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Sexy Underwear When You Need It

DW staff (jam)January 21, 2005

Ever met a special someone unexpectedly during an evening out only to realize with horror that you're wearing ugly undies? No fear, now you can pop into the powder room and pick up a sexy thong that's sure to impress.

https://p.dw.com/p/692M
Prepared for all occasionsImage: AP


It's like a scene from the TV show "Sex and the City." You're out on the town having a great time and you run into sexy Mr. Right, or at least Mr. Right Now. Things between you two are progressing nicely, when a flash hits you: In the rush to get out of the house, you threw on your ugliest pair of girdle-like panties. That's sure to throw ice on the erotic heat should things really get going.

But now you have an option, at least if you live in Stuttgart. Thanks to an idea by Ulrike Brucher, a businesswoman who owns a local lingerie shop, women in these emergency situations can pop into the ladies' room, drop €6 (about $7.70) into a vending machine, and emerge wearing a slinky thong. It will not only do away with pesky panty lines, it'll ensure that at the critical moment, the erotic charge won't be short circuited.

You might call it the Thong-o-Mat.

Slip - Automaten Erfinderin
Ulrike Brucher displays her thong-o-mat.Image: dpa

The machines themselves aren't new, it's just that they normally stock condoms or tampons. Brucher's version now features black thongs in small, medium or large, and includes a toothpaste tablet so you can make sure your breath is at its freshest.

Brucher originally just stocked two such machines, thinking they'd be good advertising for her store. But after word got out, she received requests for the "thong-o-mats" from Frankfurt, Leipzig, Cologne, Berlin and other cities.

The ones in the two Stuttgart bars have to be refilled every week these days as more women are deciding for a last-minute lingerie switch. They're simply leaving the ugly undies behind. Cleaning personnel at one of the bars report finding more and more pairs of panties in the toilet trash cans.