Briefs

Rise is the vertical distance from the crotch seam to the waistband, and it decides where the garment sits on the torso. A high rise sits at or above the natural waist, a mid rise below it, a low rise on the hip. The right rise is the one that puts the waistband where the body is narrowest or where clothing will hold it, not the one that is currently fashionable.

A waistband sitting on the widest part of the abdomen will roll, and no amount of elastic will stop it. That single fact accounts for most of the frustration people have with mid rise briefs. See shapes for the full range and what each covers.

Almost every brief has a separate panel at the crotch, and in a well made one that panel is cotton or a cotton blend against the skin. The reason is physical rather than traditional: a fibre that absorbs moisture into itself keeps the surface against skin drier than one that leaves it there. Cotton and modal sets out the mechanism.

• Check which side the cotton is on. Some briefs line the gusset on the outer face only.
• A gusset sewn in on all four sides sits flatter than one sewn at two ends and left loose.
• A single layer gusset in the same fabric as the rest of the garment is a saving in manufacture, and it shows in wear.
• The gusset is the part of a brief that needs a proper wash. It is the reason cotton briefs can go at 40 degrees while lace ones cannot.

The single most common cause of a red line at the top of the thigh is the finish on the leg opening, not the size of the garment. There are three usual constructions and they behave very differently.

Elasticated and folded

A strip of elastic enclosed in a folded hem. Durable, adjustable in tension, and the most likely to leave a mark if the elastic is narrow or firm.

Picot or lace edge

A decorative stretch edge with no separate elastic. Softer against skin, less secure, and prone to rolling on a firm thigh.

Bonded or laser cut

The raw edge of a fabric with enough body to be cut and left unfinished, sometimes with a thin bonded strip behind. Invisible under clothing and completely flat, at the cost of durability and of any adjustability at all.

A line at the top of the thigh usually means the edge finish is wrong, not that the garment is a size too small.

The same fabric logic applies here as everywhere else in the drawer. Cotton and modal against skin, elastane for recovery, polyamide where a smooth surface under clothing matters. The proportion of elastane decides whether a brief holds its shape after twenty washes or turns into a slack triangle. Anything below about three per cent will rely on cut instead, which is fine in a woven brief and a problem in a knitted one.

• ShapesFull brief to tanga, with the rise and coverage of each.
• Thongs and comfortWhy some are comfortable all day and others are not.
• ShapewearCompression, what it does and where it stops.

Sizing across this category is less standardised than it is for bras, because there is no measured system underneath it. The reliable approach is to find the hip measurement on a published size chart and use that, then adjust for rise. Where a brand offers both a hip and a waist figure and they point at different sizes, the hip figure is the one to follow for anything below the natural waist.