Want to see a hologram do a striptease?

Then head to the London Film Museum this week for the Lingerie Francaise exhibition.

Running until 7th October, Lingerie Francaise: the Exhibition sees eleven leading lingerie makers from across the Channel airing their undies in public, all in the name of fashion history. Chronicling the history of female undergarments over the last 100 years, the exhibition opens with kind of sturdy whalebone corsets that were constricting women at the end of the nineteenth century and ends with the teensy, Swarovski crystal-encrusted knickers that pretty much demand their wearer gets a Brazilian wax.

Covering – or should that be uncovering? – everything in between is that cheeky digital stripper, stopping off once a decade to shimmy in that era’s archetypal underwear. Check out a little preview in the video below. But don’t worry, it’s only mildly NSFW – she’s more sassy than sexually arousing.

Helen, Jo and I went to the opening on Tuesday night, where we spent almost as much time ogling the adorable miniature pastries as we did the bras and pants. It’s a fascinating exhibition and something that I think fashion students in particular will love. Hurry, you’ve only got til the end of the week to catch it.

Lingerie Francaise: the Exhibition is open from 2 – 7 October 2012 at the London Film Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, London WC2E 7BB (next to the London Transport Museum). For more info, visit the Lingerie Francaise website.

Watch out, the near naked flash mobs are about

If you happen to be out and about in London tomorrow (Tuesday 19 July) and come face to face with many a scantily designer clad lady, don’t panic.  Lingerie Francaise are hosting the Lingerie Parade, an interactive lingerie flash mob dance throughout the day, using 50′s style pin-up girls to celebrate some of France’s biggest lingerie brands here in the UK.  And what else screams guaranteed publicity like near-naked ladies?

Kicking off at 18 Grovesnor  Square at 10:30, going via Selfridges, Fenwicks, Harvey Nichols, Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and finishing off at Rigby and Peller, let’s just hope those girls don’t cause any accidents (remember the car crashes Eva Herzigova’s ’Hello Boys’ Wonderbra billboard caused in America?)

While there is no doubt this is a playful, harmless act of guerilla marketing, there is the element of irony given the recent SlutWalk demonstration here in London. The SlutWalk movement started in Canada, as a response to police officer Michael Sanguinetti’s advice to a group of students that ‘women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised’.

So what will the SlutWalk movement make of tomorrow’s flash mobs?  Could it be seen as an extension to their cause, or is it demeaning given the gravity of SlutWalk’s aims compared to underwear promotion? What do you think?

Witness the Lingerie Parade flash mob for yourself at these central London locations:

10.30am Grosvenor Square

11.30am Selfridges

12pm Fenwicks

1pm Harvey Nichols

1.30pm Harrods

2.30pm Fortnum and Mason

3pm Rigby and Pellor, Conduit Street