Isa Lappalainen is the brain behind the lingerie line Glam Your Clam. It’s a brand inspired by “vaginas so divine they deserve to shine,” as she puts it on her website. The idea itself is as brilliant as simple – quirky catchphrases, sometimes adding a famous face to them, on regular cotton panties.
Finding myself on the borderline of obsessing with her work, I decided to get in touch with Lappalainen to find out more about the inspiration behind the brand.
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VICE: How did all this begin?
Isa Lappalainen: It started about two years ago as a project during my final year at visual arts school. I was pretty uninspired and didn’t know what to make. Eventually one summer night, some friends and I came up with this idea of putting random prints and funny texts on panties, and voilà! – Glam Your Clam!
Usama bin Ladin’s “Can I hide here” is a personal favourite. Which ones are the big sellers?
I’d say that Tyra Banks, Putin, and “Exercise? I thought you said extra fries” are the top three ones.
What’s the best reaction you’ve had so far?
VICE calling [Laughs]. Also, someone from New York contacted me. She wanted to sell my panties in her shop but I’m not really sure what happened with that… I’m actually living in the desert in Australia at the moment!
That’s right – I was told it’s impossible to get hold of you.
Exactly. It’s a bit tricky to control the company from here. I’m going to try to make it on more markets when I’ll move to Melbourne, maybe I’ll be on some music festivals, and hopefully reach out to more stores. We’ll see.
I’ve heard that you want to create a fashion brand that’s larger than Victoria’s Secret. How’s that’s going?
Baby steps. I think it’s going pretty well. A year ago I was only in Sweden, and now I’ve started up here in Australia, too. In the beginning it was very feminist-based and I had plenty of thoughts around the brand. Now there are mostly jokes with sexual references. Maybe I’ll go back to the original idea when I get tired of silly jokes.
I saw that your panties recently made it onto 9gag.com – congratulations!
Yes, thank you! Also, Tyra Banks twittered about the panties a year ago but unfortunately the link to my website disappeared. So plenty of people saw the panties but didn’t know where to buy them. Otherwise, I would probably have been larger than Victoria’s Secret by now.
What a shame. Exactly how glam is it to have Putin close to such a private area?
It’s the most glam you can have on your pussy! This a way of taking back the power if you sometimes feel like you have less power as a woman in a world controlled by men. However, there are a bunch of people who get upset about the panties. Some guys said that they’d leave if they were getting intimate with a girl wearing these. But I think that points towards some of the ideas around the brand – that you shouldn’t fall under men’s decision making of how women should dress and be. Instead, you should put some of the most powerful men in the world on your vagina! And if that made boys want to leave, that’s too bad for them.
See more of Isa Lappalainen’s Glam Your Clam line and get your own pair here.
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