know some people hate lingerie with strap/harness detailing. Some people hate when people wear lots of this kind at once. But clearly i am not one of those people and i am so down to endlessly buy and layer my black strappy lingerie. I'll give up my straps when i'm dead. And it's kind of fool-proof. Just make sure all your straps can lie flat with some space in between them and you're good to go. I like to throw in a bit of texture with a few kinds of lace to break everything up a little but honestly, if you have say three sets of lingerie with strap detailing, or two sets and a harness, then you can have so many different combinations just by how you layer them. Take the example above. I could have worn the Sandra underneath Robyn and gotten a completely different shape. If i hadn't already spent 3 hours taking photos for this blog post (and yes, even after all of that i still have to recycle my xmas post photo because sometimes photos turn out shite) then i'd have illustrated this point further but you'll just have to take my word for it. You can't go wrong with straps, no matter what your size. And yes, you will spend a lot of time re-adjusting them. And yes, they may dig in and give you little muffin tops all over your body. But who cares?
And that's really all i think about when putting together my layering combinations. Is there a sheer part i want to be opaque? Are there exciting features i want to show off that compliment each other? Is it a colour i have other pieces in to match? Are there straps?
Really basic but it seems to work for me. I'm sure there are great layerers out there with much more sophisticated methods to their madness but as with everything i do, i'm just more wing it until it works.
As a final little disclaimer, i can only speak from my own experiences and offer tips that work for me personally. I am a slim, very small busted, pear shaped human being who lives in a particularly micro-cultured city. I have spent time working on my collections to get combinations to suit my body type (or at least feel like they do) and i know i haven't offered any tips specifically for people who aren't small busted or have different body types. So if you feel you have a layering tip that i haven't touched upon, for any body type, then feel free to leave a comment with it in.
