Where: www.BFHonline.co.uk
SOMETIMES the average male gets little credit.
The old assumption that most men don’t listen to instruction, forget anniversaries, birthdays and Valentine’s Day isn’t always indicative of the entire species.
Buying For Her ensures not only will women have a lingerie set that fits but one that their husbands, boyfriends, lovers, sugar daddies, or secret admirer picked out.
rStill, even the most progressive male can struggle with remembering our complicated and varying bra sizes. A study by Superdrug showed that 60% of men don't know their wife or girlfriend’s bra size. In fact 12% do not even remember their other half's birthday.
For shame.
It’s always a sorry sight watching a puzzled male wander around a lingerie store, an arms length of thongs and French knickers ranging from 8-14 and wracking his brain trying to remember whether his girl is a 34FF or a 32E.
Typically he’s about to buy the most daring set on offer – think Cher in her reverse thong leotard. And he’s worried that if he makes the wrong purchase he could offend rather than impress. Valentine’s Day and the evening of lust he's been looking forward to would be cancelled if he brought home a baggy g-string. God forbid.
Husband and wife, Paul and Rahila Arnaldi, aim to solve the size conundrum for men when lingerie gift-giving.
Fleur of England Amour Silk Babydoll
Their website, Buying For Her (BFH), claims that not only will women have a lingerie set that fits but one their husbands, boyfriends, lovers, sugar daddies, or secret admirer picked out.
It starts by the lady logging onto the website and creating an account. With the help of a size guide she enters her bra and bottom sizes and has the option of 'guiding him' to a set or allowing the man or men in her life to browse and pick his favourite. This can be done without the guy in question knowing anything about bust to back ratios, pear and apple shapes, balconette bras or plunge (the guys on editorial desk look perplexed, "plunge?")
All that stuff is usually left to the lady to figure out.
There’s also a surprise gift function that allows someone to buy lingerie for a lady he likes without needing to know anything more than her email address.
Gossard Retrolusion
Now, the thought of receiving anonymous underwear does sound like the opening scenario from a Valentine's Day thriller about a stalker, yet Buying For Her ensure that as long as she's allowed the 'Suprise Gift' service, Buying For Her will choose the rights sizes and deliver to the address on her account.
Rahila explained: “It’s a flirtatious approach to lingerie shopping and designed to be a bit cheeky and unconventional.”
Insoumise Nacre
"Men who have used the site tell us that they buy lingerie as a special romantic gift and prefer the privacy of online shopping but knowing her sizes is a problem. Our site resolves that issue for them, which they liked but more than that, they said the act of buying lingerie together in this way heightened the expectation and sexual tension."
Browsing through the Buying For Her site, it's easy to see it's both designed for the male and female gaze. There's a classy French boudoir feel and well, lots of models in lingerie.
It's lingerie a good deal pricier than your typical high street brand and full sets tend to creep past the £100 mark.
"We've intentionally picked lingerie from higher market brands from French and Italian houses as it's meant to be a luxury gift giving experience," said Rahila. "Maybe not for your everyday wear, but for special occassions."
BFH claim to be the only website that offers this service and it's an intriguing and agreeably sexy idea.
Although in many ways it's a concept that relies on a man’s inability to get sizes right, an often passive approach to shopping and a woman’s want to be spoiled like a Sultan's mistress.
Gossard Retrolusion
Although I doubt most ladies would disapprove of the idea of being treated, will BFH ever offer a Buying For Him option to return the favour?
“We have bought the rights to Buying For Him and it is something we will consider once BFH has continued to grow. As we’ve seen, it is usually women’s sizes that are the most complicated to get right.”
Indeed, throughout most of our lives our boobs can transcend the full alphabet when it comes to cup size, making buying everyday bras in the right size difficult at the best of times.
With that said, buying expensive lingerie online without the help of a trained bra fitter seems like a risky prospect.
Rahila said: "Sizes can vary in Europe but for those in doubt we're on hand to help further guide and order in other sizes if needs be."
So how have people taken to the website?
"Since launching we have seen lots more women guiding men to their preferred choices rather than letting the man have free range and pick himself. But we do expect that to change." said Rahila.
The idea of letting your partner go wild on a lingerie website could equally provoke excitement and trepidation for many women. Traditionally men and women have different ideas of what's sexy.
Even so, regardless what style of lacy number lands on your doorstep from BFH, at least you can be confident it'll fit. And be pricey too.
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