REVEALED SUMMER 2023 - Flipbook - Page 14
Giving the Bird Since 2003
Specialty
retailers
Birdie’s, Kansas City, MO
budget to advertise. Who wants to be
marketed to in a state of undress under
fluorescent lights? Campaigns pitching
that measurement designates a woman’s
femininity as more or less “real” are
counterproductive.
Billboards announcing all sizes show
a line-up of same-shaped bodies in
a flawless spectrum of buttercream
pigment at different heights. They are
laughing. I imagine the photographer
instructing these models to smile bigger,
the creative director blurring their stretch
marks, scars and cellulite into the digital
abyss. We drive by these visual occlusions
on the interstate, wheels and eyes rolling.
Lingerie shop owners unite multiple times
a year all over the world. We discuss. As
long as there are bodies, lingerie will
When what we want and what we need
Retailers are the
lifeblood of our
industry. They are who
welcome consumers
in the door. They
accommodate their
needs and listen to
what they have to say.
We would not exist
without them. Specialty
retailers are even more
important. These are a
few of the best in the
business.
is a soft battle between who we are and
how we prefer to be seen, lingerie is
armor.
B irdie s has h e l d sp a ce b e t we en
permission and persuasion for over
two decades. It’s a parlor. A soft place
with natural lighting and vintage oak
candy cabinets where people feel safe
and comfor table being themselves.
We carr y and have access to most
we greet our skin in the morning and say
goodbye to ourselves at night.
Lace is powerful and inclusive: we vow
our lives to one another draped in it,
protect powdered cookies in papered
versions and bury the dead in intricate
and infinite patterns of cotton cobwebs
and silk blossoms. Overlooked and
understated, it supports us while we
wait.
sizes while validating and navigating
individual identity. Tell us you want to buy
something sexy and we will ask what sexy
looks like to you.
The big ger the s tore that carries
a brand, the louder and larger the
R E V E A LED - T HE SU MME R IS SUE #9
exist. It is the first and final layer — how
Peregrine Honig
www.birdiesloves.me
