Let me tell you a tale about my husband, pre him putting a ring on it we dated for a couple of years, I was 25 he was 21, and it was our first Christmas together. What I didn’t know at that point is that he isn’t the best gift buyer, I mean an A for effort every time but he just misses the mark on some things. This particular Christmas I was excitedly opening up my presents, and I felt something squishy, almost clothes like. What he also didn’t know is you should never attempt to buy me clothes, my own mother stopped that when I reached aged 11 as she soon realised I knew what I liked and what I would wear. To this day she has bought me 2 vest tops and some socks without me so you can see what I mean!
Unfortunately, it wasn’t even clothes he had decided to buy me underwear, another fail right!? Oh yes, let’s just say it had parts missing that you’d usually expect to see in underwear hahahahaha. Luckily for him, I’m straight talking and so it was returned sharpish and swapped for some chocolate or something. Since then he hasn’t dared venture back into buying me lingerie, but when John Lewis got in touch to tell me about their Partners Guide to Buying Lingerie I knew I had to give him another chance armed with this info.
Of course, it wasn’t quite as covert as the guide suggests as I knew about it and of course accompanied him to the John Lewis in the Victoria Gate in Leeds to take photos. He did do as suggested though and checked out my size, the style of my preferred bra and pants. He got stuck at step three as my wardrobe is an overwhelming array of colours and so he just shut the doors on that one!
Once at John Lewis he got to the lingerie department and started to browse. He knew two things at this point, it had to be padded and it had to be a size 38DD. Now, unfortunately, the styles stocked in my size were predominantly unpadded styles, by then he had decided (correctly) that it wasn’t an option to have no pads. My theory is that no one needs to know when I’m cold! He knew this from recent bikini shopping adventures. So he was drawn toward the pretty basics from Triumph that came in my size and also the beautiful casual Calvin Klein sets that come in sizes S-L.
He didn’t focus on what types of clothes I have, or what colours but more on who I am as a person – which is one of two extremes. Dressed up prettily and off out somewhere, or still in PJ’s snuggled under a blanket at home. So he picked underwear for me to do just that in!
My ‘Saturday Night’ underwear was from the Triumph range and has lovely lace detailing at the straps and across the briefs. The Amourette Spotlight T Shirt Bra (£36)* is super comfy to wear too whilst also looking that little bit special. He got me briefs as he knows I hate thongs, and of course went for classic black as I do tend to wear darker colours on nights out. They have lovely lace detailing at the front and across the cheeks at the back.
My ‘Sunday Morning’ underwear was from Calvin Klein. I confess I did have to try this on, as most of their sized underwear only went up to a size 36DD so we needed to make sure it actually fitted! This Stretch Bralette (£38)* size L does just cover the necessary parts as you can see, and is super comfy. Perfect for lazy mornings at home. The briefs (£23)* are also another full pant but more low rise and again the size L fit me great as there’s lots of stretch in them.
I love how the guide made him think about what I like, and what I like to do and I don’t think we could have got it more perfect! So if you think your partner is off to buy you lingerie this Valentines, then I’d recommend guiding them to this lingerie buying guide so they get it right! Let me know if they try it won’t you!?
*Post in association with John Lewis, as always words and thoughts are my own (and my husbands!)