The holy grail of undies
I'm 5'8", 154 pounds, wear size 8-10 and have your basic hourglass shape. Small waist, wider hips. Curvy, I guess, though I hate that word. I kickbox and run and I eat very healthily. But I'm still just not toned. And if you're not completely toned, do you know what curvy becomes when you put on the wrong shape underwear? Lumpy. Bulgy. Not good in any way. I like to wear somewhat clingy dresses to work. Not slinky, inappropriately clingy, but clingy enough that you can see all those lumps and bulges. Thong, bikini, hi-cut...don't even get me started on the nightmare that is a boy short if you're a "curvy" but not-all-that-toned girl. It seems like my whole life I've been looking for just the right panties. Sometimes I find them, I buy a ton of them, and then the company changes or discontinues the style (I'm looking at you, Gilligan & O'Malley from Target). Now, I've said, I'm not the thinnest, most toned person around, yet I still went into Victoria's Secret and was not able to find a single pair of panties in that store that fit me. Not one. In a department store, you know when they size the panties 5, 6, 7, and 8? The 8s barely fit me. And if they do, they do that digging into the flesh on my hip thing so I get lumps and bulges. My sister and I have a phrase for what our ideal underwear needs to do: "Lay gently on the hip." I was whinging on about my underwear woes to a very patient colleague. She told me about another brand of lace thong underwear and said it would eliminate my problem, that it would "lay gently on the hip." Crazily, it was a one-size garment as well. One size??? I was intrigued. But she cautioned me about the price--these other undies were $20 each. After selling a kidney, I went on Amazon to order a test pair. But while I was there, I saw...the Cosabella Plus-Size Never Say Never Lovelie Thong. Unbelievably, it was even MORE expensive than the one my colleague had told me about. But I was captivated by it, so I ordered one of those as well. When the order came, I excitedly tried on the $20 pair. You know, it wasn't too bad. Did it lay gently on the hip? About 80% successful. As I get more toned (kickboxing, the greatest exercise ever), I think they'll look better. Comfy? Most definitely. A fine, hard-working pair of very pretty undies. But then I tried on the Cosabella. You know the line from When Harry Met Sally where the old woman says that she just "knew" when she met her husband that he was the one? She says, "I knew the way you know about a good melon." Well, when I put the Cosabella on, that's the line that I thought of. My second thought was, "TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS!" And my third thought was, "I don't care, I'll remortgage the house to get more of these." Talk about laying gently on the hip! Absolute perfection. The lace is so soft and stretchy. No digging. No unpleasant grabbing of my hip fat to make a big lump. They make me feel like my curves are a good thing when I look in the mirror. One of the other reviewers referred to them as "loving" and now I know what she means. For the first time in a very long while, I feel pretty and sexy in my underwear. Should I be considered a plus-size person, with a clothing size of 8 to 10? Nope. Do I care? Nope. I don't care if the size says, "Hippopotamic land mass" (movie, anyone?) if they look and feel as good as these do on my body. Read more
