Bras, panties, lingerie, shapewear… we wear these all the time, yet how much do we really know about them, other than we have to have more than a dozen pairs each at a time?
Here, we uncover some pretty precious things about men’s and women’s underwear. Happy discovering!
- There’s more to white panties than meets the eye, it seems. Sexual researchers note that a woman who chooses to wear white cotton panties tends to be a low maintenance, no-frills type – they don’t mind being seen without makeup.
- The typical measurements for a Victoria’s Secret model are a 34″ bust, 24″ waist, and 34″ hips. No surprises there, for most of the brand’s models originate from Brazil, the land of ridiculously shapely, goddess-like women.
- The U.K. typically sells the highest number of the largest bra cup sizes. Japan usually sells the most of the smallest sizes. Stereotyping aside, women the world over are getting more and more diversified in their body shapes, than even within a family, one woman could have a bra measurement of 34DD while her sister could be a modest 34B.
- To avoid urinary tract infections, physicians recommend changing underwear at least once a day, a practice most of us would agree to, regardless of reason. In fact, very few women would not change their inner wear after every shower! In one study though, it was found that single people are less likely to change their underwear on a daily basis than married people—82% versus 88%, respectively.
- Picking out the right bra size sounds simple enough – if the cup fits, wear it. Apparently, a whole lot of us don’t even know the right size that fit our boobies! According to bra-fitting experts, approximately 80% of women are wearing their bras in the wrong size. The solution? Ask your friendly shop assistant for help.
- Visible Panty line, or VPL is a term every fashionista will be familiar with. It’s one of the most horrendous of fashion faux paux one could ever commit. You can blame vanity for this, but many,many modern women may occasionally go commando (pantyless) to avoid this unforgivable flaw on their otherwise perfect outfit.
- The average woman will wear six different bra sizes throughout her life,and at this point we’re guessing they’re for the following stages of her life: Puberty, teenage, early adulthood, pregnancy, postpartum and the golden years.
- We’ve got some pretty fashionable panties in the market these days and they come in all sorts of fabric too. Regardless if they’re made from leather, satin, vinyl, latex, cotton, mesh or polyester, the best panties are the ones with cotton lining at the crotch for hygiene. Ladies, time to check on yours!
- If you’ve been feeling aches in your back lately and notice your boobs losing some of its shape, it’s time to check your bra! Bras that don’t fit correctly has been found to cause back strain and loss of breast firmness
- The colour red is constantly linked to wealth and prosperity in many parts of the world. In the world of fashion as well as beauty, it’s considered a seductive colour to wear. In Italy, red takes on a whole different meaning, for women celebrate New Years by wearing red underwear because it is considered lucky.
- If you love wearing g-string panties, you must be really sexy in bed! We say that because trend analysts observe that women who wear a g-string are typically more uninhibited and more body-confident. Sexually, they’re more willing to try different and creative positions.
- On October 14, 1996, a student pledging for the Kappa Alpha fraternity at Texas A&M had to have one of his testicles removed as a result of the injury caused by a wedgie
- The origin of the phrase “going commando” is unclear, though it probably originated with members of the military who more often than not preferred to go without underwear
- While underwear may or may not be worn under kilts, tradition holds that a “true Scotsman” would wear nothing underneath
- During the 1950s, it was popular for college boys in the US to storm girls’ dorms and steal their underwear and then publicly display them. The popular term for these outings was “panty raids”
- In the 19th century, European women typically wore heavy petticoats to keep the cold breezes from blowing up their skirts because they usually didn’t wear any underwear underneath
- In 1780, Marie Antoinette shocked France by wearing a chemise dresses at court. Previously, the chemise was worn only as innerwear
- In 1951, Marlon Brando turn men’s cotton undershirts into a fashion statement when he bore his in the movie A Streetcar Named Desire
- In 1995, a woman named Berbel Zummer was walking through a park in Austria during a storm wearing a wire-enforced bra under her clothes. The metal in her bra attracted a bolt of lightning that killed her instantly
- A New York woman named Mary Phelps Jacobs is typically credited with creating the modern bra by sewing together two handkerchiefs with some ribbon and a cord. She patented her bra design under the label “brassiere” in 1914 and later sold it to the Warner Brothers Corset Company
- The top brands in the global underwear market include Calvin Klein, La Senza, DKNY, Victoria’s Secret, Wacoal Holdings, Armani, Wolford, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, Etam, Chantelle and Triumph
- In the 1990s hip-hop scene, it was fashionable for men to wear their pants low, showing their boxers or briefs. Some say the style originated in prison when inmates had their belts removed because they might be used as a possible weapon.
- The corsets business provided thousands of jobs in the past, but they used so much whalebone to stiffen corsets (sounds painful to wear), hoop skirts, and other types of underwear, that the baleen whale was almost driven to extinction. Corsets have come a long way since, and are made in ways as to not cause much agony to their wearers too.
- Men’s briefs were invented in 1935. A contemporary magazine ad touted the brief’s “scientific suspension” and “restful buoyancy”
- King Tut of Egypt, a leader who ruled from age 9 to 18, was buried with 145 underpants
- During the Victorian age, women wore knickers, which left the entire crotch area open and exposed because it was believed that an open crotch was more hygienic. Today, it would just indicate freedom of choice, probably, as long as it’s not exposed to public, for then, it would be indecent exposure.
