Living Dolls Show 2010

On the 28th August the Bedford in Christchurch came alive with gorgeous guys and girls wearing equally amazing underwear, parading down the 15 metre long catwalk accompanied by great live music and breakdancers pulling some sic moves amongst it all.

Living Dolls is the brain child of Sophia Lee Levy-Kennedy who runs Living Dolls - Elite Models, Talent and Events and also makes all the garments they model! I'm pretty sure CJ and Sophie Nolan also help her out, but man for the number of hands involved in creating all their haute couture they certainly work some serious hours to pump it out. Incredible. And the night itself was a huge success, about 30 girls modeled Sophia's pieces in two parts - the first was a pink, barbie doll influenced fairy land kind of a look called Candy Dolls then the 2nd was more almost goth themed with lots of black and tattoos showing, this one was called Ink Dolls. Some very sexy pieces in there.

nüdel was allowed to make an appearance at the show! We got our little piece of runway time which was SO cool, all the guys did an amazing job. I found most of the models by sticking a poster up in the changing rooms at Les Mills in town, which is where I go (not often enough) and got such a great response. They all had fantastic bodies and cool attitudes too, and with a bit of last minute coaching from Ricky at Bar 5, where we got ready for the show, they impressed the crowd hard and got a brilliant response!

I had to print a few of the old designs so the models had enough to wear, and I even printed a few designs on some singlets which turned out well, to bring the numbers up. I have a total of 8 different options for the undies at the moment and had 11 models so yeah I think the singlets worked well, as I wanted to use all the models that replied to my ad.

The show went smoothly and my pre-show jitters didn't take long to dissolve, they were compounded because I was MCing the gig too, but it turned out fine I think. All the models seemed to handle it like pros, I know they must've been a little nervous but if they were, they did a damn good job of hiding it! So a big thanks to Sophia for having us, it truly was a great night and awesome to see something like this happen in Christchurch. Now I want to do my own show! Will have to get a few more styles going first, but a good goal to work towards. Thank you also to my fantastic models!! You guys stole the show.

Bonita's Birthday Bash

This weekend just gone, there was a seriously cool party which happened down at the Concrete Club on Manchester Street, in Christchurch. My friend Bonita Muntz of Bonita Monique had her birthday shindig which had a theme of leather and lace, unfortunately I wasn't dressed in either as I had prior engagements that didn't really lend themselves to that kind of attire.

Anyhoo, there was a flash ass camera floating around which took some mean photos, like this one. Look, it's someone wearing nüdel! Happy birthday Bonita!

An underwear Lynching

Wow, if David Lynch ever made an underwear commercial, I imagine it would probably look something like this. Except maybe a little darker and probably filmed with a red filter.

Maybe I'm missing something, I was never very good at sitting all the way through Eraserhead without asking a billion questions, so the chances are quite high. As someone said in the comments below this video on youtube - they were waiting for Lady Gaga to appear, same here commenting person! I'm not sure about setting an undie ad in a prison, you could read into it somewhat, like your package feels like it's imprisoned in this garment, or you've always got watch your back when you're wearing them.

We're still looking for male models for the upcoming Living Dolls Show 2010 so if you know of a fella in the Christchurch area who'd be keen, send him our way! morgan@nudel.co.nz for more info, or click through on the Living Dolls link to see what the show's all about. I'll be there too, and I'd love to meet some supporters of nudel. And of course you get to keep the pair you model!

The Living Dolls Show 2010

Here at nudel, not only are we seeking the next amazing designer for a print on the next run, but we're also on the hunt for male models for an awesome upcoming show! The Living Dolls Show 2010 is happening at The Bedford in Christchurch on the 28th August and nudel is right amoungst the thick of it.

The uber talented Sophia Lee and her team put the Living Dolls show on last year for the first time I think and it totally sold out, infact I think they had to turn people away. So this year they're hoping for a two nighter so everyone gets a piece of the action. And it's not just a lingerie show, there's oh so much more - burlesque acts, circus acts, Roller Derby girls hooning around looking awesome, dancers, a live band and yours truly will be taking care of the MC duties.

So if you know of a fella who's comfy enough in his undies to strut his stuff infront a room of excitable people then we'd love to hear from him! Simply email morgan@nudel.co.nz with a pic (preferably in your gruds) and we'll take it from there. You don't have to be an Adonis - I want real-world-bodied men, a little spare tyre ain't going to hurt none, don't you worry. I'll be right there with you and I'm a skinny ninny so we'll all be in this together! Oh yes, don't forget there will be numerous scantily ladies everywhere too, but I'm sure you'll get used to that very quickly indeed.

If you're a girl reading this, then let's get your man involved! Dare him, tempt him, make deal, he'll be amazing.

New design time

Hey there undie fans. Well the time has finally come, the next run is nigh; nudel is now looking for the next amazing New Zealand artist for their design to feature on the next run! Graphic designers, painters, photographers, stencilers, anyone is welcome to submit a piece. We're not running a competition this time, you simply email your best design to morgan@nudel.co.nz and we'll pick our favourite one.

This time round we'll be swapping out the white fabric with grey but sticking with good 'ol black as well. Grey seemed slightly safer for guys who are maybe a little shy of white, so we'll see how that goes, hopefully really well! Mediums by far are the best seller so we'll producing even larger numbers in that size and less of XL most likely and even L. What else, what else...

Make sure you spread the word! We're excited to see some more examples from talented Kiwis nationwide. Until next time :)

Dolce & Gabbana

I have been trawling youtube for male underwear commercials and came across some doozies! Some are quite inspiring, some are just downright cheese, but do they make me want actually go out and buy their product?

Who you're targeting when it comes to producing a commercial, I would imagine, plays such an important role. I'm certain that women are the target market when it comes to guy's underwear, especially the higher end brands, the names you know you're going to look great in. Don't get me wrong, I still believe there are some men out there who don't have a partner, or do but still are independently aware of their underwear choice ie. give a damn about what they're wearing underneath.

I found this Dolce & Gabbana advertisement on youtube. It was quite epic as you can see and I watched the entire thing even though I didn't really understand what the whole point of it was. OK so there's a guy, he seems quite angry which maybe I've mistaken for passion? The model appears to be pretty much anatomically perfect and acts well but there is a point during the 2:25 when I just think

When's the custard pie going to smack him right in the face?

Perhaps it's just my take on things, maybe I like an otherwise cliche concept flipped on it's head, that would make it much more memorable for me. Is the idea of taking normal, every day guys with all their handles and hairy bits too much for your average viewer? Will they fail to see the appeal and only focus on the humour? Am I portraying my brand in what could be labelled as a negative light? Let's face it, no matter how amazing the underwear; the cut, the fabric, the celebrity endorsement, you're not going to totally rid a man of his beer gut. I think you should give him something that makes him feel great. He knows about his tummy, but when he's got the confidence, it doesn't matter about the size of his stomach, it's what's going on in his head that makes the difference. And that's what I want nüdel to do; give everyday men with REAL WORLD BODIES the confidence they deserve. Because it's not just the ladies who have to deal with image.

Take a look at the D&G video and try work out where the best spot for a pie in the face would be... I reckon at about 1:43.

nudel commercial

Ladies and Gentlemen it has been much too long since the last post (Feb some time? sheesh) so firstly, apologies for the slackness. Moving office has contributed to that, but relocating didn't take 4 months so there's really no excuse. Now that's out of the way, here's some exciting news - we shot the first ever nudel commercial last week!

Nudel Funeral from Morgan Williams on Vimeo.

Myself and the very talened Simon Waterhouse devised a shoot based around the simple idea of a funeral, this is mostly because I happened to have a real coffin I obtained from a music video shoot I was involved with for band Sleeping Dogs. But also because I wanted to show nudel in a tongue in cheek kind of way, where it took the spotlight, it became the most attractive feature of our poor hero post-mortem.

We shot the entire scene in my new house's main dining room, using only natural lighting with the help of Nick Palmer and his awesome Canon 7D. Thanks heaps Nick! And cheers to all our amazing actors who came looking great in their mourning garb, not really knowing what to expect. The shoot took about 2 hours in total then editing not long at all, with simple desaturation and minimal colour grading on Final Cut Pro. Kristen Spencer was on catering duties and rose to the occasion with a fantastic selection of muffins, pizzas and cheerios. Ha!

The plan is to film a series of videos like this one, where I want to explore the culture and ideology around men's underwear and make them more entertaining than anything else. The next ad will be based around what your Mother used to say, something like: "Make sure you're wearing clean underwear, incase you get hit by a bus." I'm not sure if my Mum ever said that to me, but I've heard of it. Can anyone give me the correct wording?? So anyway, you can imagine what the content of the vid will be. Really looking forward to getting stuck into it and will keep you posted on that one.

Make sure you check out Simon Waterhouse's site: www.pxl.co.nz