Let’s be clear: great-fitting, quality bras are expensive. We have a great employee discount, but even with that, none of us want to do anything to shorten the lifespan of anything in our lingerie drawers. A lot of our conversations with clients are about how to maintain new garments for as long as possible and, while no amount of care will make your bras family heirlooms, every choice you make extends or shortens their time on this earth. We’ve already showed you how to wash your underthings, and we’ll do another post next week about knowing when it’s time to let go, but today let’s talk about storage.
Since everyone is at home, KonMari-ing every drawer in the house, there’s no time like the present to evaluate your drawer of drawers (we’re sorry, we’ll how ourselves out). Too-crammed drawers, careless folding, and a laissez-faire approach to organization can all contribute to a quicker decline of your most delicate pieces.
With underwear, the best course of action is to lay them flat, fold the waistband over, then fold the crotch up toward the waistband, making a little rectangle. Thongs, boyshorts, high-waisted panties: all these have different profiles, so the goal is to make them somewhat similar in shape. Once you’ve made your rectangle, roll it up tightly and store them clustered together like a pan of extremely sexy cinnamon rolls. You can find small latticed dividers online if you really want to keep things orderly, but they’re not necessary— if the aesthetic appeals to you, go for it. Doing it this way allows you to see each piece’s color and fabrication without putting any stress or strain on the elastic. It also decreases the surface area that could snag on your drawer’s coasters.
Pantyhose, stockings, tights, and other legwear present a thorny problem: left to their own devices, they’ll turn into a veritable Twister of deflated tubes. There are two good approaches: coiling and knotting. With coiling, you repeat the process above: lay them flat, fold in half, roll into a coil. You can tuck them into the drawer like that, or you can put them into plastic punch glasses. With knotting, you take the rectangle and tie it very gently into a knot. That keeps the legs together, preventing a Gordian knot of fishnets. This is really up to you: if your priority is keeping things orderly, the knotting method is a tidy method for you. If you’re concerned about snags, the coiling and punch cup route will suit you well.
Bras, you may have noticed, are the most persnickety of these three. With any underwire or molded bra, it’s important to give them room and allow them to retain their shape as best you can. Hook the band in the back and tuck the straps down into the cups. The cups shouldn’t be collapsed at all when you put it into the drawer. Store them sitting up, each bra nested behind the one in front of it. If you’re a little extra, you can put a piece of cardboard between each bra as a divider, but again, that’s not necessary. But what about bralettes? Lay flat. That’s it. Even though there’s no wire, you still don’t want to put a lot of strain on the elastic.
For everything else (pajamas, shapewear, robes, chemises, whatever), just fold them nicely like you would any other garment you love. Some of our clients opt to hang their silk pieces up in the closet so they don’t wrinkle, but that’s a personal call. Hey, if space is no object, you’re free to hang 100% of your underwear up!
If it’s tough to visualize any of the configurations above, check out this video! Our creative director, Kirsten, will demonstrate how to store bras, underwear, and hosiery.