14   

"i took it off"

so, it was like 2012. i was in williamsburg, just walking around. i was HOT. it was, like, august?  and this kid hits me up. he’s like — bloop! — and i was like, what’s up? and he was like, do you want to meet up? and i was like, sure! because you know what “meet up” means..

 

I go to the bathroom to prepare, and im like, wait, this shit smells. So right before he pulls up, im like, i don’t need underwear — even though underwear is also great — i don’t need this underwear. i took it off, threw it in the garbage, and I moved on with my life and had a great night.

13   

"my lucky underwear" 

so a couple of weeks ago, i had, like, given up all hope of getting this pop up space. I was wandering around soho, wondering what my next step in life would be, and the broker called me and asked me if I still wanted it [because] something had fallen through with the long term renters. i was like, “yes! yes! i’ll take it!”

as soon as I got off the phone, i realized i was wearing my oddobody underwear — it must have been good luck! i texted the girls, and i was like, “im pretty sure this is my lucky underwear.”

12    Fredgy

"people have been doing this forever"

I’m so used to just throwing panties in a laundry machine. but these [oddobody], i was hand washing them, and i remembered when i was a kid i would hand wash all my panties. that was a very sacred time. you would hang them all up, and they would dry and that’s just how i did it for years. and now im like why have i been washing my underwear in a laundry machine? it’s like, so rough.
[and then you said you went to your grandma’s?]
oh, so then i went home and i’m thinking about hand washing. and then i notice that there’s just panties all over her bathroom! and it was like, other people have been doing this forever! what happened to make me stop?

10    Kalindi

"I'm never wearing a thong again"

 

I remember in college when thongs was the thing to wear. And so I tried on lots of different kinds of thongs, and realized that only the string kind was comfortable for me. (the kind that was like an inch thick was painful.) And, yknow, that liberation of finding a thong that was comfortable and being to wear thongs all the time. But I remember once I got out of that head set, that thongs are the thing to wear, I realized that thongs are not comfortable, and I am never wearing a thong again.

 

09    Nayara

"i've definitely upped my game since"

I massively disappointed this ex-boyfriend of mine with a nice pair of granny panties. So it happened that I grew up in a more conservative town, and sexy lavey underwear was just not a thing. I had just moved to the US from Brazil, I was in my early 20s, and yea, the poor guy was so disappointed. He didn’t even try to hide it, so it didn’t make me feel bad or anything, because I just thought it was really funny. I still think it’s really funny. I’ve definitely upped my game since.

07    Maria

"so cute on the rack"

A friend and I were wandering around the streets of paris and we stumbled upon this lingerie store and I picked up this pair of the most uncomfortable purple mesh underwear I have ever seen in my entire life -- and a matching bra too. The underwear were so cute on the rack, and I obviously couldn’t try them on, so I just bought the size that would fit and took them home. The first time I wore them on a date they were so uncomfortable, because they were just chafey and gross, that I actually ended up taking them off in the bathroom in the middle of the date and putting them in my purse. I literally never worse them again. My experience with sexy underwear began and ended then. I now just wear underwear that’s comfortable because sexy underwear is not comfortable -- most sexy underwear is not comfortable.

06    Mariana

"the thong song"

I credit the late...no...90s early 2000s for introducing me to the thong.  So first Brittany Spears, Christinia Agulaira, and Sisco. When Siscos started singing the Thong Song it was like empowering, i’m gonna buy myself a thong, and it was a black one at that. And the reason it was black was because in the late 90s,10 Things I Hate About You came out and there was this scene in the movie where Cat’s sister, Bianca, and her friend Cameron start rummaging through her underwear and Bianca picks up her underwear and she says “look black panties” and he’s like “what does it matter” and she was like “it means she wants to have sex one day.” So now I always associate black thongs with sex and women’s empowerment.

04    Latasha

“the enemy”

**sings**Memories I have with panties. So I think dealing with a really strict Latin mom forced me to buy a thong underwear by myself because...you know what she wasn’t having it...but i bought it anyway and in high school wore my first thong underwear senior class spanish and you know i think it was like green and this guy in the back was like “yo green...yo green” and I was like “why does he keep calling me green?” Then I realized low-rise jeans are the enemy...but also...not the enemy you know? ;)

03    Lara

“naughty little extra”

My first memory of underwear is being about 6 or 7 years old in school in England. And it occuring to me to be a really sassy idea to dare all the kids (all of my friends to come in with no underwear on, I guess we’d call it commando now. The head mistress found out and called me to her office and asked why I would do such a thing and if I actually understood what underwear was for...what the purpose was. To which I remember being completely flummoxed, I had zero idea. She explained to me that underwear was designed to keep a person warm in these areas, it was a protective garment. This was news to me--I thought it was a naughty little extra.

02    Abigail

“WHITE. White. white”

Ok so my most vivid memory of a piece of underwear was...I was at belk with my mom back home in Virginia and my sister and I had just both gone through the birth of our first child and I go...but it's impossible to find cotton underwear which is what you want after you’ve gone through that body trauma. So we went into belk and I come upon the Jockey section and there are these huge, high-waist cotton underwear and I’m sooooo pumped that I call my sister immediately

“Jenny, how many pairs do you want?”

And I come home with a bag full of high-waisted jockeys.

What color were they?

White. White. white.

01    Shira

“whale tale”

I guess the first time I remember caring about my underwear, I was probably 13 or 14 and I was at the mall with my mom in a store called Mandees. There were this really sexy, leopard print thong...synthetic pair that caught my eye from across the room. Somehow, I convinced my mom that it was okay to buy even though she only let me buy 100% cotton underwear. I really wanted to wear them sitting in front of this really hot, kind of morose but smart wrestler in calculus class and lean over so that they would be peeking out that back...which I believe is called a whale tail.