How to Pick Panties by Cut: Brief, Bikini, Hipster, Thong, Period

A panty is a silhouette. Amazon 6-packs pretend they are a personality. Pick the rise and the back first, then the fabric. The panty glossary is the map. The Size Guide is the hip, not vanity sizing.

Brief: higher waist, more seat. Hanes cotton 10-pack and Vanity Fair full coverage are the drugstore version. Bikini: lower rise, moderate back. VF Illumination, Jockey Tactel, Chantelle Soft Stretch. Hipster: sits on the hip, wider sides. Hanes hipster 6-pack, Jockey hip brief.

Thong, tanga, period

A thong is minimal rear coverage to cut panty lines. A tanga is more than a thong and less than a bikini. CK Modern Cotton thong is a named cut, not a clone 5-pack. Period underwear is absorbency — Hanes Light Leaks and the bikini period 3-pack are two rises, same job. Do not buy period as your only brief unless that was the brief.

Seamless and bonded edges are for trousers. Cotton is for heat. Lace is for a photograph. Shapewear briefs — Reamphy control, Maidenform firm — are not everyday cotton. They are a waist under a skirt.

One named cut you can re-buy beats six anonymous seamless that bag in a month.

The drawer rule

Own one rise that matches your trousers and one cotton for heat. Add a thong only if lines were the complaint. Add period only if you will wash it on the schedule it needs. Shop panties, then honest panty reviews. Skip the clone 6-pack whose only photo is a grid of pastels. Wash cold. Hang.