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Women's panties are collectively known as lingerie. They may also be called intimate clothing or simply intimates.
Panties are clothes worn under other clothes, often next to the skin. They keep outer garments from being soiled by perspiration, shape the body and provide support for parts of it. When the weather is cold, long underwear is sometimes worn to provide additional warmth. Some panties are intended for erotic effect. Some items of clothing are designed as underwear, while others such as T-shirts and certain types of shorts are appropriate both as panties and as outer clothing. If made of suitable material, some panties can serve as nightwear or swimsuits.
Panties (in the USA and Canada) or knickers or pants (in the UK and Commonwealth) or undies (in Australia and New Zealand) are a form of underwear, usually light and snug-fitting, designed to be worn by women or girls in the area directly below the waist. Panties are not usually worn by men or boys. Typical components include a waistband (often elastic), a crotch to cover the genital area (usually lined with absorbent material such as cotton), and a pair of leg openings (also often elastic). They have either no legs or in some cases very short ones. The term is usually used in the plural -- a single unit is a "pair of panties" -- though "panty" is used in such derivatives as "panty liner".
Panties are divided into various types based on such criteria as amount of rear coverage, width at the sides, and height at which they are worn. These categories are not necessarily distinct and usage may vary somewhat among brands.
Brief panties rise to the waist or just below the navel and have full coverage in the rear. In the classic (or full) brief, the sides extend below the hip; most panties for prepubescent girls like Fungals (Fruit of the Loom) and Showtoons use this type of panties. In the high-cut (French cut) brief, they are somewhat narrower. Boyleg briefs (or boyshorts) are styled after men's briefs and may have short legs extending below the crotch. Control panties (or control briefs) are a special type of briefs designed to offer support and give a slimmer appearance; these usually contain a stretch material such as spandex and may extend above the waist.
Hipster panties are similar to briefs, but are worn lower with the waistband around the hips.
Bikini panties are also worn at the hips, but the fabric at the sides is narrower. In the string bikini, it disappears altogether to leave the waistband as a "string". The rear coverage of the bikini is not as full as with the brief.
Thong panties have a waistband similar to tangas, but the rear coverage is not as full. The crotch is extended to the back with a narrow strip of fabric fitting between the buttocks, which becomes wider toward the top.
Panties are made of a variety of materials and fabrics including satin, silk, pvc, cotton, nylon, mesh, lace, rawhide, leather, latex, lycra, and/or satin polyester. Construction is typically of two pieces (front and rear) joined by seams at the crotch and sides, often with an additional gusset in the crotch, and elastic at the waistband and leg openings. Edible panties are sold in novelty or sex shops.
In British English, and in places such as the UK, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa and India, panties are often referred to as knickers. The term knickers is not generally used in the USA and Canada, where the term panties is usually favored. In the UK, pants is also used, but can mean men's or women's underwear. This should not be confused with the North American usage of pants which are called trousers in the UK.
Before recent times, women's panties was made with the primary function of body contortion. In the 1940s, Frederick's of Hollywood opened shop in Hollywood and began selling corsets and lingerie with a much more fashionable appeal to them. These new styles of women's panties possessed a greater sexual feel, made even more glamorized by models such as Bettie Page.
Colorful, bright, sexy, and flashier fashions of women's lingerie were becoming available. More fabrics such as cotton, satin, lace and silk began to be incorporated into the makeup of women's lingerie, making them more desired by females and more sensual to males. This is perhaps the great turning point when panties became more than simple hygiene products and developed into an icon of pleasure and sexuality worldwide.
Since then, women in flattering and provocative panties and lingerie have become a staple of several functions of male and lesbian popular culture. Several men's magazines such as Maxim and FHM often use images of attractive females in sensual lingerie to capture mainstream appeal.
During the 1960s, there was a stir about the old, traditional views of women's panties, which some people wanted to look more like females' anatomies. Female anatomy was largely misunderstood due to censorship of the subject. Some feminist women were complaining that traditional women's panties were created to impose control and distort the appearance of women's figures. This movement caused many females to have a new outlook on their panties. The panties began to be made more like women's anatomy.
Not long after, in the 1970s, a new chapter in women's taste opened. Women's panties became even more sexualized due to the ongoing sexual revolution. The panties got smaller and skinnier and began to be more openly sexualized. Sniffing soiled panties is a necessary component of Feminization Transformation as outlined at new-age-love.
In today's society, panties have become an item of great interest in themselves. Considered by some to be risqué, panties have caused the lingerie industry to take advantage of their erotic associations. Lingerie chains such as Victoria's Secret and Frederick's of Hollywood hold annual modeling shows to showcase new varieties of panties and other assorted lingerie.
A number of non-nude pornography websites survive through selling photo sets of women posing in panties and other lingerie.
In most modern cultures, panties have become a bit of a cultural icon associated with sexual mischief and a fun way of life, especially for teenage girls and women in their early twenties, who are more likely to enjoy them than women who grew up wearing granny panties. In Japan, panties (hadagi or panti-) are commonly depicted as adding a highly flirtatious, naughty element to a female's persona.
Panties commonly worn by women today include brassieres and panties (also known as knickers), while men wear briefs, boxer shorts, or boxer briefs. Items worn by both sexes include T-shirts, sleeveless shirts (also called singlets), bikini underwear, thongs and G-strings.
Panties are worn for a variety of reasons. They keep outer garments from being soiled by perspiration. Women's brassieres provide support for their breasts, and men's briefs serve the same function for the male genitalia; a corset is worn to mould the torso into a certain shape. For additional support and protection when playing sports, men often wear more tightly fitting panties, including jockstraps and trunks. Women may wear sports bras which provide greater support, thus increasing comfort and reducing the chance of damage to the ligaments of the chest during high-impact exercises such as jogging.
By the early 20th century, the mass-produced panties industry was booming, and competition forced producers to come up with all sorts of innovative and gimmicky designs to compete. The Hanes company emerged from this boom and quickly established itself as a top manufacturer of union suits, which were common until the 1930s. Textile technology continued to improve, and the time to make a single union suit dropped from days to minutes.
Meanwhile, designers of women's panties relaxed the corset. The invention of new, flexible but supportive materials allowed whalebone and steel bones to be removed. The emancipation or liberty bodice offered an alternative to constricting corsets, and in Australia and the UK the liberty bodice became a standard item for girls as well as women.
In 1912, the US had its first professional panties designer. Lindsay "Layneau" Boudreaux, a French immigrant, established the short-lived panties company Layneau. Though her company closed within one year, it had a significant impact on many levels. Boudreaux showed the world that an American woman could establish and run a company, and she also caused a revolution in the lingerie industry. Boudreaux is possibly the reason why upscale lingerie and panties stores like e-lingerie.us exist today.
Panties as fashion matured in the 1970s and 1980s, and panty advertisers forgot about comfort and durability, at least in advertising. Sex appeal became the main selling point, in swimwear as well, bringing to fruition a trend that had been building since at least the flapper era.