Lingerie is a big investment. Once you’ve found the perfect fitting pieces to compliment your wardrobe and make you feel your best, then it’s very important to care for them properly. After spending so much time and money on your lingerie the last thing you want to do is just throw everything into the washer and dryer and ruin it or wear it out long before it’s time.

With proper care, you will keep your lingerie looking it’s best. Lingerie fabrics can be delicate. Laces, silks, satins–all need to be handled with a little TLC. Bras in particular will lose their shape rapidly without proper laundering.

For best results, hand washing with a delicate soap is recommended. You can use a soap made for hand washing such as Woolite, or even a gentle shampoo can be used, which has the added benefit of smelling really terrific. Rub your lingerie pieces gently to remove sweat and body oils and then soak for a few minutes. A thorough rinsing will remove the all the soap and that’s it– you are done. Gently squeeze all the water from the pieces and definitely hang them out of direct sunlight to dry. (NEVER use the dryer!)

If you are adamant about using the washer to wash your skivvies, here are a couple of hints will make your experience more positive. Firstly, use cold water and the delicate cycle. This will ensure that your washer isn’t abusing your sexy pieces or causing them undue wear and tear. Secondly, if at all possible, use a mesh bag to put your bras into when you launder them. This will help the bra straps and wires not end up in a tangled mess and ensure that they aren’t being wound around the agitator of your washing machine.

Good lingerie can be expensive and is an investment. With proper care, you will dramatically extend the life of your lingerie, and it will stay looking it’s best longer. There is nothing worse than putting on your favorite panties to discover that they now have a tear in the lace or having an underwire from a bra poking through, stabbing you somewhere it’s not supposed to. Save yourself these disasters by taking a little extra time to wash your intimate apparel appropriately. Xo J.

There have been many stories about “stage mothers”, who pushed their children into show business. Harridans who forced their sometimes talented, but often ordinary children into the limelight, whether or not they wished it. None was pushier…nor more famous for being so…than Rose Hovick, Madam Rose, the mother of June Havoc and Gypsy Rose Lee.

Gypsy Rose Lee was born Louise Rose Hovick in Seattle, in 1911. Two years later, a sister, June, was born. Rose’s father had not permitted her to go into show business, so she was anxious to give her children the opportunity that she had missed. Her husband, a newspaper ad salesman, insisted that their budget could not stretch to dancing lessons for the girls, but Rose soon divorced the uncooperative man and moved her family in with her parents. By the age of 2, little June could dance on point, and was performing in local vaudeville shows. Louise didn’t seem to have either the talent, nor the interest in the theater that her mother wished, and for a while, avoided the work and exposure that her small sister was getting. Rose decided that her children were the commodity that would support her, and so Louise was forced to perform in the vaudeville shows along with June. It was a hard life, hard for an adult, and miserable for young children. Madam Rose continued to push the girls, expecting impossibly professional behavior from both of them. When Louise still showed no interest in the profession, she was told that if she didn’t work harder, she would be given away. Madam Rose also encouraged the girls to lie about their ages, to truant officers and train conductors, to steal the sheets and towels from hotels, and to sneak out without paying. Both girls became accomplished shoplifters. June once said that after the age of 5, she never believed anything her mother said. When June was 16, she ran off with a boy from the show, and got married, thus extricating herself from her mother’s clutches. Rose was left with the largely untalented Louise as her only support.

Vaudeville was dying. The Burlesque show was on the rise. In a sea of bump and grind strippers, Louise was now a leggy brunette with a perfect figure. Although reluctant, Louise discovered that she could now make a living with no talent at all. Her “hook” was her sense of humor. In the early 1930s, she discarded the name Louise, moved to New York, and became Gypsy Rose Lee. Her act had become a parody of strippers’ acts. She revealed little actual skin, but her comedy made her a hit with men and women alike. She became the toast of New York cafe society. She tried a run at Hollywood, without much success, and she penned a play, which also failed. Her novel, “The G-String Murders”, however was a critical and commercial success, and later was made into a movie starring Barbara Stanwyck.

In the meantime, Madam Rose, whose daughters had both found the success in show business that she had always dreamed of, became even more mentally unbalanced. She tried to blackmail both of her daughters, demanding money and gifts. Although she was well-provided for, she would appear at their performances dressed shabbily, claiming to be poor and ill. Neither June, now a successful Hollywood actress, nor Gypsy communicated with their mother except through their lawyers. In 1954, her mother, Madam Rose, died. Her last words were a threat to Gypsy, promising to drag her daughter into death with her.

With her mother gone, Gypsy was free to exploit the story of her childhood without fear of legal action. She wrote her memoirs, “Gypsy”, which was an instant best seller. She turned down a movie deal for $200,000, opting instead to sell the rights to her story for $4000 against a percentage of the gross, to be made into a musical. “Gypsy – A Musical Fable” which featured music and lyrics by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, has been called the greatest American musical. With songs like “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and “Let Me Entertain You”, the play translated brilliantly to film, starring Rosalind Russell as Madam Rose, and a young Natalie Wood as Gypsy.

Gypsy Rose Lee retired to a home in Beverly Hills and spent her later years guest starring on television game shows and talk shows. The Queen of Burlesque, and our Tart of the Week, she died in 1970, leaving her book and the musical it inspired as her legacy.

I was working with a new guy at my job the other day and was teaching him how to do a procedure on our computer system. It was during this training session that I suddenly became keenly aware that I was being checked out. Actually it was much worse than this. I was being ogled. What should have been a furtive, discretionary peek (that I would have more than likely been completely unaware of) had turned into something really creepy and obnoxious. Instead of looking me in the face, his eyes were way more interested in my 34 D’s. Suddenly I found my cheeks getting a bit hot and I got a little tense. I was sitting just a few feet from this guy and there he was, taking long extended looks at my chest. Yes, I was annoyed.

Us girls are fickle, dichotomous creatures. Most of us enjoy being sexy and we also enjoy being appreciated for our attractiveness. This appreciation walks a fine line however, and there are men out there that don’t seem to understand when they are on the very wrong side of that line. For example, there’s that sleezy guy at the gym who leans on the dumbbell rack and stares at me while I am doing upright rows…sorry bro–you are creepy.

There are exceptions to our ogling rules and there is not a doubt in my mind that this contradiction is going to frustrate some men. I’ll never forget the day I saw Matthew McConaughey at LAX. He walked right past me and looked right at me. He didn’t ogle me at all but he did look my way and smile those infamous pearly whites. I thought I would faint straight away, and let me assure you, had he ogled me, I probably would have passed out cold.   Somehow being checked out by Matthew would have made my day.

There are other times us girls go to a big effort to impress the men in our lives. Trust me, not checking us out on these occasions can be a huge mistake that a guy does not want to make. This is especially true when we’ve pulled out all the stops for a special night. We’ve got the sexy lingerie, the beautiful outfit and the pretty shoes. Please ogle, drool a little, let your jaw drop…we love all that stuff, and yes we want you to lust after us. If you don’t take notice of all that’s pretty and sexy right then, your night might not go so well.  Trust me guys…this is the time to ogle.

I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense-but like anything else in life there’s a time, a place (and you could safely include person here as well) for everything. If you’re a guy and you are going to ogle–be smart about it and choose your moments wisely! Of course, there’s always the opinion of a good friend of mine. After I told her about my uncomfortable work experience she looked at me and smugly said…”Hey…at our age, we should be grateful that anyone checks us out at all. Maybe you should be secretly happy about this.” Happy? About being ogled? Well…maybe. Xo J.

Each year, the Triumph Inspiration Award is offered to challenge fashion design students to create lingerie designs that fit each year’s inspiring theme.   The winner’s garment will be recreated and sold in Triumph stores worldwide on a limited basis.  This year’s theme was entitled “Shape Sensation” and Helena Christensen was recruited to try and wriggle her way into the students lingerie creations and model them.  Here are some of our noted favorites from the competition.  We’ll let you decide how these would fit into your lingerie wardrobe.

I’m not sure if she belongs in Neverland or Sherwood Forest. I like the hat best.

For those of us that never got over our Hula hooping phase.

Very useful lingerie that doubles as a dish-drying rack.

Great for those pre-menstrual puffy days when you just feel bloated.

For when you wake up and say “I’m feeling garden nymph!”

Yikes! xo J.

Megan Fox is taking it all off again. Well, okay maybe not all of it, but recently she did a very sexy lingerie photo shoot for FHM magazine. Apparent changes in the appearance of her pretty little pout have reignited rumors of perhaps another plastic surgery procedure–this time on her lips. Apparently FHM doesn’t seem to care whether she has altered her facial features one way or the other as long as her so hot body will continue to sell magazines. With curves like this, it’s obvious that she will inspire many lingerie sales as well. Xo J.