More images from our press extrvaganza

Mam'zelle Maz shows off her feathery bits!

We have just recieved some fabulous images from our press event last week at The Box! I've picked out my absolute favourites that really sum up the evening, but the rest of the images you can see over on our facebook page.

Maria Fowler from The Only Way Is Essex shows how you can wear underwear as outerwear! Our Etti bra looks fabulous with a black satin underbust and black skinny jeans.

Models Odette and Signe strut their stuff

Jessica and AnitaModels Cassie, Anastasia and Katie let their hair down!The beautiful Miss Polly RaeModels Jessica and Anita with our marketing assistant, Anna

Press event spectacular!

 

On Thursday it was all hands on deck organising our glamorous and celebrity studded soiree at the infamous The Box nightclub!

To celebrate the launch of our latest boutique, just off Carnaby Street, we invited a range of press and VIP guests to join us for a night of performances and lingerie. 34 Marshal Street, Soho, W1 7EU is set to open today, the 4th October 2011.

Set in the perfect seedy decor courtesy of The Box, eight gorgeous models took to the stage to present pieces from Playful Promises AW11 and SS12 collections. The VIP crowd were drooling at the scene of Morgana, Etti, Jasmine and more modelled by beautiful pin-ups.

 

Special guest, The Only Way Is Essex's Maria Fowler and our founder Emma

Playful Promises had a little more down their stocking, as next, burlesque performers took to the stage displaying a little more than a playful promise.

Mamzelle Maz's traditional fan dance was perfection. Wearing gorgeous Lo-Pan's Desire nipple pasties and a customised Multiway g-string, Mamzelle Maz left the audience gasping for breath...and a little more.

After a short recovery period the audience recived a roasting from Roxy Velvet. Her fire act singed the front row audiences whilst everyone else melted in her fiesty and provocative presence. After this hot performance Roxy velvet removed her red swarovski crystal studded waspie, customised by Playful Promises, and seductively removed her red Victoria ensemble revealing nothing more but crystals.

The show was not yet over, Polly Rae graced the stage in a fabulous fishtale dress and sang an inspired re-mix of Michael Jackson's 'Bad'. Only Polly Rae could get away with this re-mastering, and she ruled the crowd. She closed the show with a seductive striptease, with emphasis on the tease, and again the audience were left with their jaws dropping.

Watch this space for more photographs and videos which will be appearing over the next few weeks, but for now, please do enjoy our little snippet of Miss Polly Rae's performance!

Playful Promises launches lingerie boutique in Carnaby Street

Exciting news! Not only do we have a shop opening in Box Park later this year but we are also opening a new boutique just off trendy Carnaby Street, minutes from Oxford Circus!

We will be moving in with the lovely ladies at The Powder Room, a retro beauty haven that offers a range of services from quick makeup touchups to full pedicures and hair styling sessions. Just think, you could pick out some of our undies, perhaps a little black dress and after a long (or quick!) relaxing preen, you are ready to paint the town red!

We officially open on Monday 3rd of October and we just cannot wait to be dancing around on that black and white checkered floor!

The original Tiger Tamer!

Described as the first female tiger trainer (or at least the most famous), Mabel Stark was renowned in the 1920s for her death-defying acts. Typical of performers, not much is known about Stark’s life before the circus, and any information may have been exaggerated to add mystique. Some sources describe her parents as poor farmers, who died within a few years of eachother when Mabel was 17.

She lived with an unwelcoming aunt and soon became a nurse-in-residence at a hospital. During this time something occurred, whether it be a breakdown or something as simple as a change of heart – within a year she was performing in a carnival girl show, dancing the hoochie coochie.

In 1911 she ended up with the Al G. Barnes Circus in California, where she met famous ‘cat man’ Louis Roth. Working as a ‘high school’ rider (horseback rider) she set her heart on working with the big cats. Roth did not consider her worthy; until she married him (Stark married 4 or 5 times, mostly to further her career).

At first she worked on a ‘balloon act’, which involved her ‘riding’ a lion on a platform, complete with fireworks – a relatively simple act compared to what was to come! The circus encouraged her to work with lions, as it is easier to guess their actions and intents, but Mabel had an undying love for tigers. By 1916 she was presenting the show’s major tiger act.

She adopted a sickly tiger cub named Rajah, raising him by hand by keeping him in her apartment and playing with the cub at the beach. Realising how well he responded to physical touch, Stark decided to train him to perform a wrestling act – something that had never been seen before. Debuting the act in 1918, she shocked and appalled the audience, who believed that she was being mauled to death. It is said that brave men would often leave their seats, rushing towards the steel cage to try to save her.

Mabel Stark (left) with Mae West

Hitting the big time in 1922, she joined the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, rising to star in the center ring just a year later. It is said that personal problems with yet another marriage resulted in an altercation with the circus, and in 1925 they banned all wild animal acts.

Moving to another circus in Maine, a collection of issues led to Stark receiving a severe mauling. The circus had been delayed by rain, and by the time the show began, the tigers had spent the day on wet bedding. Stark had no time to feed the tigers, which would normally have resulted in a cancellation of the performance, however, she went on anyway. Some describe this as her first attempt at suicide, and later in life she often explained that she wanted to die being torn apart by her tigers. She lost her footing in the muddy arena and suffered wounds that almost severed her face, lacerated her face, tore a hole through her shoulder and a whole host of other injuries.

It took 2 years for Stark to fully recover and start touring with various circuses. She returned to California and finished her career at the Jungle Compound (later called Jungleland). In 1968 a new owner took over the business, who took an immediate dislike to Stark and fired her. Soon after this, one of the tigers escaped and was shot. Mabel was outraged, feeling that she could have secured the tiger if only asked for assistance.

Distraught by the loss of her job and personal memories of her career, husbands and tigers, she decided enough was enough. On April 20, 1968 she took a bottle of barbiturates, walked to the garage and put herself to sleep behind the wheel of her car. In the last pages of her autobiography, ‘Hold That Tiger’, published in 1938, she writes, “The chute door opens as I crack my whip and shout, ‘Let them come!’ Out slink the striped cats, snarling and roaring, leaping at each other or at me. It’s a matchless thrill, and life without it is not worthwhile to me.”

In honour of Mabel Stark, and all the other performers who have lived sad and glamorous tales, we have decorated the Playful Promises boutique window in big top style, complete with vintage-inspired posters!

The kimono

Kimono literally means “the thing to wear” (ki “wear” and mono “thing”), which was first used in everyday language in the mid-19^th century. Prior to this, the traditional garment was only known as a kosode, meaning ‘small sleeve’. Kimono are straight-seamed robes that are wrapped around the body, left side over right, and secured with a sash known as an obi, which is tied at the back. Generally worn to the ankle, the length of the garment can be altered by drawing material up underneath the obi. The wrap style and loose fabric has been developed to cohere to the culture’s lifestyle and climate; many activities are performed while seated on the floor.

The style of traditional kimono also varies between women, men and children, and also indicates whether the female wearer is married. Young women’s kimonos, known as a furisode, have longer sleeves and tend to be more elaborate than the older, married woman’s garment. It is said that the traditional reason for the sleeves is that when replying to a man, she waves the sleeves back and forth for ‘yes’, and left to right for ‘no’.

The pattern of the kimono rather than the cut of the fabric acts as an indicator of social status; the more extravagant the pattern, the wealthier the wearer. Formality is also determined by accessories, the fabric and the number of family crests (kamon) adorning the garment. Silk was the most desirable of fabrics, with only the most privileged able to wear such luxury regularly. The majority of Japanese society would only have the chance to wear silk kimono on special occasions, sometimes being forbidden to do so all together.

Today, it is mostly women that continue to wear kimono, and usually only on special occasions. During the late 19^th century, traditional garments were gradually replaced by more convenient Western clothing and Yukata, a casual, thin style of kimono. The decline in the heavier garments seemed to happen as Eastern culture filtered through to the West, and vice versa. One slightly morbid urban myth suggests that the decline in kimono was encouraged by the 1932 fire at Shirokiya’s Nihonbashi store. Women did not tend to wear underwear under their kimono, and several women were said to refuse to jump into the safety nets for fear of exposing themselves!

The wrap style of the kimono has become an integral part of international fashion, influential throughout the West. From the Victorian period onward, Europe had a fascination with the exotic East, with stars such as Anna May Wong gracing the silver screen. To Western women the kimono seemed an ideal new garment that allowed freedom of movement, contrasting with the corseted, petticoat-clad style of the period. American interest in the kimono diminished in the tense years prior to WW2, however, souvenir kimono from returning GI’s rekindled the interest. During the 1950s, kimono and kimon-inspired gowns were popular, both as loungewear and daily wear.

If you want to grab one of these gorgeous vintage kimono for yourself, make sure you visit our boutique in Brick Lane. We currently have a selection of one-of-a-kind silk kimono starting at £150; one of which you can see modelled by the gorgeous Miss Betsy Rose above and below!