How to buy the right underwear size and style
- Amanda L. Shore
- Oct 21, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 13
Step 1: Determine Your Underwear Size
Why is this important?
Like a lot of things in the clothing industry, underwear sizing is not uniform across the board. Fortunately, most brands will provide a sizing chart to help you decide what size you need. However, to make the most of these charts, you need to know your waist and hip measurements.
What You Will Need:
A soft measuring tape
Tight clothes or your birthday suit, (anything loose or bulky can affect your measurements).
How to Measure:
With your back straight and your feet together, hold the measuring tape against your left hip and wrap it around your rear, then bring it to your right hip. From there you will stretch the tape across you and to the left. The number that sits over your finger where you started is your hip measurement.
Make sure when you start measuring your finger is on the 1.
Make sure the tape is level all the way around.
Write down your hip measurement in either inches or cm.
You will find your natural waist between the bottom of your rib cage and just above your hip bones.
Beginning on the left, circle around your back, the right side, and then across to where you are holding the beginning of the tape.
The number beneath where your fingers meet is your waist measurement.
Write down this number in either inches or cm.
Deciphering Size Charts:
Most underwear size charts will offer you a range of measurements that are equal to the sizes of their product.
For example, they might say that if your waist is between 26 to 28 inches and your hip is between 36.5 to 38.5 inches you need a size Small.
In general, it is best to choose your larger measurement and use that as your guide.
For example, if your hip measurement is 43 inches but your waist is 31 inches, you should choose the XL.
Step 2: Understand Underwear Terminology
If you want to walk like you’ve got nothing on, you need to learn to talk the talk. Read on to learn about the most popular underwear styles and terms.
General Terms
Panty Rise:
When the product description has the word “rise” in it, it’s referring to the distance from the center of the crotch to the waistband. (also sometimes called “high or low waist”)
The more distance between the crotch of the panty and the waistband, the taller the panty is and thus the higher the waistband will sit.
However, where the waistband falls is different depending on your body proportions.
For instance, if you have a curvaceous tummy or a lot of ba-donk-ah-donk, the waistline will sit lower down.
This should not be confused with High or Low Cut panties.
Panty Cut:
When the product description says “high cut,” or “low cut” it’s referring to the distance from the waistband to the leg opening.
A high or low rise panty can also have a high cut leg or a lower cut one
Style Definitions
Brief
The term “brief” is often broadly applied when it comes to underwear, but brief style panties can be identified by the fact that they offer full coverage in the rear and on the sides. In the classic style, a brief will sit on or just below the belly button, but it does come in the high waisted style as well.
Bikini
Bikini style underwear is characterized by narrower sides and a low rise with the waistband often falling several inches below your belly button. You can get bikini style underwear with either full rear coverage, or a more revealing cut known as “a cheeky cut.”
Boyshort
Resembling male underwear, the boyshort is characterized by wide and square side coverage, with low cut leg openings. You can get full rear coverage boyshorts or a cheekier version that is more revealing in the derriere.
Boxers
The Boxer style of underwear is very similar to the boyshort. The main difference is that the boxer style tends to have longer legs, usually between 5 and 9 inches.
Hipster
The Hipster is characterized by a lower rise than the brief style of underwear, (sitting at the hip bones, hence hipster), and a higher rise than the bikini style. The side coverage of this style is similar to a boyshort but it has rear coverage that is akin to that of a bikini.
Thongs
Thong style underwear have the least amount of rear coverage. They are designed with a single strip of fabric that is meant to sit between one’s cheeks and the front is often cut in the bikini style.
Smoothing
Flattens the appearance of the stomach without compression. Will not change your shape, for that sort of firm control, you need shapewear.
Cotton
Cotton underwear is often recommended by doctors because it offers breathability, it wicks away moisture, and it's hypoallergenic. As a result, wearing cotton underwear helps prevent skin irritation and can reduce the risk of infection.
Step 3: Choose a Style that Fits and Flatters
There are only two hard-and-fast rules for buying underwear that fits:
You want the band on your underwear to either rest above or below your “problem areas.”
Problem areas don’t mean that there is something wrong with your body, it’s simply a reference to parts of you that you don’t want to draw attention to.
If your stomach bulges underneath your belly button you should look for panties that either sit above your belly button or at your hip. Additionally, if have a lot of flesh on your upper thigh, you’ll need bottoms that don’t cut into that flesh. This means that they must fall either below that fleshy bit or above it and not ON it.
If you are comfortable and you feel good in your undies, then you can ignore everything from “rules” to “body shape” to “sizing”. You do you, no need to apologize.
Need Help?
Visit our store in the Pointe-Claire Village to consult a specialist on the underwear style that suits you best, or send us an email at info@lingeriedebra.com
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