A few years back, Lingerie Insight came up with this great wheeze for promoting the lingerie industry as a whole, plus making us compete like trained monkeys for their attention, plus making everyone talk about them. This stroke of genius is called the UK Lingerie Awards, and it culminates in an allegedly star-studded bash at the start of December.
Since I'm 36 and listen to Radio 4, I didn't recognise a single one of the reality TV people or boy band members at the show, but I can chase canapes around and wear a big hat like nobodies business, so I toddled along anyway. It's open to the public so if you have a passionate interest in pants, you can join us! I'm not getting a ticket unless I know we're finalists, but if I'm there, we can totally sit together, especially if you enjoy sarcasm, silly names, and whooping like a fool for all the other indie brands.
There are a long list of awards we can win, some of which are agreed by judges, and three of which are done by public vote. We've been a finalist before but never won, and this year we didn't make the running (though I wrote Karolina Laskowska's application and she is!), but we're still up for the public voted awards - Favourite Brand and Favourite British Designer.
I got a tip-off that last year we lost to Janet Reger by TWO VOTES. So this year I'm going to nag you incessantly to vote. Quick quiz, can you guess why?
1) The strange gold statue things you win make really great paperweights.
2) I really want to get better at recognising pop groups aimed at tweens.
3) You love new things, right? The year we won, sales were much better, which meant we got to make lots of new things! I like new things. You love new things!
4) I'd like an excuse to wear a hat so large you'll be able to find me in the crowd even though I'm only 5'1 and therefore usually identifiable by the dip in the throng.
5) We spend the boring bits of the event making up new rude names for big brands who have enormous marketing departments.
6) You want us in big stores with great delivery and returns options, and preferably in your own country, right? Well, this would help. I know, it doesn't make any sense but there you go, not everyone is as flippant as me.
7) I don't drink alcohol and never get my moneys worth from events like this, but I have a plan involving panniers big enough for wine bottles that I'd like to test.
8) I'm pretty certain that it really annoys huge marketing departments when tiny brands manage to win at things because they have really great dedicated fans who are good at the internet. Seriously, do you know how tremendous you are?
Plus I'm pretty sure the sales person will kill me if we don't win something!
Anyway, if any of that appeals to you, you can vote for us by:
Selecting Kiss Me Deadly for the first award and the third award.
They ask for a reason but you don't need to put one in (I tested)
You need to put some contact in - Facebook, twitter, or email. Naturally, they're using this to capture more readers, so make sure you click on permissions etc carefully whatever contact info you put in.
If you're really keen, change IP and contact and do it all again! Vote early, vote often.
Oh, and let everyone else know!
Right, what should we do if we win? Suggestions welcome in the comments.
