I'm running a writing competition at the moment - just a line, paragraph, however much you want, on what makes KMD special for you.
Here's Anna's answer (not their real name):
"Lingerie and ownership of my body go hand in hand for me. As a child, I had no underwear at all, and my clothes were decidedly traditional - my mother had to wear ankle length skirts in browns and greys and also had no lingerie or make up - it was one of the less strange ideas of the hippy community we were part of; that modern undergarments were responsible for some STD’s, and were generally bad for health. So, when my mother broke out and started wearing nice clothes (and buying herself lacy bras and basques), it was all about freedom. Glorious, lacy, extravagant, and frivolous freedom - the very best kind.
My first Wonderbra is still a treasured memory. And most of my lingerie since has been purchased for me, by me, and has given me a wonderful sense of ownership of my body - but I often felt a dissonance between my feelings of ownership and empowerment and the lingerie in adverts and magazines and in other women’s opinion. Every vacant and passive face on lingerie adverts was aimed, un-threateningly, at a male gaze. Every bit of magazine advice told me what to wear, or what not to wear (“most men find red too threatening - their favourite is virginal white” said Cosmo when I was 18). I felt like repeatedly shouting “You have no power over me!” like Sarah at the end of Labyrinth; only no matter how often I said it, the weird constructs around lingerie never shattered away.
When I found KMD, it was like having everything I felt about lingerie and my own power over my body confirmed and made big and loud and beautifully aggressive. Not only all this stunning lingerie, but it was all packaged and photographed and sold to people just like me! Women with agency and power and absolutely no f*cking apology to anyone for how they chose to dress. Lingerie is about me and my body, and KMD understands that and has never even hinted at someone else’s preference being relevant. For that, it will always be more than just a company that sells pretty knickers."
