The Real Valentine's Day

At Lella's we adore the "traditional" Valentine's Day. February 14th, was once a celebration only for lovers. Over time Valentine’s Day has been hi-jacked by greeting card companies and mass marketers. A duped society began expressing their “love” for nearly everything! Just look at any store, in January, you will find Valentine greetings designed for everyone, from your boss to your pet. Ok, so maybe your boss is your lover, we are hoping your dog is not!

In keeping with the traditional celebration of St. Valentine's Day ~ for lovers, we went on a quest to discover who this saint of lovers was. Just as "whom" we acknowledge remains muddled; it appears as though the actual origins of the February 14 celebration are too.

 Thousands of years old, the pages of recorded history about Valentine remain jumbled. We rather fancy the version of a Roman priest, who defies orders from the Emperor Claudius II, not to marry young couples. You see, Claudius believed single men made better fighting soldiers than men with wives and children. The Emperor outlawed marriage for young strong men. Valentine continued to perform weddings and found himself imprisoned and sentenced to death for his crimes. As fate would have it, Valentine himself fell in love, with his jailor's daughter. The legend is, before his death, the priest wrote to his lover and signed, "From your Valentine".

 A classic tale of lover's romance! What ~ could possibly be more romantic than young lovers uniting in secrecy? The defiance of a man, obviously a romantic himself ~ actually put to death for aiding the desires of young lovers to marry. One can nearly feel the heartache of a woman, in love with a doomed man. The only thing missing is the happy ending! Hollywood could re-write the story to include a jail break, mere hours before Valentine's head were to come off. He and his lover would ride off into the sunset...
A box office hit!

 Ok, so not every Hollywood love story ends in happily ever after. Many of the biggest hits end in tragedy. As modern romantic movies go, Titanic is agonizing. Who could have predicted just as Rose discovers true love with Jack; the writers would kill him off? We all knew the ship was going down ~ but Jack too? Say it is not so! It made our hearts ache and wish for a re-write!
　
Other than St. Valentine himself, Eros "is one" with the day of love. Without his arrows, how would love find us? As time evolved, so did Eros. In early Greek mythology, Eros was the perfect man, physically. Surely, all of the females lusted for him. Venus, his mother, was none too happy when Eros fell in love with a mere mortal. The Goddess of Love took it upon herself to change his destiny. That, is another tale with more than one version complete with arrows of lead and gold. In the end, somewhere along the lines, the Greek transformed, Eros. The once, most handsome God of his time, became the pudgy little arrow shooting angel, we all have come to know and adore as Cupid.

 In fairness, we should also mention, Saint Marius, whom history tells, helped Valentine unite young lovers. Exactly what happened to him or why the day of romance is not St. Marius Day, who knows?

On the subject of Valentine’s Day, one cannot help but wonder ~ what narcissist decided it would be “cute” for young schoolchildren to trade Valentines? Imagine the anguish of a child holding a foil covered shoebox, wondering how many cards they would or would not get! Poor little darlings would probably grow up and live like Jack McGurn and Louise Rolfe. Well, now that is another Valentine’s Day story in itself.

Oh, right ~ the date, February 14. More murky water. Possible scenarios include the anniversary of St. Valentine’s death. The first date of a Roman fertility festival. The beginning of bird mating season, seriously.Admittedly, romantics everywhere prefer “Happily Ever After“. Of course, it is not so, in reality or even mythology. Who says it is not ok to dream? Our wish for all lovers, young and old, if only for a day, departs from realism; dream a little romantic dream. Share a little romance and golden arrows with your lover on St. Valentine's Day.

 As Sean Connery said ~ “Love may not make the world go round, but I must admit that it makes the ride worthwhile.”

Our pick for romantic movies
Classics: Gone With The Wind & Roman Holiday
Modern: When Harry Met Sally & The Notebook
Romantic FoodStrawberries, bananas, whipped cream, chocolate, oysters
Romantic CocktailsLadies: White Russian, Gimlet
Gents: Gibson Martini, Scotch
Share: Champaign or your favorite bottle of wine


More romantic suggestions ~ Our very own “Cupid’s Capers” can be seen here.
　
　
　

Ah corsets! One of our favorite wardrobe items. Corsets do it all! They are sexy! They are vintage or modern. They can go it alone & also work well with other wardrobe pieces. Corsets can be worn at home or out to play! What other item in your wardrobe can do all of that?

The world of corsets is a vast one indeed! Overbust, underbust, sweetheart, Victorian, bridal, halter, training, tight~lacing, liners, sizing and more!

Whew! What's a Corset Virgin to do? While there are countless combinations of fabrics, styles and "extras" ~ it's fairly easy to select and purchase a corset that you will like and enjoy wearing.

Over and Under are probably the two most widely used corset categorizes. Your corset either goes "over" or "under" your breasts. Either style can be worn as outerwear or as underwear. Overbust corsets are often worn as outerwear, sans a chemise or blouse. Simply remove the garters and pair your corset with your favorite slacks or skirt and you have a beautiful "top" that will turn heads! Underbust corsets are the garment you mostly see in vintage photos ~ think a pirate girl, with the poets shirt "gathered" at the waist ~ the garment that accents her waist is usually a underbust corset. Of course, at home with your partner, an underbust corset without a shirt is va va voom!!

"Off the rack" corsets are a great way to wet your toes into the corset culture; or simply enjoy the look, save the expense. Custom corsets are an investment, costs usually begin around the two hundred dollar range for a very basic fabric. Custom corsets must be dry-cleaned and you should wear a corset liner or some type of undergarment every time you wear it. If you are interested in tight lacing, waist training or a 'one of a kind' corset, please consult an experienced corsetiere for a personal measurement and custom fit corset.

We currently have nine off the rack corsets in many different colors and styles. We have corsets ranging in size from 32 to 52 ~ yes fifty two. Many of our corsets come with matching g-strings, fashioned of the same fabric as the corsets themselves. Some come with garter loops, but not the actual garters, no worries ~ we have affordable garter straps that you may purchase, in ten different colors! Notice in the "back" view photos, there is visible skin at the lacing, this is pretty standard and sexy too, with off the rack corsets. Custom made corsets have the option of a built in "modesty panel" added to them, that hide your skin. Do NOT try to close this space by tightening an off the rack corset. The boning used in these corsets allows for hand washing, something you can NOT do with a custom corset with steel "bones". While this line is not designed for tight lacing, which actually reduces your waist size, our test models were pleased with the amount of support this line offered.

Our overall review of this line of corsets ~ they look BEAUTIFUL, the sizes run true, they are a GREAT addition to any wardrobe, nice quality and very fair, affordable pricing!

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Corsets at Lella's Lingerie Lounge

Still on Our Wishlist

For some time, we have had our eye on a line of lovely bra & panty sets from a company in Poland. Yes, Poland! Their lines are BEAUTIFUL and so are their models.

Back in October, we had announced they would be in store by December. SADLY, we have to report - we're STILL waiting :(
This is not a new company, but sales outside of Europe is new for them. I'm afraid, it may still be a while for us to get their lines in our boutique. Currently, their ordering and payment system is not set up for USA customers.
AS SOON as their sales open in the USA, Lella's Lingerie Lounge will carry this beautiful lingerie!

You can get a peek at more styles on our website - in the "Fine" Lingerie Department

Eight Seconds?

"Eight seconds", the report said, "You're too slow".

"Slow" in lingerie is GOOD! Heck the slower the better! As a matter of fact eight minutes is too dang fast! We want eight hours. Ok, so maybe 8 hours in lingerie is pushing it, unless of course you're on your honeymoon or a romantic get-a-way on a tropical island. Umm, that sounds nice!

Panic sets in! Eight seconds for a page load is slow! Eight seconds waiting on the Internet is like 30 minutes with a flaccid unit - UGH!

What to do? Take off pictures? Um no, how can you have a lingerie boutique without photos? Make them smaller? Heck no, we want them bigger! The web hosts around the world would probably be orgasmic if all web sites were void of images! Images slow things down. Did I say? "We like slow".

Shrink the store? Oh dear, no! It's hard enough, picking literally only a few of what we have cataloged. Ugh. Nope, that's not an option.

Images! Wait a minute ~ what you and I "see" on websites as words, often are images. It's kinda techy, how the whole thing works. Basically, if you want your words and buttons to be anything other than a BLAND text type, you have to tell every computer in the world - it's an image. And like magic, you have pretty words!

Hope we didn't loose anyone on that - ugh!

Our solution is to remove some "extra" buttons and fancy type - so fancy, the blogs don't even have it! If you visit our shop in the next week or so & it looks a bit cooky - blame it on the guy with the mili-second timer! We hope to look normal soon!

AND have time to blog about LINGERIE ;)

For our customers, very little will change ~ except we hope to be faster. Not that we really want to...

At Last!

The question has been hanging over my head for some time. "To blog or not to blog?"

Is there time to blog? Will anyone read it? What will it say? Ok, what will it say has never been the issue. Most days the brain explodes with words yet written. So here, it is - the very first blog - that really says nothing at all - except that "it" - blogging - can be done, by moi.

Ok, well you had to know it couldn't be that simple. The road to this blog has been one of trial & puzzlement. First, this blog is not just any blog. It's a blog to chat up, for and about only ONE of my favorite subjects - our little web shop! Lella's Lingerie Lounge.

The entire concept of the web shop, from the start was to make it feel like a real place. A place not just to shop for pretty things but one you would like to go to for fun! For "girly chats" or even take your beau there, read and learn some cool "couples" stuff together. It had to have personality! Like the rad hair salon that serves wine! I'm confidant the "look" is there. The "vibe" is there with some sexy, jazzy lounge music - the only thing missing was the "chat".


Ok, so where do I put our chat? Use a blog site? Use our own site? The experts say, "Use a blogging platform for a professional appearance" OK, well then which platform to use? Yep, it's true, platforms are not just shoes. And who knew there were SO many! With this one you can do "this" but not "that". With this one bla bla bla. It's enought to make you head spin!

What if I hate the templates? In my web world, templates are my least favorite thing. They're so "boxy" so "everyone is alike" - just different colors or pictures. Could I possibly figure out how to customize the layout?
And one of the BIGGIES - is it possible to have a "free" blog without advertisements on them? Another yuck - unless that's your REASON for blogging - not mine.

These and more questions will be answered, the more I blog, the more I learn ;)

Yeah! I have a real blog :)