Guide to Women's Panty Styles

It sounds ridiculous that we should need a guide to panties, but we run a plus size lingerie online store, and the number of people who are confused between the different styles might be surprising. So, sorry if you clicked on the link the hope of something titillating, but this is going to be a straightforward rundown of what the different types of panties are.

First up, let's clarify the term "panties". It's an American term, and while someone in the UK would understand the word, they would naturally use the word knickers. Over in the UK, panties is a juvenile word for knickers, whereas in the USA knickers would be understood as possibly archaic and referring to longer undergarments such as knickerbockers. (If you really want to know, the chief reason the British use the term knickers comes down to Charles Dickens' illustrator who also did an illustration in a book called History of New York. Off to Google if you want more on that...) The word "pants" in the UK can refer to both male and female undergarments.

OK, so that's what we're going to talk about, so what are the different types?

1. Briefs - these come up to the waist or navel, and have complete coverage behind, so the buttocks are covered. They come in several versions. (yes, believe it or not, there are sub-categories of briefs.)
   a. Classic, where the material down the sides comes below the hip.
   b. Boy Shorts, sometimes boy briefs, where they are styled closely on the male pants and the material comes down the sides and is fairly similar in length front and back.
   c. High-cut, where the back is fully covered, but the front is cut, unsurprisingly, higher up the leg than in the classic.
   d. Control, where they come up far higher with the aim of holding in the stomach area.
2. Tanga - in many ways like a mini high cut brief, but with a lower waistband. Still has full backside coverage.
3. Bikini (also Bikini Briefs) - these have narrower fabric at the sides, sometimes down to a "string", and have less coverage behind, but still fairly modest.
4. Hipsters - another twist on the brief, very similar to the Classic, but with the waistband worn lower, wait for it, around the hips.
5. Thongs - the narrow waistband associated with the Tanga, but only a narrow strip of material behind.
6. G-String - leaving the least until last, this is a reduced version of the Thong, where the strip of material at the rear is reduced to a string.

That's panties reduced to 9 varieties. You might come across some variants, or more often some unique terminology, but armed with this knowledge, you should be able to work out what each type you encounter is.

Here's a question we'd love to see answered, so we're inviting you to take part and let us know what you think. We've included 2 polls. Please only vote in one of them. If you're a woman, vote in the female poll for with type of panty you prefer to wear.

If you're a man, then vote on which type you prefer to see on your lady.

We'd like to hope that we see roughly similar results, but we're rather betting that we don't.

Where to buy pants?

Hopefully you found this roundup of use, or at least interesting. Most retailers offer the whole range of different types of panties, so whether you are buying for yourself or someone else, you have plenty to choose from.

As an additional, and slightly self promotional note, plus size women often assume that there's less choice for them when it comes to panties, but nothing could be further from the truth. Ourselves, we stock a huge range of plus size knickers, which includes some very attractive boy shorts as well as plus size thongs, briefs, etc. While many mainstream shops still don't offer that much choice for plus size, you can find a good selection online with minimal searching.