Swan Original

image courtesy of Rene Gruau

We just started carrying the Swan Original label in our boutique. This lingerie brand, established in 1947, was once under the creative direction of famed illustrator Rene Gruau (who created numerous images we know today, particularly his illustrations for Christian Dior). Swan Original is now under the same umbrella as the company that owns Ritratti, an Italian lingerie manufacturer. We now have two collections at our boutique, Macrame (shown) and Perle. The Macrame group is very seductive, and slightly naughty...which means it will be popular! The Perle group (images coming soon) includes bras and panties in ivory silk with tiny pearl accents. Our favorite piece is the Plunge Bodysuit - quite sexy!

1940s Lingerie

above: Alberto Vargas

above: Gil Elvgren

In our miniseries on lingerie through the decades, this post celebrates lingerie from the 1940s. As you can see, all of the ads are very sweet and proper, which adds to their timeless appeal.
During our search for images, we found more hosiery ads than anything and a lot of adds for seamless shapewear...something we are still trying to perfect today (it looks like Spanx isn't so original after all)!
It was actually a bit challenging to find images of lingerie from the 1940s (and every decade for that matter, now that we're doing this). It turns out that many of the ads that we originally thought were for lingerie, ended up being for swimwear. Almost every celeb during that time was photographed in a swimsuit, but not so much in a bra and panties. Granted, we're talking about a time when it first became acceptable for women to wear pants.
It seems like the hot lingerie items of the 1940s were slips, girdles, stockings and peignoir sets (which is typically a long flowing robe and chemise combination for those of you who have no idea what that is!).
Okay, next post is lingerie of the 1950s!!!