Shopping for clothing online can be a stressful experience sometimes! If you don’t know your exact body measurements (and, really, who does?), it can turn into a guessing game that isn’t really all that fun. Not to worry, panty shoppers! PinkCherry is here to save the day with a guide to panty fitting that's going to help you find the perfect size! We've gathered panty sizing stats and guides from all over the web to come up with the Ultimate Panty Fitting Guide.
Before we get into it, there's one key thing you'll need to remember when shopping for panties, and here it is: not all panties are created equal! While shopping for panty styles of panties, I’ve found myself having to buy any size from a small to a large. Unfortunately, there's not always a “one size fits all” solution, and panties don’t come in a huge range of sizes like, say, jeans. Depending on how they're made and who's coming up with the sizing, someone who normally wears a 00 or a size 6 might fit into a pair of small panties. Confusing, right? Let's try to solve this panty mystery!
Fitting Panties By Pant Size
If you find you can consistently fit into jeans that are within one or two sizes of each other, then this is probably the easiest way for you to find your optimal panty size.
The most important part to keep in mind if you’re using this method is this: think about your booty!
Sir Mix-A-Lot said it best when it comes to my body ratio: “Little in the middle but she got much back”. A problem I often encounter when shopping for panties is that my butt literally falls out of them if they’re too small, but if they’re too big they slip off my hips. In this scenario, you may have to compromise the type of material you’re working with. A stretchy cotton or elastane panty would house your butt much more comfortably than non-stretchy materials for example.
With lingerie made of these stretchy materials (elastane/lycra/spandex are probably the most common materials you’ll see), you’ll typically be safe going for the smaller size if you’re caught between two sizes. You know how pantyhose will shrink right back down to their itsy bitsy shape when you take them off? Yeah, that’s exactly what the undies will do, too.
Measure Yourself
If you happen to know your measurements, great! Take a look at our handy dandy chart below to see which sizes you should buy when it comes to lingerie.
If you don’t know your various body measurements, here’s a quick and dirty guide for how to do it at home. It is best to take your measurements with a soft tape measure, like the ones that come in sewing kits. If you don’t have one, a cheap solution is to print a to-scale tape measure from Google images, cut it out, and covering it all in tape so it doesn’t rip on your first go. It’s as close to the real thing as you’re going to get!
BUST: Wrap the tape measure around the fullest part of your bust going all the way around your back. Make sure it is tight to your skin, but not tight enough that it makes an indent in your breasts. Try doing this in front of a mirror to make sure the tape measure doesn’t slip down your back. For most accurate results, do this while wearing a thin shirt or just your bra.
WAIST: Stand up straight and tilt your upper body to the side. Where you feel your side dip inwards is where your natural waist is. Same with the bust - wrap the tape measure around the smallest part of your waist, snugly but not too tight.
HIP: This is the widest part of your hips, and can be the toughest measurement to get. Try doing this one with a buddy if you can! Standing in front of a mirror, wrap the tape measure around the largest part of your hips snugly but not too tight.
If all else fails, most lingerie stores do bra fitting for free! If you haven’t been sized in a while, it may be best to check and see if your size has changed at all.
Shopping for a Partner
If you want it to be a surprise, you won’t be able to ask your partner for their measurements - it’s a tad invasive and it totally gives away the surprise. If you’re looking to shop for a partner, we recommend looking at the size chart. It’ll take a bit of sleuthing on your part, and you have to be really sneaky. If you get caught, good luck explaining why you were looking through your partner’s drawers!
Step 1: Take a look at the sizes on a few pairs of their jeans, or undies if you’re brave.
Step 2: Compare those sizes with the size chart above.
Step 3: Acquire sexy panties from PinkCherry.ca
There you have it, folks! Now you know how to find the perfectly sized panties online!
