Lingerie-shopping is a rather personal activity, so naturally, in the lead up to Valentine's Day, I decided to do it with a Victoria's Secret Angel.
On a good day, my underwear doesn't match, so wearing a lingerie set feels like a Thing. But for Sara Sampaio, who wears undies in front of a million people on a runway, it's not such a big deal―frankly she does it in wings, too, so I need to take a chill pill.
When I visit her at the Victoria's Secret flagship in New York City, I tell her I want her help picking out some VDay undies, and she's immediately down. "For Valentines Day I like to go with the red lingerie—and lace, you can't go wrong with lace," she says. "It's a bold color—if you're going to wear red, you know the attention is going to be all on you. So it kind of gives you confidence and you have to be confident to wear it. So it takes you out of your comfort zone and makes you feel different, powerful."
Ah, attention, leaving my comfort zone: All of my favorite things! So how does one ummm summon the confidence to show off the lingerie, I ask her.
"I feel like your boyfriend loves you; it's not because of the way you look, he loves you because of who you are, so he's going to love you no matter what, even if you don't feel confident," she says. "That's the most important thing to remember. Trust me, if you show up in from of him in just lingerie, he's not going to send you back. So you just have to think he loves you, you love him, that's all the confidence you need."
We start investigating the options. Sara points to a silky red robe. " You need the red robe," she tells me.
Interesting.
"Is there a word I should say when I take off the robe? Like 'Ta-da'? What does one say?" I ask, looking at the very red, very silky robe that looked like no robe I'd ever worn before.
She looks at me kindly, "You..you don't say anything. You let them… it speaks for itself. And they're going to be like whaaaaaat!?"
Yes, that part I can imagine. "Ohh this is really sexy," she says pulling another red something off a rack.
"I don't know if I can do that one," I say, studying the sheer red lacy bodysuit.
"It's a really low V-cut in the front, very sexy in the back. It's pretty before going to bed..." She continues.
"So I don't understand how that works," I interrupt. "Like… do you wear that under a dress all night and then you're like LOOK! Or do you do an outfit change when you get home?"
"Yeah, it depends on what you're wearing, like I could not wear that under this dress because it has lace and you would see it under," she says, pointing to her skin-tight dress. "but some dresses are looser and you can wear it under. What's also really pretty is wearing a top over it and letting some lace peek through so he's going to be like hmmmm what does she have under there—its like a little peekaboo that its coming. You could also do a blazer, buttoned so it covers the nipple, but there's still the little bit of lace that sticks out."
Innnnteresting.
I skip the teddy and go with the Very Sexy Lace Balconet Bra and matching undies in red―a compromise!―and leave determined to channel my inner Victoria's Secret Angel (or something confident, VS Angel might be a little much) whenever I decide to wear them.
Oh, I also got the robe. Ta-da!
