Tomima’s Blog - Lingerie & Underwear Expert

International burlesque star Dita Von Teese now has her name on a collection for Wonderbras, recently launched in Europe. To kick off the line, Ms. Von Teese posed in a giant swinging black sequinned bra in London’s Covent Garden while wearing a peach evening gown and heels.

Her Wonderbra collection of lingerie reflects 1940’s glamor. One of Ms. Teese’s first jobs was in a lingerie store where she performed bra fittings.  Fascinated by lingerie, she started collecting vintage pieces, which became the inspiration for her new line from Wonderbra.

Her Collection includes panties, suspenders (garters), thongs and bras, which Von Teese declares are extremely comfortable.  Unique to some of the bras is the use of a wire along the top of the cup rather than along the bottom.  Some of the panties and bras from this collection also have magnetic clasps for quick release. All items have the retro flair of burlesque and mid-century Hollywood.

Though modeled alluringly by Ms. Teese, the early reviews of the bras are cautionary.  They are beautifully made.  However, the wire along the top of the cup shows through clothes and seems to not fit all women.  The collection is made with heavy embroidery and detailing  Honestly, these items look more like stage costumes.  They are probably best suited to be worn by themselves and not covered with clothing.

 When will the Wonderba Satin Teese Collection from Dita Von Teese hit the USA?  No one is telling yet.

Find other Wonderbra lingerie at HerRoom in these departments:
Bras

By now, you’ve probably seen their commercial.   A thin model cropped between her waist and knees is walking down a street.  Suddenly the model freezes, her creme pants are off, and exposed is Soma’s new Vanishing Edge Bikini Panty.  Claims about its invisibility under clothing are made as the camera pans from the front to the model’s backside.  Then, her creme pants return and she walks away with a flawless backside with no visible panty lines.  Soma Intimates, for those of you who don’t know, is owned by the Chico’s retail chain and carries exclusive Soma products.

Is this new panty line the ultimate underpant for women?  To read their copy, they seem to think so. Here’s their claim.  Wear their Vanishing Ege panties (which come in 5 styles - bikini, brief, hi-cut brief, hipster and boyshort) and erase panty lines forever.  Here’s how they say they do this.  First, they use a very soft, stretchy and breathable micorofiber.  On the back side of the leg opening starting at the side seam and going all the way to the crotch, the raw leg edge has 1/4" wide strip of silicone on the inside.  Parallel to this silicone are much thinner rows of silicone that are spread out 2 1/2" from the edge.  This would be the same silicone gripper tape that you see in shapewear to keep it in place and along straples bras to keep them up.  This is called their "stay-put technology" and the essence of their marketing claim. 

I went to Soma and bought several styles of the Vanishing Edge panties to test drive.  The first thing the sales representative told me was to "size up."  I normally wear a size 6-8 pant and am a size medium.  In spite of this, the salesperson strongly suggested I purchase the size large.  A later check on the Soma website shows they make the same suggestion of ordering one size larger. 

The first thing I noticed about the Vanishing Edge Collection is that they use a very soft, lightweight, and stretchy microfiber.  I really liked this.  Next I inspected the waistband. Nothing new here. Like most panties, an elastic is sewn to the edge, so this would show under almost any garment.  Along the front leg edge, starting at the side seam and going through your legs and along the side of the cotton lined crotch, there is an elastic serged to the edge.  So, again, this edge would also show under garments.  However, the most important edge for VPL’s is along the backside of the leg edge.  The Vanishing Edge panties do indeed have a raw edge of fabric with fused-on silicone gripper tape for elasticity and to anchor your edge in place.  I think most women would see this and think this new idea might actually work.

The next morning I reached for one of my new Soma panties and pulled them on.  Instantly, I was aware that this is no panty to be pulled on and forgotten.  The silicone sort of grabs your skin while you’re pulling them on.  You therefore need work your panties up your legs, then perform the additional operation of placing the edge of your panty where you want it to stay for the day before continuing on with your morning dressing routine.  That said, once the panties were put in place, I found them comfortable and almost forgettable until I went to the bathroom.  Again, I had to carefully place the panty on my butt cheeks. 

I purchased four of the 5 styles offered in Soma and test drove each one.  All styles fit me in a size large with the exception of the hipster.  In this style, I had to either show bottom cleavage, or cover the bottom of my butt cheeks.  The back was not large enough to do both - and my bottom is in shape.  On a later trip to a Soma store, I compared the hipster to the other styles.  It’s back panel is considerably smaller than other styles.

So, does the Vanishing Edge Collection really erase panty lines forever?  I pulled out my yoga pants to put this to the test.  After all, these types of pants are the ultimate arbitor of panty lines… am I right?  So, here’s what I noticed.  A normal panty line is created by the edge of your panty being thick enough to cause a bump line along your pantyline.  What the Vanishing Edge technology creates is an indentation along your panty line.  That’s right. The silicone gripper tape pushes in your bottom flesh to create a ridge.  Now, it may not be as obvious as a traditional VPL, but it’s still obvious.  I then reached in and readjusted my panty edge in back to come right under my butt cheeks.  This helped, but the ridge was again observable when I bent over.

Now, in their defense, our bottom tissue is soft. Therefore, like back fat in a bra, it would almost be impossible to put anything on your bottom that wouldn’t show.  But I did have panty lines and I was disapointed.  Soma, you’re getting close. But, you’re still not quite there.

As an aside, there are a couple of other companies who have designed panties with edges that almost disappear as well.  They include:

The Commando Invisible Underwear Collection

Affinitas Intimates Grace Hipster S8-605

TC Fine Wonderful Edge Panties A404, A403 and A405

All have laser cut edges, and some have silicone gripper tape as well.

As a final note. the Soma panties need to be washed in warm water and tumble dried on low.  Only non-chlorene bleach is to be occasionally used,  They are made in Nicaragua.

Find more panties at HerRoom in these departments:
Panties

First, a little history about the brand Moving Comfort.  It’s a neat little story.  Back in the 1970’s, believe it or not, there were no running shorts on the market for women.  That’s right, women had to wear men’s running shorts if they wanted to run and be comfortable.  A little company called Moving Comfort was born in Bothell, Washington (just north of Seattle) and made the first women’s running shorts. Eventually, they were purchased by Russell Corporation out of Atlanta that also owns brands such as Russell Athletic, Spalding, Bike, and Jerzees.  Last year, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, (The Warren Buffett Investment Group) acquired Russell.  One of Berkshire Hathaway’s initiatives was to update the internal computer systems of Russell.  And, for some reason, they felt it also necessary to change the style numbers on 8 of Moving Comfort’s Sports Bras.

While making the style number changes, Moving Comfort took the opportunity to also make a few design changes to some of these styles as well.

The Moving Comfort Dori Sports Bra used to be style 722760.  Its style number has changed to 300057.  Also changed was the back design on this bra.  The original design had no opening on the bra.  You basically, had to wiggle into it.  The new design includes a hook and eye closure along with a peek-a-boo opening in the back to make it much easier to get on and off.

The zipper front Grace Sports Bra went from style 725720 to 300060.  Moving Comfort took this opportunity to change out the zipper and replace it with a new zipper design that is stronger with a lock down feature.  This is a great move.  If you read the reviews on the old design, there were several complaints that the zipper would either not stay up, or would come zipping down during a work out.

Style 723160 called the Maia Sports Bra also received a new style number - 350011.  The Maia will now have a lower center front cut at the neck and adjustable straps where there were none previously.

It’s always confusing to the customer when a company does something like this.  Armed with a style number, a customer walks into stores looking for an exact match.  When they don’t find it, but are told a different number is the same bra, they can’t help but wonder if it really is the same style.

Here is a comprehensive list of the old and new style numbers for the Moving Comfort Sports Bras along with a notation of any style changes that have taken place: