We all deserve decent underwear

Are you Team Gaping Holes or Team Wrecked Elastic?

I drafted a post about cognitive processing and the craft of writing for this week, but then two things happened.

First, I found myself in stitches Friday night, talking with friends about underwear. This wardrobe workhorse is not—in the grand scheme of things—expensive and yet it seems to be a low priority purchase. My friend joked about buying new underwear every ten years. I can’t remember the last time I refreshed my underwear collection but my current fleet is in pretty sorry shape—the worn-out elastics and resulting wedgies being the major offense. 

Because I found this conversation so funny, the second thing that happened was that I asked about it on Instagram. I first issued a poll:

Hundreds of people responded to this poll. Clearly, people want to express their feelings about underwear!

So, I followed to ask about brand recommendations because—feeling validated by my fellow members of Team Gaping Holes and Team Wrecked Elastic—I found myself edging closer to being less of a curmudgeon and buying myself new underwear.

I figured that if I received a handful of responses I would share them in Stories, since I was already receiving messages to share the results. As more responses came in, I figured, OK, I will make a cute little comparison chart with price breakdowns. But then as the responses poured in—over 40 recommended brands!—I decided to take a different approach; hence, this post.

Below is an alphabetized list of all of the recommended brands. People usually responded simply with a brand name but if they added commentary, I include it in quotes below because I find these notes helpful. I also include numbers to indicate when brands were recommended multiple times because I believe in frequency data (more on that in a moment). For the first brand in the list (Aerie) you can see why the qualitative data (commentary) is informative against the quantitative data (number of times recommended). Even though Aerie received multiple recommendations, I don’t want to spend my non-curmudgeon dollars on low quality undies that I need to keep replacing.

Keep reading beyond this basic list for further helpful, nerdy information!

Underwear brands recommended by Christine’s Instagram community

*Apologies in advance for any typos; I transcribed these names from my Instagram DMs but did not look up every brand to confirm spelling.

• Aerie x 3 (“Not best quality ever but cheap enough to not feel bad replacing”)

• Amazon Basics x 4

• Athleta

• Auden by Target (“On sale a pack of 5 or 7 was under $20”)

• Bamboo Bikini

• Bombas x 2

• Chantelle x 2

• Commando

• Cosabella

• DKNY

• Duluth Trading Company

• EBY

• Everlane

• ExOfficio

• Felina (“from Costco for the best price – for OG cotton Victoria’s Secret dupes…but better”)

• Fruit of the Loom (“I’ve tried it all. And these just fit.”)

• Gap x 10

• H&M

• Hanes x 2

• Hanky Panky cotton x 3 (“Lasts for a lifetime and I wash them in the washer” “No lines, no wedgies”)

• Jockey x 6 (“Have worn Elance French Cut for 15+ years“ ”Elance Hipster is actually almost a brief but I like its height”; Two people recommended the line at Kohls)

• Intimissimi

• Jo and Bette

• Kindly by Walmart (“boy shorts”)

• Knix x 3

• Lululemon x 2 (“Expensive but worth it - Under ease mid rise bikini”)

• MeUndies x 3 (“Love the fun patterns”)

• Natori x 6 (“French cut” “Bliss girl briefs” “And if you like them, stock up at Nordstrom’s summer anniversary sale as they drop the price each year then.”)

• On Gossamer (“They feel like wearing nothing”)

• Pact

• Panty Drop (“I just ordered and are trying these out”)

• Parade x 3

• Reebok (“After my hysterectomy they were the only ones that don’t bother scars”)

• Soma x 12 (“I stock up when they have sales” “I switched from bikini to brief style and it’s a total game changer for my midlife bod” “Soma vanishing edge, come in cotton, zero wedgies” “Try Soma’s vanishing edge panties - no lines and wedgies, but not cotton.” “I’ve been a loyal fan for 15 years”)

• Target

• Third Love x 2

• Tommy John x 5

• Uniqlo x 2 (“Affordable and long lasting”)

• Universal Standard

• Victoria’s Secret x 2

• Wacoal

• Wirarpa via Amazon (“I got rid of everything else!”)

The 6 top recommended underwear brands

Given the length of the above list, I narrowed down to brands recommended 4+ times so I could collect links and price comparison information.

• (4 recommendations) Amazon Essentials Bikini Brief: ~$2-3 / pair

• (5 recommendations) Tommy John: ~$16 / pair

• (6 recommendations) Jockey Elance: ~$6-8 / pair

• (6 recommendations) Natori:  ~$12-20 / pair

• (10 recommendations) Gap: ~$6-11 / pair

• (12 recommendations) Soma: ~$8-24 / pair

And because what would life with a former scientist be without some kind of easy-to-digest visual, here is a pie chart of underwear recommendations by percentage of recommendations (for brands recommended 4+ times).

Given the volume of recommendations and the nature of the comments, I am leaning towards trying Soma, starting with the Vanishing Edge collection which features wedgie-free technology. Trying to live my life wedgie-free feels like a solid goal for 2024!