Wearing male lingerie is “really quite empowering”, a designer has told Newstalk, urging men to throw off their inhibitions and embrace more exotic underwear.
Jules Parker said he founded the company Moot Lingerie because he was bored of the incredibly uninteresting range of underwear options men had to put up with:
“A lot of it was just feeling, there has to be more to underwear than boxer shorts and briefs,” Jules told Moncrieff.
“And I’d always been interested in lingerie as a concept and what it did as far as decorating a body.
“It seemed to me that there should be more choice for men and that was really, I suppose, at the heart of it.
“But I equally knew that it was kind of taboo and it was going to be possibly quite a challenge to a lot of men that they might want to wear something other than what is accepted.”
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'Infinitely harder than I ever imagined'
Jules, who also works as a metal worker and restores vintage cars, said that when he decided to bite the bullet and go into business there was a steep learning curve:
“I went into this, like all optimistic, enthusiastic entrepreneurs, not knowing anything and thinking, ‘Well it can’t be that difficult’ and of course it was infinitely harder than I ever imagined," he said.
“As you say, I do a lot of work with vintage cars and there’s a lot of design in the element of work that we do and I’ve always worked in that element of design and creative metal work.
“So I felt I was fairly good on the aesthetic side.
“I'm dyslexic, so I’m not so good at reading and writing but I’m very good at visual conceptual ideas and what things can look like and, equally, fairly good at drawing things.
“So whilst I was able to understand what I wanted to make and draw it, I then had to find the skills of the relevant people to be able to make it.
“So it’s been a big, big learning curve. What I thought would be fairly easy, was quite challenging.”
Well, you can't expect people to buy your designs if you don't honestly wear them yourself. #LingerieForMen #MadeInEngland #LingerieDesigner #EqualityInUnderwear #MenInLingerie #Bodysuit #MenInMesh #LingerieForAll #SexyUndies #RedefiningMasculinity #BeBrave #LeadFromTheFront pic.twitter.com/irHJWasdCD
— Moot Revolution (@WeAreMoot) December 17, 2020
Fabric
While the design of the lingerie is obviously different for men, the same type of fabric is used no matter what gender the buyer is:
“The fabrics that we use are very, very similar,” Jules described.
“The cut of the products are very different - whilst we create the same aesthetic ultimately, it’s much more about embracing the male genitals.
“We are trying to not hide anything, we’re trying to make a man look like a man.”
Come rain or shine, we will keep you smiling with our #handmade #LingerieForMen
Still time to give someone a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS!#SexyUndies #LaceUnderwear #MaterialHasNoGender #EqualityInUnderwear #RedefiningMasculinity pic.twitter.com/W2RdARigiw— Moot Revolution (@WeAreMoot) December 11, 2020
Sales come from across all generations and Jules believes a man can get a huge confidence boost out of lingerie no matter what his age:
“Well, I’m 56 and I think I look fabulous!” Jules said.
“Honestly, we get guys of all ages and we get so much feedback from people and I know that we have people in their 70s buying things.
“It’s not about what you look like, it’s how you feel!”
