Smalls pleasure
A London lingerie store that caters for men
WORDS | ROBINA DAM
CHOOSING LINGERIE FOR A WIFE, girlfriend or mistress is fraught with difficulty at the best of times but it doesn’t seem to deter men, particularly this month which, thanks to St Valentine (the patron of underwear apparently) sees a surge in sales bigger than a double D cup.
So when the high-end lingerie boutique Apartment C launched recently in Marylebone, the concept offered a totally different shopping experience. Out went the sheepish-looking blokes standing around fitting rooms of department stores, in came relaxed men-about-town imbibing gin cocktails (served quaintly in teacups) at the bar at the back. Black carpets, dark walls, velvet and vintage chandeliers set the scene; as does the ceiling covered by – I kid you not – an array of stuffed flying pigeons.
So while mademoiselles get trussed up in the spacious changing rooms, even the most reserved of English gentlemen can relax with Hendricks gin in the clubbable armchairs perusing ‘arthouse’ books by publishers Assouline.
Set up by Kenya Cretegny, a Central St Martins fashion graduate, the store has a capsule collection of international designers, several of which are exclusive to the UK (such as VPL and Wundervoll).
“A woman can mean business and be naughty at the same time. So we say our styles suit different moods rather than a certain type of woman,” says Cretegny. The online boutique launches on 1 February so orders from Manchester to Moscow can now be catered for.
Apartment C, 70 Marylebone High Street, W1, +44 (0)20 7935 1854; www.apartment-c.com
Word up!
Informal phrases from around the bmi network
MOSCOW: Kogda rak na gore svistnet
EXCLAMATION: When the crab whistles on the mountain We say ‘pigs might fly’ to express our disbelief. Over in Russia a whistling, mountain climbing crustacean is the epitome of impossibility.
TEHRAN: Damet garm
EXCLAMATION: May your breath be warm A direct translation would be ‘warm breath’, though in Persian poetry the phrase is synonymous with honourable vitality. These days it serves as a jovial salutation to any admirable act or statement.
BEIRUT, DAMASCUS, AMMAN: Hamdilah ala salameh
EXCLAMATION: Thank God for your safe return This may pack more emotional force than ‘welcome home’, but it is the way to greet friends once they’re back from a trip.
COPENHAGEN: At have rotter på loftet
PHRASE: To have rats in the attic Just as we say someone is a sandwich short of a picnic, so the Danish use this term to describe crazy people.
