Celebrating the sisterhood
Right around the time that I designed the bra that helped shape the Third Feminist Wave, Naomi Wolf penned the book that launched it: 'The Beauty Myth' (1991). Exposing the tyranny of our obsession with physical perfection, she wrote: "She wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her.” And: "The myth urges women to believe that it's every woman for herself." This was an empowered woman with the sincere desire to empower others. I had found my muse.
Entering a new phase of womanhood, we sometimes 'outgrow' our muses, but mine continued to rise right alongside me. Naomi was there when I navigated motherhood, built my career and entered midlife. Journaling her own growth, she kept inspiring me to dream bigger and never cease to look for the truth. Together, we defined my femininity. When Naomi and I finally met for an interview recently, we both felt like finding a long-lost sister. Holding each other’s hands, looking into each other's eyes, I realized the magnitude of Naomi's gift to me: she had helped me become my own muse.
Happy Women's Day, enjoy these inspiring quotes from a selection of Naomi Wolf's books:
1. 'The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women' (1991) “For I conclude that the enemy is not lipstick, but guilt itself; that we deserve lipstick, if we want it, AND free speech; we deserve to be sexual AND serious--or whatever we please; we are entitled to wear cowboy boots to our own revolution.”
2. 'Fire with Fire: New Female Power and How It Will Change the Twenty-First Century' (1993) "While victim feminism urges women to identify with powerlessness and be sexually judgmental, power feminism is unapologetically sexual, for it understands that good pleasures make good politics."
3. 'Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood' (1999) "I believe the myth about the ease and naturalness of mothering—the ideal of the effortlessly ever-giving mother—is propped up, polished, and promoted as a way to keep women from thinking clearly and negotiating forcefully about what they need from their partners and from society at large in order to mother well, without having to sacrifice themselves in the process.”
4. 'The Treehouse: Eccentric Wisdom from My Father on How to Live, Love, and See' (2006) "Dante's Inferno begins with the narrator lost: 'In the middle of the journey of our life I came / To myself in a dark wood where the straight / Way was lost...". In the middle of my own life, I was lost, in some ways. I had to be willing to learn to listen, and to listen in order to teach. I had to grow up, essentially."
5. 'Vagina: A New Biography' (2012) "Female sexual pleasure, rightly understood, is not just about sexuality, or just about pleasure. It serves, also, as a medium of female self-knowledge and hopefulness; female creativity and courage; female focus and initiative; female bliss and transcendence; and as medium of a sensibility that feels very much like freedom."
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Maison Marlies blog
The marlies|dekkers brand offers a wide variety of lingerie that can be worn by anyone and caters to every woman’s individual needs. Within our Maison Marlies blog you can read all about the life behind and surrounding the company. Whether you are eager to know where Marlies gets her inspiration for designing new lingerie collections, her lifestyle, healthy cooking ideas, or simply to share her taste in amazing art - you will find it in the blog. Our fearless creative director manages to find time to write about her business trips and even her shopping sprees and vacations for the times she can let her hair down for a while. And even while she is on holiday she will not leave you hanging.
Giving style advice
When you are feeling lost in finding the right fit or determine your bra size, Maison Marlies offers a set of guidelines so that you can continue shaking your bon bons without them falling out. You'll get style tips on how to wear and style your bras, and bikinis. You would not want a wardrobe malfunction which can actually be prevented when you are wearing high quality luxury lingerie. And when your breasts are kept in place in marlies|dekkers bras or bikinis, you can fully celebrate your femininity in all its glory and full potential. The blog offers advise on how to mix and match womens lingerie to boost, inspire your own fashion sense and keeps you updated on the latest fashion trends.
Marlies and friends
Her celebrity friends are also very pleased with that perfect fit a marlies|dekkers bra can offer you. These women proudly show off their marlies|dekkers lingerie sets in photoshoots for magazines, on stage when they're performing, during a cameo on tv or on the big screen in movies. Maison Marlies dedicates a special section of the blog to all gender equality related news so you are always updated about the latest developments around this special mission that embodies Marlies’ vision for the future.