What if Your Panties Could Change the World? UNT Grad Wonders As She Launches Fair-Trade Lingerie Line

By Eric Nicholson Thu., Jul. 19 2012 at 1:52 PM

Categories: Biz

What better way to help impoverished Africans?

It's Saturday night, and you and the lady have just finished a romantic, candlelit dinner. You're on your third glass of wine, and you move to the bedroom, where she tells you she's going to slip into something a little more comfortable. She disappears into the closet and emerges wearing a sheer lace number and tells you to lay down. She sashays toward you, crawls onto the bed on top of you and leans over. "This lingerie is fair-trade certified," she whispers, her breath hot against your ear. "It was hand-crafted by Cameroonian artisans. All the profits go to help malnourished children in Africa."

Pretty hot, right? Well, UNT graduate Tara Smith thinks so.

"After spending two years in Cameroon, I couldn't stop thinking about every purchase I made or how every dime I spent could help someone in poverty, especially women," she says in the press release announcing the line. "For me personally, lingerie took a backseat. I want women everywhere to buy lingerie knowing that their purchase will change the lives of other women."

And, Smith wonders, "Why can't women look sexy to help other women?"

I thought that was an excellent question, and one that raised myriad others. Like, why can't women look sexy to help me do laundry? Or, why can't women look sexy to help men, namely me, get through the day? And so on.

All of the eventual profits will go to fight poverty in Africa, but for now, Smith is focused on raising $15,000 to actually launch the line. She's started an indiegogo video campaign featuring partially clad women gazing from a Downtown Dallas high rise, and also solicits donations on her company's website. You can give as much as you want, but if you donate $10,000, they will name a lingerie factory after you.

The campaign kicks off in earnest this Saturday with a launch party at the Swallow Lounge. Until then, watch the video and ponder the age-old question: What if your panties could change the world?

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mlle.tara.smith

To learn more, please visit www.besexybuyfair.com or see our Indiegogo project at www.indiegogo.com/besexybuyfair! Thank you!

CheeryBitch

Did this nonsense come from a pageant contestant? Good grief......

Chiggers

That video changed my world. Suddenly, the whole commenting universe has been modified in response to my viewing this piece.

It also changed the way my jeans are fitting.

roohbear

I run www.PantySalad.com and was wondering if I could buy some of this new line.... Please let me know

lady_bug0627

@roohbear you can go to http://besexybuyfair.com/sign-up/ to contact Tara for purchase of the wear.

JSSS

I really want to go to PantySalad.com but I am at work and I fear what I might find there.

rooh.bear

@JSSS It's work-safe.... just a bunch of mannequins rotating. No nudity.

TrayvonasaurusRexxx

1 Like

"fight poverty in Africa"... yeah right. You might as well raise money to build a ladder to the moon, or raise money to try to stop the earth from going around the sun. You might as well flush the money down the toilet.

But hey! It is the kind of feel-good horseshit that the naive white-guilt libtards like.

I do believe that I have noticed thousands of impoverished "Africans" right here in Dallas.

Maybe she can come up with a line of dildoes for their benefit.

I get it now

The editors were very happy when this news item hit their inbox, with that page-view-friendly photo, Dallas connection, and ostensibly philanthropic spirit. Other ladies, I will meet you at the Swallow Lounge so we can all hang out in our underpants together. Panties is such a gross word, possibly because it seems both so infantilizing and so sexualized.

TrayvonasaurusRexxx

Dildoes and Abortions for Africa!

Montemalone

Two tiddy stories with accompanying photos in two days. Is this what the world is coming to? Nicholson, are you not getting any at home?

Phelps

Who wants to buy constantly wadded panties?

ChrisChris

It doesn't really matter to me if they're fair trade or not as long as you pick them up off my floor on your way out in the morning.

I don't often have launch parties but when I do, I prefer to launch at the Swallow Lounge.

Barack Obama

Cameroonians didn't make that lingerie. Somebdoy else made that happen.

lady_bug0627

As a person closely involved with this company I can assure you this lingerie was indeed sewn by a group of Cameroonian women, some are using the most antiquated machines imaginable. The seamstresses there are very talented.

just sayin'

I have always hated the word "panties". It just sounds sooo creepy when a dude says it. I am sure that a female has never heard me say that word. All they have ever gotten was underwear, undies, or my preferred "draws".