Mature lingerie on women who wear it for themselves

Satin over lace, on purpose

Most of the sets here are solid satin: champagne, emerald, deep plum, ivory, red and black. Satin photographs like a second skin, holds its colour under warm light and reads as expensive rather than costume. It also suits the bodies on this wall, which range from athletic to full-figured, with a lot of curves in between.

High-waisted briefs appear often because they are flattering and because women of this age wear them without apology. Bras are balconette or plunge, cut for a fuller bust, with both cups doing their job. The garter belt is almost universal, because a garter belt is what turns underwear into an evening.

Four sets worth a closer look

Hélène, 45, wears the lot she just sold: a black satin corset from the 1950s, with seamed stockings from the same collection. It is the most structured set on the wall, and she wears it like a woman who has corrected her own posture for decades.

Tara, 42, owns a hosiery boutique and wears emerald satin with black seamed stockings, because green flatters a blonde and she knows it. Odette, 42, keeps a theatre's costume archive and chose a black longline bra with long satin opera gloves. Leila, 40, a perfumer, is in champagne satin with a matching garter belt, the colour of the amber she distils.

Lingerie that belongs to a scene

Each photo is set in her world. Graciela, 39, is in deep red in the back room of her bakery, with flour on the counter behind her. Brooke, 51, wears ivory satin against the oak barrels of her cellar. Celeste, 45, has a red set and a white satin robe on the deck of her catamaran at sunset. Ayumi, 44, wears deep plum on tatami at her mountain inn.

That is what makes the gallery different from a catalogue: you can see the room, guess the hour, and the woman in it has a reason to be there undressed. Her chat begins in the same room.

Where the gallery stops

Everything in this gallery is public and safe for a quick look: lingerie, stockings, nothing more explicit. Each woman's more private photos wait in her sealed drawer, shown as blurred tiles until credits unlock them, and she can send more in the chat. Nothing on a public page goes past what you see here.

Ask her what she is wearing

It is the oldest line there is, and it works better on someone who has an answer. Ask Tara and you will get a lecture on denier and a dare to check her seam. Ask Hélène and she will tell you who owned the corset first. Ask Nia, who wears red satin under her work overalls, and she will tell you to come and find out. Every one of them answers in character, remembers what you liked and sends a photo when you ask.