The Boudoir Edit: Lingerie as Formal Wear
Imaga via Vogue Singapore
This fall, I'm bringing out the Brigitte Bardot hair, the Edie Sedgwick cut crease, and the perfect pressed lip — Rhode's Peptide Lip Shape in Press.
You know the hair — undone at the crown, swept up like you did it in the rearview mirror on the way to somewhere better. A wicked cat eye. And the sweetest little lace top you ever did see.
I have always believed lingerie belongs at the dinner table. Not as a dare — as a discipline. The boudoir pieces of the great houses were never meant to be hidden; they were cut with more care than most eveningwear, on silk that catches candlelight, in lace that took someone's hands weeks to make. So when the runways send out slip tops and balconette necklines under serious tailoring, I don't call it a trend. I call it a homecoming.
Here is the look I keep returning to: a black Saint Laurent tuxedo jacket — and yes, we owe Monsieur Saint Laurent everything here, because Le Smoking taught women in 1966 that borrowed-from-the-boys tailoring could be the most feminine thing in the room — thrown over a vintage La Perla lace camisole, with a Kiki de Montparnasse balconette doing quiet architectural work underneath.
She’s not whispering. She’s not shouting either. She commands the room and holds its attention as she sways through, making her rounds. She’s iconic, she’s confident, and she’s a phoenix in her own right — because that’s what lingerie dressing actually is. Not exposure. Resurrection. Taking the most private pieces in your wardrobe and letting them live a public life.
How to Build Her
The tailoring is the permission slip. The sharper the jacket, the softer the lace can go. A true tuxedo lapel — satin-faced, structured shoulder — reads as authority, so everything underneath reads as intention.
The cami is the archive piece. Vintage La Perla is the reference: hand-finished Leavers lace, silk that has already learned how to move. Hunt the dealers, hunt the archives — this is walk-in-as-portfolio territory, because these pieces are only getting harder to find. [Archive reference link — vintage La Perla, dealer/category page] For the current-season echo, look for silk-and-lace camis with a proper bias cut.
The Jolie is the foundation, literally. A black balconette gives the neckline its geometry — that clean horizontal line under lace is what makes the whole look read couture instead of undone.
The beauty finishes the sentence. Bardot volume, a cat eye with real wing to it, and almost nothing else. Let the lace do the talking below the collarbone; the eye does it above.
The Cozy Clause
What I love about this season’s version is the texture story — cozy silks, washed satins, lace layered over warmth instead of against bare skin. A lace cami over a whisper-thin knit. A slip top under a boyfriend cardigan on the days the tuxedo feels like too much armor. The silhouette stays; the temperature adapts.
Lingerie as formal wear isn’t about being seen. It’s about deciding exactly how much of yourself to show, and wearing that decision like a jacket.
Worth keeping forever.
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Image via Vogue