MEDIUM RARE

It’s summer, all right, and a sizzling, sweltering one. Should we chuck our underwear and remember to share the advice with all who’re trying to keep their cool?

Congresswoman Janette Garin, an MD and former secretary of health, is to be thanked for taking such intimate discussion out of the drawer and into the light of day. Reading between the lines, methinks the lady had in mind an audience of fellow-women. The light of day, not to mention the heat, is why the crotch area needs to be well ventilated.

I asked a salesman in the department store what types of guys buy briefs instead of boxers and vice versa, and he said, “Americans wear both at the same time.” Is it because the weather is cooler in America? He just smiled.

In the Philippines, and according to a private source, bikini briefs are popular, because they’re cool and they come with a crotch designed for support. As far as I can see, while browsing inside the store, their colors are limited to white, black, tan, navy. For color, the shopper must turn to “boxer shorts,” and they come in all colors, in small checks, stripes, even dots, but maybe not floral prints.  

Definitely, women have more choices in terms of color, cut, design. Merchandisers present styles that instantly catch the eyes of ladies looking for the latest innovations in their underwear.  A popular made-in-PH brand once introduced a season of huge, tropical blossoms for its panty line, which turned out to be a big hit – like a heat wave it was.  

Women enjoy shopping – at Rustan’s, Anton Huang said his customers are 70 percent female – and they love touching the merchandise before deciding what to buy. But I’ve not heard of any store allowing ladies to try on a piece of underwear in the fitting room.

Underwear includes upperwear like brassieres, which are lovely to behold and hold, with all that lace and attention to the smallest, finest detail in the straps, garter, hook. But not all stores carry brassieres for nursing mothers.

On the other hand, as a women’s magazine editor once complained, why do guys demand that their sweethearts wear matching bra-and-panty sets when they cannot follow their own rule on themselves?