Fabrics, cuts and wear time, explained

Fabrics

Every listing has a Fabric field with seven choices: cotton, lace, lycra, nylon, knit, latex and other. The Drawer Report counts how often each one is listed.

Share and median asking price by fabric, in euros

Cotton

Cotton is a natural, absorbent fibre. In the standard reference values textile labs use (ASTM D1909), cotton holds about twenty times as much moisture as polyester: 8.5 per cent against 0.4. That's what makes a cotton pair feel soft and breathable.

Two studies, neither of them on underwear, show what the fibre does after wear. In the first, a panel of screened assessors rated polyester T-shirts worn for an hour of indoor cycling as less pleasant and more intense than cotton ones, and one group of bacteria grew almost exclusively on the polyester. The second, on fabric samples, found odour intensity strongly linked to fibre type, high for polyester and lower for cotton and wool, and not explained by how many bacteria were on the fabric. The fibre matters more than the bacteria count. Browse used cotton panties.

Lace

Lace is an openwork fabric, not a fibre. In underwear it's often made from nylon or polyester with some elastane for stretch, and many lace pairs have a cotton gusset; the care label says which, so ask the seller if the listing doesn't. Because the yarn is usually synthetic, lace behaves more like the polyester in those studies than like cotton. It's also the most delicate fabric to wash: look for the washtub symbol with one or two bars under it, or the hand-wash symbol. Browse used lace panties; keeping a pair the way it arrived is covered in the storage guide.

Lycra, nylon and microfibre

Lycra (elastane, called spandex in the US) is the stretch fibre and is rarely used on its own; nylon and microfibre give the smooth, slightly shiny finish of seam-free pairs. All three are synthetic: they absorb far less moisture than cotton and, like the polyester in the studies, hold on to a worn pair's character more strongly.

Knit and latex

Knit is a knitted fabric, soft and stretchy, and the label says which fibre it's made from: cotton jersey behaves like cotton, a synthetic knit like the synthetics. Latex is rubber, not a textile. It doesn't absorb moisture and needs its own care, so ask the seller how she looks after it before you buy.

Cuts, and what they're called

The listing's Cut field offers twenty-five options. Buyers in the UK and the US don't always picture the same shape under the common names, so here's a quick guide.

• Thong: full coverage at the front, a narrow strip at the back. Browse used thongs.
• G-string: the narrowest kind of thong, often just a string at the sides and back. It has its own option in the Cut field.
• Tanga: in British English, a brief with narrow sides and more fabric at the back than a thong. The word is much less common in the US, so ask if you're not sure which shape a seller means.
• Brazilian brief: somewhere between a bikini brief and a thong, with half coverage at the back.
• Cheekster: close to a Brazilian, with a slightly fuller back and a curved leg line.
• Classic brief: full coverage, the everyday shape. In British English, "knickers" covers this and most other pairs.
• Boy short: cut like a tiny pair of shorts, with a short leg.

Share and median asking price by cut, in euros

The cut table shows each cut's share and asking price side by side; the median barely moves from one cut to the next.

Reading a listing's details

Each field that's filled in is a question answered before anyone asks it, and each empty one is a question for the chat. Wear time is the one most listings leave open.

• Fabric and Size are what buyers filter by, so a pair without them is harder to find.
• Cut comes from a fixed list; the description can add the brand's own name for it.
• Worn for and Worn while describe how the pair was worn, not what it's made of.

If you sell, fill in all five; if you buy, ask about the empty ones in your first message. What to ask a seller covers everything else to agree on.

Sizes

Listings use one scale, XS to XXL. Brands don't: UK labels often use dress sizes, US labels a number scale of their own, and European brands yet another. No conversion holds across brands, so ask the seller for the size on the label, or for the waist measurement with the pair laid flat.

Size does show up in asking prices at the edges: among listings priced in euros, the median XS pair asks €30 and the median M pair €20, according to the Drawer Report. For sellers, that's one more reason to list the real size.

Days worn

The "Worn for" field says how many days the seller wears the pair before it's packed, from one to seven. A seller can also choose "Ask me", which means the wear time is agreed with you in the chat. Most listings don't state it at all, which is why buyers so often ask about it first.

It does less to the price than people expect. Among listings priced in euros, those with the shortest stated wear time have a median of €25, and those stating 7 days a median of €20. These are asking prices on live listings, not sales. Longer wear only shows among the top tenth of prices; the details are in the pricing guide.

For buyers: if a listing says "Ask me", agree the number of days in writing before you order. For sellers: fill in the field, and you've answered the first message before it arrives.

Occasions

Four answers to "Worn while" appear on public pages: at work, sport, going out and sleeping. Of the listings priced in euros that name one of the four, 48.3% were worn at work and 24.8% for sport. If the fabric matters to you as much as the occasion, ask about both in the same message.