Dear enamore fans

We would like to start by offering our utmost apologies for being so quiet. It’s been an eventful past few months to say the least.

Here’s a recap on the story of Enamore Lingerie to enamore underwear:

Last year, Gauruv and Rachel met one of the most inspiring people in, not only the fashion world, but the eco-fashion / eco-underwear / eco-lingerie world. She went by the name of Jennifer ‘Jenny’ Ambrose. To cut a long story short, having been in the UK for 10 years, Jenny was missing Canada. You can follow her blog at Jenny’s Blog.

After Jenny left, Gauruv and Rachel had to think – how can we make Enamore even MORE awesome!?

For one thing, we dropped the capital ‘E’ and furthermore, every time the word ‘enamore’ is said, we try to high five and / or chest -bump each other.

We wanted to take a whole new approach to enamore and see if we could do something that no one else had done before.

We give you…enamore underwear

Without loosing any of the original values (being eco, ethical and sustainable), we realised that there’s so many lovely women missing out on some of the most amazing fabrics and designs the underwear world has come to see!

‘You don’t have to get intimate with trees to be eco!’  - Gauruv K Malhan / Benedict Hartley 2011

With this idea, we set out on a mission and thought of John Lennon along the way, and used our imagination. We, however, added an extra couple of lyrics to the song (that don’t necessarily rhyme).

Imagine this: a world, where people wear eco / ethical / sustainable underwear without giving it a second’s thought!

So, without compromising on:

• comfort
• style
• sexiness
• cost (significantly dropped the prices)
• (and it’s sustainable underwear!)

we set out to create our sophisticated basics range.

We strongly believe that ‘eco’ clothing IS cool, IS trendy and CAN be integrated into the urban lifestyle!

We’re starting production in the next 2 weeks, at which time you can pre-order your garments, and soon it’ll be available to buy on our e-tail site and at our stockists!

Walk the Walk

enamore is VERY proud to say that enamore teamed up with Walk the Walk last Sunday, to help raise awareness for Breast Cancer (ps, CONGRATULATIONS to ALL of those women (and men) that did the 5k, 10k or half a marathon – what an awesome day it was!). This was an amazing event.

We ran a competition with the most amazing photography duo, husband and wife team, London Boudoir Photography. They are by far the most talented photographers I have ever had the opportunity to work with – and bloody hell, what an opportunity it always is!

Feedback from Walk the Walk!

The feedback on the new range was better than we anticipated – we hope you feel the same – especially when you feel just how silky soft the bamboo really is!

Included are sneak previews of our new range, from a few posters that we did for Walk the Walk.

Click to view slideshow.

With a lot of the world going eco, it’s hard to pretend that at first I wasn’t entirely enthused. With celebrities and designers jumping on the bandwagon I’ll admit I just wanted to follow. But this is perhaps the one time the celeb obsessions may actually be an intelligent life choice. The maple syrup diet? No. Colonic irrigation? Defiantly no. Adopting twenty five African children? Whole heartedly unrealistic.
Regardless of the stupid celeb crazes people decide to follow, the eco trend is the pragmatic one you could actually choose.

I’m not saying start growing all your own food and refuse to visit a supermarket, or that you must only wear second hand clothes to live a greener life. But buy your jeans from Kuyichi; get involved with eco fashion week, and… maybe grow some of your own veggies.
Okay, so I don’t grow my own vegetables, but I’m into buying the organic stuff, if that counts? But what’s really interested me about the eco phenomenon is the amount of designers who are doing it. Last year I came across designs by Thakoon and Bora Aksu that were beautiful. Even more so because there ecochic. I originally thought that the design and quality would be compromised but no – apparently it wasn’t just hippie hemp.
For Thakoon, a designer that’s dressed the American First Lady, and appreciates what organic cotton, bamboo, soya, hemp and natural silk materials are worth, we’d be stupid not follow him.

It’s almost as if fashions growing a conscience – if that could ever be possible. You could still have the pouting models, one step away from starvation, the obsessive media, the lights, music and everything else that makes fashion fun. But with a little more thought.

With the world seeming hell bent on destroying itself, it’s refreshing to see Enamore and other designers caring about their fabrics and the luxurious quality they can give. But at the end of it all, asides from just fashion it’s an intelligent choice; respecting what you put in and on your body and adding a certain value to who and what made those things. It’s quite logical really, just give good green.

Vicky from Saumarez

Today I would like to introduce you to a very special lady. Please meet Victoria Groulef. Mixing her experience in International Development with a lifelong passion for lingerie, Vicky launched Saumarez as an online luxury boutique. Vicky has wonderful demeanor and a very sophisticated sense of humour, which goes a long way in my eyes! I had the opportunity to get to the scoop on how the first few months have been running her own business.

J – Why did you decide to launch Saumarez?
V – After having my children I wanted a fresh new challenge.  I’ve always been crazy about lingerie and I’ve always said I’d like to run a lingerie boutique.  My husband said ’ why not give it a go’ and 12 months on, here I am running Saumarez.  Before having children I worked in International Development and this experience coupled with a love of vintage fashion led me to look at ethical lingerie, knickers that make a difference!

J – What is your favourite part of running your own business so far?
V – I like the freedom to be able to mold the business and do things my way.  This has enabled me to incorporate a bit of personality into the site such as using comments about each item from Mia Culpa a lingerie mad burlesque starlet!  I also love working with the designers.  Ethical designers aren’t at all precious, they freely share business advice and ideas and it’s a great field to work in.

J – What is the strangest thing that has happened to you since you started?
V – I had a great conversation with our postman about bamboo knickers…. well he did ask what ethical fabrics were.  I also had a very surreal conversation with my grandmother about nipple tassels, seemingly she knew all about them and their burlesque history leaving me very red-faced!
J- I can relate to this, although mine was the washing machine repair man!

J – Who is your inspiration?
V – My children.  I can’t think of a better reason to develop an ethical business than to make a better world for them to live in.

J – Any upcoming events where people can come see you in person?
V – At 8pm on Tuesday 14th December we are holding a Christmas Shopping evening at The Sanctum On the Green boutique hotel in Cookham Dean, Berkshire.  To make the event extra special we’ve arranged performances from some of London’s best new burlesque talents.  It’s a perfect excuse to enjoy a drink, buy a special gift and sit back and be entertained.  All items ordered can be gift packed and ready to place under the tree for Christmas. It’s a perfect excuse to enjoy a drink, buy a special gift and sit back and be entertained.  It starts at 8pm and if you’d like more details email Vicky at info@saumarez.co.uk or you can also follow the Saumarez Blog.

Thanks for talking to us Vicky, can’t wait to see you in December!

Who says being good can’t be fun!

Until next time…

Jenny

Le Rouge

I am very fortunate to get to meet so many lovely people through my work. I would like to introduce you to the lovely Victoria Blanco and her boutique Le Rouge situated in Bowness on Windermere the beautiful Lake District. Vicky originally comes from Argentina but has been in the UK for the last ten years. She launched Le Rouge in 2009. I love this little boutique it is just beautiful with pearl hangers, oak floor and more lingerie than your heart could desire. Le Rouge is well known for always having something different and from what we’ve heard some of the favourites include our bras, knickers and camisole sets.

We also love the other glamorous goodies available to finish off that bedroom look, the shop is  filled to the brim with a range of quirky shoes, jewellery and gifts.

Inside Le Rouge

Vicky’s style of service is very personal and she tells me she’s not keen on the “hard sell” approach. Le Rouge evokes a feminine “boudoir” atmosphere, so if you live nearby or on holiday in The Lakes make sure you stop and take a look.

Le Rouge, Lake Road, Bowness on Windermere, LA23 3AE

015394 42222,  facebook:lerouge10@yahoo.co.uk

Until next time…

Jenny

'Eco Fashion' by Sass Brown

We have recently been featured in two fabulous new books! ‘Eco Fashion’ by Sass Brown and ‘The Natural Wedding Book’ by local Bath author Louise Moon. Eco Fashion focuses on sustainable and ethical products from all over the globe and tells the story behind them, in addition it shows how and where they are making an actual difference in our world. The Natural Wedding Book as the title suggests, is a packed out guide to planning and having the ultimate Eco friendly wedding including best Eco venues, suppliers, flowers, food, the dress and of course what goes underneath the dress! Grab yourself copies from the following links; ‘Eco Fashion’ and The Natural Wedding Book.

We thought we would launch our blog with a little history on under garments…

When looking back through the history of underwear, Victorian woman wore an extraordinary amount of under garments on a daily basis. The basic items included a chemise, drawers, corset and several petticoats. In general, these main garments remained throughout the period, but new ones were added (and taken away), including crinolines, bustles, corset covers and combinations.

Early Victorian underwear was rather plain and utilitarian in comparison to the wide varieties available today, which is hardly a surprise when you think about the extraordinary amount of underwear women wore in these times. Underwear was often made from firm, white linen, although cotton was available as an alternative. As the sewing machine was yet to be invented… everything was hand sewn and therefore trimmings were kept to a minimum.

During the 1870’s to the 1880’s a craze for woollen underwear rose, at this time wool next to the skin became the latest health fad (thank goodness that one past..!) However, as an alternative, in the 1880’s silk emerged as the new fashionable fabric for underwear. Alongside this, underwear was still produced from the finest cottons and linens.

In 1876 inspired by a London stage at a French revue, stocking suspenders attached to a belt, which were put on over the corset were seen and by 1878 a fashion for this arose among women.

Underwear was predominantly made in white but cream silk was also available, as was black, but not until the end of the 1890’s.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, over decorated underwear was considered extravagant and even immoral. However, this changed as underclothing became progressively more decorated during the second half of the century. This can be attributed in part to the invention of the sewing machine, which led to the creation of machine-made laces and embroideries for embellishment as well as an increase in ready-made underwear.

However, the Victorian woman’s attitude to underclothing must have also undergone a significant change, in order to be able to wear some of the very highly decorated lingerie of the last decades of the century. These garments were so excessively ornate that the former sense of immorality had to be firmly put aside. On the whole, extravagant, pretty underwear was widely accepted by the close of the century, which is a good thing for us today, as how different the world of underwear could be if it didn’t have all the beautiful embellishments.

So now you know what lies beneath…

Copy by Lucy Taylor

Our lingerie has been featured on the highly prestigous vogue.com! Jenny Ambrose founder of Enamore  explains the ethos behind the fashion of this fantastically stylish Eco Lingerie Label. Jenny describes the Enamore Lady as ‘feminine and sexy with a dash of vintage and a hint of sophistication’. To see the full feature head to:

http://www.vogue.co.uk/blogs/the-green-style-blog/101029-enamore-lingerie.aspx

And to visit the full range of fun and flirty collections shown and mentioned in the interview visit our homesite: www.enamore.co.uk