A 90-Person Underwear Poll

The biggest turn off in a pair of panties? Ones that don’t stay put, according to our readers. To avoid the dreaded wedgie, styles like bikinis and briefsproved popularthanks to their medium-to-full coverage. Other favorites were styles that avoided the dreaded VPL and ones that were supportive without being binding. Boxers, with their slight thigh coverage, beat out trunks thanks to a mixture of those coverage and tightness reasons.

Material was second behind fit in determining how comfortable a pair of underwear was, and 24 percent of respondentshighlighted cotton(or cotton blends) as their go-to comfy material. Several people mentioned Calvin Klein pairs across a range of styles. One male respondent told us he’d tried “branching out” from them a few times during the past 30 years but never found anything more comfortable or supportive. Another said that Calvin bikinis are soft, as well as being crucially “tug-free.” Uniqlo, Hanes, and Gap were also mentioned.

“I want underwear that is lower rise and so comfy I forget I’m wearing it.”

“I like it to cover to the top of my tummy while having less (or none) panty lines in the back, seamless but doesn’t ride up and doesn’t have lace on the edges so that it’s smooth and comfortable.”

“Full coverage briefs — no wedgies, don’t care about VPL, comfy gusset.”

“Comfort means that they don’t climb where they don’t belong.”

“I don’t like being reminded of underwear like I would with a thong or string bikinis. A brief lays nicely in a way where I’m not thinking about it or feeling uncomfortable. Cotton is a must for breathability. The high cut makes a brief feel sexier, so I’m confident in them if someone ends up seeing them.”

Almost half of our respondents highlighted lacy orthongstyles as the ones they felt the sexiest in. If you really can’t bear either of those, though, there is an alternative: mesh. People like the fact that it is sheer and revealing without the rubbing (or quote-unquote “crack” exploring) qualities of the other two styles.

Behind Parade, our subscribers also testified to the no-show capabilities of styles from Gap, Victoria’s Secret, Soma, Uniqlo, Hanes, andSkims.

People tended to purchase between three and five styles at a time. Plenty were guided by “bundle deals” such as Victoria’s Secret’s two sets of three panties for $30, etc. Others lamented the lack of these bundle sales that used to be so common, though, like this respondent who told us price has changed her habits: “Ideally, I’d buy three to five pairs at once — but it’s gotten too expensive, so now it’s one at a time.”

But the average spend was around $5 to $20 — which has also been, in our experience, the sweet spot for a good-quality pair ofcomfortable underwear.

And that tended to be fuller coverage (for pads, tampons, and comfort), an older pair, and black. While specific leakproof underwear was worn by the minority, eight respondents did use specificperiod pantiesfrom brands like Lilova and, most popularly, Thinx.

On average, the bulk of people’s underwear drawers ranged from two-to-ten years old. Most people couldn’t pinpoint it, though. The general consensus was that pairs are good to go until they’re literally falling apart, and people felt that pairs bought over a decade ago were of such better quality that that could mean they’d last for 15 years without a tear. Only one person said that they entirely replace theirunderwear drawereach year — “every year on my birthday all the underwear is thrown out and I get new underwear (helpful as my birthday is in Feb. and I can take advantage of the holiday sales)” — but many were curious as to how often theyshouldbe replacing their pairs. (Pardilla says: “I think when the elastic doesn’t snap back anymore or the seams around the gusset are coming apart, it’s time to send your briefs to the big underwear drawer in the sky!”) As for the much older pairs (20-plus years), these were mostly kept for sentimental reasons and never worn. However, plenty said that pairs from ’00s Victoria’s Secret were still going strong with regular use — but they wouldn’t shop there now.

And it was all aboutsales, sales, sales— about half of respondents mentioned they’d wait until their favorite brand went on sale, which happened to be about twice a year. Other driving factors behind purchasing new pairs was weight fluctuation (pregnancy, for example), or finding that their current pairs were “falling apart.”

Among our readers, there seemed to be two extremes:Marie Kondoor organized chaos. But almost everyone keeps the sexy stuff separate from the everyday pairs.