KONIAKOW, Poland — Delicate hand-stitched lace from this mountaintop village has long graced the altars of Polish churches and tables of Polish homes.

Now tradition has taken a modern twist with the lace being used for G-strings, thongs and other racy undergarments, offending some villagers but giving new life to a 200-year-old cottage industry.

”Lace wasn’t selling in the quantities it once did, and the tradition was starting to slowly disappear,” said Malgorzata Stanaszek, co-owner of Koni-art, the company that stitches the lingerie. ”Our friend then said, as a half-joke, ‘Why don’t you make thongs? They’re popular now.’ ”

KONI-art

Stanaszek, 32, recruited her mother and two sisters, and they started stitching the thongs and selling them online in 2004.

A far cry from doilies
Now Stanaszek employs 65 women who work from home churning out lace panties, G-strings, thongs and bras for customers worldwide. Orders come from Europe, Japan, China, New Zealand and the United States. A Koniakow thong sells for about $20.

Designs are a far cry from the stodgy doilies, curtains and table runners of the past.

”It’s really not beautiful at all what they’re doing,” said Joanna Pielka, an elderly woman on her way to church in Istebna, where company offices are. ”Do there have to be so many holes?”
- Source: AP, via the Chicago Sun-Times, Mar. 18, 2007