Emily Cronin, Kate Finnigan Launch ‘Hello Girls’ Podcast All About Underwear
IN THE DRAWS: Fashion journalists Emily Cronin and Kate Finnigan have teamed to launch a new podcast, “Hello Girls,” on the topic of underwear — the history, politics and everything in between when it comes to the subject of lingerie.
The first series is made up of 13 episodes with a weekly drop on Thursdays on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Castbox, Google Podcasts and more.
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In episode one, “The Wonderbra: You lift me up,” the pair dissects the phenomenon of the Wonderbra campaign featuring Eva Herzigová from 1994 and its lasting impact on the world today.
“It’s probably been brewing since 1994. I was at university when the Hello Boys Wonderbra ad landed and became this quite powerful cultural moment. As a young woman, that campaign, and the ladette culture that sprang up around it, both excited and confused me and made me think a lot about how we present ourselves as women,” explained Finnigan about the decision to start a podcast on the topic of underwear.
“Fast forward almost 30 years, during the pandemic and all the changes it brought, I became interested in the idea of underwear as a reflection of how women feel about themselves and how society feels about women. I thought it might be a radio documentary and then I realized, of course, it’s a podcast,” she added.
Finnigan and Cronin met while working at the fashion desk of the British newspaper The Telegraph. Finnigan was the fashion features director and Cronin worked under her as senior fashion editor.
Finnigan holds a postgraduate degree in periodical journalism from City, University of London and has previously worked at Elle magazine in the U.K.
Cronin graduated from Duke University in 2007 with a degree in political science and later moved to London, where she worked at the Financial Times and Elle magazine, plus a stint at Harper’s Bazaar in New York under Glenda Bailey.
“The first series is a mix of episodes focused on specific garments — the push-up bra, the thong, the corset and so on — and more emotional or experiential aspects of women’s underwear, like bra fittings and changing ideas about what’s sexy now,” Cronin said.
“But one of the main things we’ve learnt already is that everyone has a story and a point of view about underwear. It’s why we say underwear is the foundation of everything, not least good conversation,” she added.
The guests on the podcast will include designers, historians, actors, comedians, creative directors and musicians.
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