It’s Official: Thongs Are Out, Granny Panties Are In

Real talk: A few weeks back, I had the great misfortune of getting a yeast infection. It wasn’t your typical, head-to-the-drugstore-and-take-it-easy yeast infection, though; instead, it sidelined me for a few days, rendering me useless against my ever-growing pile of laundry, where my decades-old cotton underwear sat — probably at the bottom, under a few soggy towels.

Rather than have my boyfriend get our laundry picked up for expensive, same-day delivery, I promptly sent him out to get me a few new pairs of cotton underwear, because when you’re female, they teach you by age 4 that cotton underwear is the only kind of underwear.

I was on the mend within a few days, and I’d ordinarily throw the half-dozen pairs of briefs — you know, granny panties — in the back of my drawer, where they’d stay for years to come. But they were just so comfortable, and didn’t I deserve to be comfortable after going through all that pain? (Yes.) So I put them on, and three weeks later, I still can’t bear to take them off. Sure, I’ve washed them. I’ve even picked up about a dozen new pairs — some cotton, some not. This is all to say I’m a proud convert — and I’ve never felt more attractive.

As it turns out, finding a pair of well-designed, and — dare I say — sexy briefs even just a decade ago would have been like a wild goose chase to find the needle in the haystack. Anyone who’s walked into a Victoria’s Secret only to be bombarded with the scent of Love Spell and 10-by-20-foot posters of tanned, waxed women in super-low-cut thongs — never to return again — knows that to be true. But now, with brands like Fortnight, Mary Young, and Baserange making briefs mainstream both in retail and on Instagram, there are myriad opportunities to see women with fully covered butts totally owning it.

Cora Harrington, a veteran in the industry and founder of the intimates blog The Lingerie Addict, confirmed my suspicions that thongs are on the way out. “They’ve been down-trending for a while now. When pinup, retro, and burlesque-style lingerie experienced a resurgence roughly a decade ago, thongs were already on the way out,” she said. Pair that with new technology like laser-cut seams and ultrathin fabrics, and they’re practically obsolete, she said.

And when you consider the move from the pushed-up-to-your-chin bras to lacy, barely there bralettes, it all makes even more sense: Even major retailers that are often slow to react to trends like Aerie (which still labels its underwear as “Boybriefs”) and, yes, Victoria’s Secret have caught on. Plus, in a world where you can double tap on a photo of a co-worker’s lunch and a snap of someone’s bare butt all on the same feed, there’s something innately provocative about covering up instead.

“There’s a definite movement toward feeling comfortable and confident in what you’re wearing,” said Lauren of Negative Underwear, a brand that sold twice as many briefs as it did thongs in 2016 and now offers embroidery on all its wares. The same goes for True&Co, which launched in 2012. Co-founder and CEO Michelle Lam credits the move toward looser, more relaxed-fit clothing for the trend: More than ever, women seem to be dressing for themselves, and that accommodates a brief in the same way that tight clothing may have necessitated a thong.

Heck, Lonely Lingerie, which launched in 2009, never even considered thongs to be part of its repertoire. “We don’t particularly like the look or feel of them, and in the past haven’t felt they fit the Lonely aesthetic,” said Helene Morris, Lonely Lingerie’s designer, echoing the sentiment that a thong’s primary job is remove visible panty lines rather than be a necessary component of sexy lingerie.

In the words of Alanis, what it all comes down to is this: “You should wear whatever makes you comfortable and feels good on [your] body,” Harrington said. “There are more options than ever before, so wear what works for you.” With that in mind, we culled 15 pairs of briefs that straddle the line between comfortable and yes, downright sexy.

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