Dear Ms Candida,

I’m sure that readers of 'Madame' magazine (which I have only just discovered) would be interested in an event witnessed by a good friend of mine who was a voluntary worker in a local charity shop.

One afternoon she popped into my house, clearly excited, saying that she needed to sit down and have a cup of tea whilst she related the events of the afternoon to me. It appears that she was quietly sorting out some new stock when she noticed two well-dressed, middle aged ladies and a young man, probably in his late teens, behaving rather strangely. Not believing that she had seen correctly what was happening, she watched for a few minutes and, yes, to the obvious embarrassment of the young man, the ladies were holding various dresses and skirts up against him to see if they suited him!

By now bursting with curiosity, Evelyn (my friend) went over to ask if she could help. “Ye-es,” replied one of the ladies, gesturing to the dresses that her friend had over her arm, “We’d like to try these on him, and anything else you’ve got that might suit.”

At this, the young man, who Evelyn now saw was a rather well-built and manly specimen, turned absolutely crimson and started to protest, however he was silenced by a withering stare from the lady who had spoken. Evelyn quickly pointed out the changing room, whilst one of the ladies roughly pushed the youth forward, at the same time handing him what was obviously a new pair of black tights with instructions to “Put these on first, so we can see the full effect!”

Absolutely enthralled, Evelyn asked the two ladies, as the young man changed, whether this was for a fancy-dress party. “Oh no,” replied one, “this is a punishment.” She went on to describe how, the previous evening, her daughter had been holding a Lingerie Sales Party at her house. Just after the proceedings had got under way, they had heard some noise outside. A couple of the ladies had quietly gone upstairs to look out of the window, and had seen three youths, hiding amongst the shrubbery, trying to peek at what was going on within. Her daughter had been for calling the police, but the older ladies would not hear of it “Waste of time, the police will do nothing” one of them had said “We should sort them out ourselves”. This was soon agreed, and as one of the attractive younger girls modelled a particularly alluring nightie, guaranteed to hold the attention of the avid watchers, six of the ladies had surrounded the youths and grabbed them before they knew what was happening.

Unfortunately one of them had struggled free, and had got away, but the other two were soon overpowered and dragged forcibly into the house. At this point the one in Evelyn’s shop had been recognised as the recent boy-friend of her daughter, who had obviously known about the arrangements for the evening. The two captives were presented with a simple choice – take the punishment the ladies had in mind, or have the police called in. Once they had realised they had no alternative but to agree, they were told that the party which they had so disrupted was to be re-arranged for the following night, and as they obviously so wished to join in and be “one of the girls”, they would attend and provide waitress service – but would have to be suitably attired of course. Two other ladies were dealing with his “partner in crime” and they were determined that their man was going to look the best!

Whilst the story was being related, the young man (his name was apparently Paul, though his captors laughingly addressed him as 'Pauline') twice appeared from behind the changing-room curtain, frantically looking around to see who might be in the shop, wearing the two rather pretty dresses and the tights. What a sight he had presented! The ladies seemed undecided, and, much to his chagrin, made him retry the first outfit. By now, two or three other women who were in the shop were taking an interest, and amusing comments were starting to be made. The women were concerned that he didn’t look much like a waitress, so Evelyn had the bright idea of a black skirt and a white blouse. A short, full black skirt in a suitable size was soon located, as was a very smart white blouse with a frilled front, collar and cuffs.

When he emerged next everyone agreed he looked very sweet, the short skirt and black tights making his legs look very shapely, and the frilly blouse looking really femme. It was in fact a size or two too large, but one of his tormentors made him blush even more by saying it would be alright once she got him into a bra. Evelyn then remembered that she had some nice dance petticoats in the back of the shop which she thought would fit, and the ladies soon agreed that they should be tried. 'Pauline' was then required to walk nicely around the shop, his pretty petticoats peeping nicely out from beneath his skirt, which bobbed prettily over them with each step, all the time accompanied by applause and laughter from the six ladies now present. He could no longer prevent the tears rolling down his cheeks.

After being teased that he should be taken back to the house dressed as he was (Evelyn said that the look of amazement on his face was a joy to behold), he was eventually allowed to get changed before paying with his own money for the skirt, blouse and petticoats. Whilst he was changing Evelyn commented that he had certainly been taught a lesson, to which the reply was that if he thought that had been bad enough, he was going to suffer a lot more that evening, at the Lingerie Show. As he emerged, still red-faced and clearly shaken, he was told they had one more stop to make, to buy him a nice frilly pinnie to set off his nice waitress uniform, meanwhile he had to thank Evelyn for all her kind attention to make him look so pretty!

Evelyn felt that this was the funniest thing she had seen for years. It was great idea, and she wondered why more men were not shown the error of their ways in this fashion. Certainly, 'Pauline' would be very unlikely to risk this sort of humiliation again. These 'peeping tom' men were being taught a real lesson, and far from ogling the women, were finding out for themselves just how humiliating it was to be scantily-clad and at the mercy of the opposite sex. Evelyn’s only disappointment was that she hadn’t been invited along to see the fun. She had, however, been promised some pictures, which she intended to display prominently in the shop. Maybe other ladies, seeing them, would be encouraged to bring their recalcitrant husbands or boyfriends along for similar petticoating treatment. I put my own name down as a volunteer worker that very day!
Yours sincerely,

(Mrs) E. W.

'Petticoat Discipline Quarterly' rarely published 'classic' letters these days, although they are always welcome. I think that we might now have published more original petticoat discipline letters than any publication before us, except possibly for 'Justice Weekly.' I would certainly like Peter Farrer's judgment on that.

Lesley and Penelope have always given the magazine a great deal of help, and once again I have received an excellent letter from the past from them. I must say that I am sufficiently old-fashioned such that the idea of these 'lingerie parties' still seems utterly bizarre to me. Anyway, my own underwear is very simple and sensible - while over on my annual visit to the Works at Grimsby I had to lift up the hem of my tartan skirt to adjust something, and Julie Anne, who was also in the loo at the time, said, "I may be exceeding my authority, Miss MacDonald, but can't you - you know - set more of an EXAMPLE?"

Little minx! It just shows you; go into semi-retirement and leave others in charge, and before long they have forgotten who owns the place and pays the bills. I suppose it must be the younger generation - after all, that's who was always blamed when I was young.
Susan