My life in women's knickers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/02/lingerie-agent-provocateur (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/02/lingerie-agent-provocateur)
11/2/2008
The images of Helena Christensen in the orgiastic new Agent Provocateur ads sent a bolt of longing through my body. But the desire was not for her lingerie or her lovely pirate ship festooned with decoratively erotic friends, or Helena herself, or even for a jolly roger thereof. The longing was for the not-so-distant past when women's underwear was furtive, secret and confined to small discreet shops and the corners of department stores where men feared to tread.
Nowadays this faux-pornography is plastered all over magazines and newspapers, but I can remember a time that the best it got was the pages of the Freemans mail-order catalogue. In those days, lingerie was mostly white, gusseted and with a vaguely virginal or medical feel. It did enough to give my overactive prepubescent libido a sturdy jolt, but it was pretty obvious that sexual provocation was fairly low on the priorities of whoever designed the stuff.