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.

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!

nüdel's story

Why nüdel? Why should anyone read this blog? Currently there are no followers as far as I can tell, so why the hell would anyone in their right mind subscribe? I have just been reading '279 days to overnight success'; a fantastic report by Chris Guillebeau which covers his unconventional journey to full time writing. Now, while I don't personally want to become a full time writer, Chris focuses a lot on why you're writing a blog in the first place, who it's aimed at and what keeps them coming back. If you haven't read the report I seriously suggest you check it out!

So after reading the report, I thought; 'what is nudel's story?' Chris' was to visit every country in the world, he's been self employed his entire adult life and lived in West Africa for four years. Not only that but he speaks to creative people, folks who want to make a change and as his website's name makes very clear - master the Art of Non-Conformity. Who wouldn't want to be involved with that! It sounds exciting, with huge potential, it may not appeal to everyone but it appeals to me personally and especially the nudel brand. nudel is all about making noise - with locally created art, unique marketing tactics not yet seen by any other men's underwear brand and pushing the New Zealand made angle to the world (I'm thinking big here).

Right, the story. I guess it's more of a crusade, a mission and again, one aimed more at women than at guys. Don't get me wrong, I would love to try reach men about underwear but the fact of the matter is they just don't buy them as much as their partners, wives, sisters and really, at the end of the day (and this may seem like a gross generalisation, but you'd be surprised how true it is) guys just don't care. So until I see otherwise, I'm talking to who's listening: ladies. Women who want the man in their lives to look good under his clothes.

So the crusade? Simple, it's to expose bad underwear. For too long men have been subject to badly fitting briefs, tacky 'silk' boxers with no support and ride up at any chance they get, Y fronts that while serving their purpose 20 odd years ago, SERVED THEIR PURPOSE 20 ODD YEARS AGO. This journey will be about educating, encouraging women to take charge - this isn't like demanding he burn that sweater you hate, this is personal, it's intimate, between you and him and is a situation that he probably doesn't mind you taking complete charge! I don't know many guys that would mind a little fashion advice from their lady, and I whole heartedly believe if taking your advice in the undie department might help their chances elsewhere, namely the bedroom, then gentlemen, let yourself be lead, you only stand to gain.

Now nudel has a certifiable goal, next step is find men who need a hand, I need to document these examples for the world to see. To let the masses (or first few people who read this) know that it's not OK for guys to wear bad underwear. High rollers, teachers, gym bunnies, construction workers - all deserve to be well packaged, comfortable and feeling great.

And the winner is...

... Cathryn Zhang with her piece: It's Man Made! Congragtulations Cathryn and well done everyone who entered, the talent was amazing, which of course made it very difficult to choose a winner. Here's what Cathryn said about her work...

My design is an idea that comes from the process involved in constructing an urban environment. When you see the new trees and flowers being planted to style up a newly constructed round-about, road kerb, or some concrete wall, there is the feeling of nature being put into our urban life deliberately, and not existing..naturally. To me, that type of nature is urban nature.

So Cathryn will receive 5 pairs of nüdel with her design on them when they've been produced and of course the rest of the run will be distributed to stores throughout New Zealand (and now Shanghai!!) in time for the Christmas rush, so we're hoping they'll sell out!

Thank you again to everybody who entered, we'll be running a similar comp again in the near future so be sure to stay tuned. Don't forget tomorrow's Father's Day so there's still just enough time to get out and buy him a pair of nüdel, he'll love you for it. Remember all those times he lent you money, or picked you up at 3am from that party or watched you play all those Saturday morning sports games in the rain? Well now's your chance to show him how much you care, with the coolest undies in the world, made right here in New Zealand.

All entries are in

Well now it's down to deciding who's going to win the nüdel competition. I didn't think it would be this difficult to pick one! Apologies for taking so long, but it's really tough! I'll endeavour to have the winner announced by this weekend, so make sure you stay tuned.

Don't forget it's Father's Day so make sure you treat him to the most comfy undies he'll ever wear and buy him a pair of nudel! Remember if you can't make it to one of our fantastic stockists then you can buy online at the nudel website. Just click here.

Catch you real soon for the big announcement!

nüdel reviewed by Blunty

A couple of weeks ago I was searching through guy's underwear commercials and fashion show videos on good 'ol youtube. I have to say after watching a good 50 videos or so, it became very obvious to me the male underwear world is gay dominated, or at least it appeared that way through the vids I watched. This isn't a bad thing, infact it inspired me to get thinking about ways to film TVCs or just promo videos for nüdel that appeal to woman. Taking it to the next level would be to appeal to guys and girls straight and gay! Or is that just trying to please everyone. Mass marketing sucks ass, perhaps I'm venturing dangerously close to it...

Anyway, one video I did find was one posted by an Australian youtube reviewer who goes by the name of Blunty3000. It was posted back in 2008 sometime and in it he reviewed boxer briefs compared to boxers and briefs. I actually embedded this vid on the nüdel blog so scroll down to see it. So I flicked Blunty an email to see if he was interested in trying out some nüdel to which he replied promptly with a big YES! Blunty comes across as a damn good bloke, and I like the way he reviews some pretty random stuff, some of the comments on his pages are priceless too. I'm not just saying this because the nüdel review was favourable either! But thanks heaps Blunty for giving them a go and posting the vid. May your dangly bits live long and comfortable.

I'll post a couple more artist's nüdel comp submission over the weekend. Have a good one!

nüdel comp entries #2

Got another entry today from Cass, with her piece entitled 'It's Man Made'. 

"My design is an idea that comes from the process involved in constructing an urban environment. When you see the new trees and flowers being planted to style up a newly constructed round-about, road kerb, or some concrete wall, there is the feeling of nature being put into our urban life deliberately, and not existing..naturally. To me, that type of nature is urban nature."

Also in the running for their own line of nudel with this design is AKDC by Bianca Gardiner who said 

"The design was inspired by the view out of my window. As I gazed out at the urban landscape I pondered the TV aerials and power lines that criss cross the landscape and inhabit our environment. Power lines grow like trees and aerials like creepers, prolific and ubiquitous as city dwellers we assimilate them into our vistas and they become for us a type of urban nature."