#FreeTheNipple
What is erotic? Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook and gatekeeper of content) may think just a nipple does the trick, but I believe that sometimes it takes more than a naked body to arouse erotic desire. As a matter of fact, for the past 20-something years, it’s been my main motivation to get up every morning.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the glorious beauty of nudity. Naked bodies, male or female, can really turn me on. But think about the atmosphere on a nudist beach; it’s usually not that erotically charged. There’s an abundance of flesh, but not much tension. How does that work?
Well, erotic tension is something you create. For example: when you put on stockings, you turn your thighs into erogenous zones. You open the top buttons of your shirt, and the eye is drawn to the promise of a cleavage. Can you imagine: during the 19th century, men would nearly faint when they caught a glimpse of their beloved’s pale wrist, peeking out from between a glove and a sleeve!
French philosopher Roland Barthes called that ‘the intermittence of skin flashing between clothing’. He explained that, by covering parts of the body, you eroticise other parts. It’s a game,; a delicious game of concealing and revealing.
When I was only seven years old, I begged my mother for a pair of stockings. I couldn’t explain why, but I was desperate! Later on, as an art student reading Barthes, I saw it very clearly: to my seven-year-old self, those stockings contained the key to (my) erotic desire. And how fitting that that game of erotic peekaboo, of concealing and revealing, became one of the most important themes in my work!
With my lingerie, I frame parts of your body, thereby highlighting its most beautiful zones. Zones you perhaps weren’t even aware you had! Just look at the effect of my Spider designs, or the Leading Strings collection. (I’ll explain those designs in detail later) Writer/moviemaker Eric de Kuyper wrote that there are endless ways to frame the female body. How right he is; I’ve been designing lingerie for over twenty years now, and I never get tired of it. As a matter of fact, by creating different contrasts on the body, I keep discovering new erotic areas! If only Mark Zuckerberg knew…
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MD Friends
Building bridges
From the Erasmus Bridge and the Mercedes-Benz Museum to Qatar’s metro network; Ben van Berkel’s iconic landmarks bring people together in rapturous beauty, again and again. I talked with the Dutch architect and educator about sensuality, ‘healthy’ buildings and the remarkable parallels between our designs.
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MD Friends
More than a feeling
Don’t ignore your emotions; they are much more powerful than you can imagine. By linking the magical world of emotions with hard science, Dutch scientist Pierre Capel, professor emeritus in experimental immunology, shows us the consequences of our feelings and the power of our minds. The message: we can do much more than we think. “Meditate. It’s the single best thing you can do for your health.”
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Marlies Says
Keto curious?
The fact that I feel bikini-confident all year round is, of course, a nice bonus. But for me, the biggest payoff of following the keto diet is the way it optimizes my health and gives me tons of energy.
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Marlies Says
Super (skin) food
‘If you can’t eat it, why put it on your skin?’. I pretty much live by this beauty adage. After all, with your skin being one of your body’s largest organs, anything – and I mean anything! – you put onto your skin will end up in your bloodstream.
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