Storing your bras and designer lingerie for longer life

Caring for your luxury lingerie is one of the best ways to ensure its longevity.

Whilst a mass of straps, hooks and unmatched fabric is guaranteed to irritate. Knowing how to care for your bras and lingerie will save you time, energy and will keep you organised and delighted with your most intimate items of clothing.

If like most women, you are tired of waking up to a mass of beautiful but disorganised undies each morning, below are our recommended tips to ensure your lingerie, bras and other intimates are properly stored.

STEP 1: OUT WITH THE OLD

The first step is to take out every piece and place it into an 'old' and a 'new' pile. This sorting process is best done out of the drawer, so that you have space in the drawer to put back what's kept at the end. We understand that during this process you are likely to find some pieces to which you have attached a sentimental value.

Let's deal with these objectively using the strategy below:

1. Remove anything you haven’t worn in a while (set a period of time -a year, for example) or would not be caught in again, even on the worst days

2. Remove items with faded colour or undone seams that are starting to fall apart

3. Remove items where the elastic is going or has gone, or where underwires have lost their original shape, or are poking out through the fabric

4. Remove items that do not fit properly or are uncomfortable.

STEP 2: IN WITH YOUR NEW DESIGNER LINGERIE

Now comes the best bit. Having discarded the old and uncomfortable items, start to fill the gaps created by the removal of these pieces with your existing 'keep' pile.

THEN fill the final remaining gaps with gorgeous new pieces that make you feel confident, comfortable and sexy. This means different things to different people so just as with all items of clothing, make sure you choose what's right and practical for you.

Here are some thoughts to inspire your choices, and to ensure your lingerie drawer contains everything you require:

• T-shirt bras which are completely smooth under tighter clothing such as a t-shirt or a turtle-neck jumper. We suggest two - one in black and in your skin tone

• Similarly, a strapless bra perhaps in black for formal 'party' occasions in winter or summer, and a skin tone racer back bra for tank top days

• A pretty, lacy push-up bra or two (usually for smaller cup sizes and/or to enhance the bust) for special occasions

• A balcony or full cup bra or two with or without padding for every day, depending on your bust size and your preferences

• A sports bra or two depending on how committed you are to your keep fit regime. These come in cup sizes with fantastic support in some brands such as Prima Donna and Anita

• To ensure you feel truly special, co-ordinated and gorgeous, we of course recommend matching briefs whether it be a thong, a short-style or a traditional brief style. And more than this, we recommend at least two if not three pairs depending on how often you wear and change your bra!

• Of course with black, white and nude bras, the best way to save but still feel 'in control' of your look, is to buy plainer briefs which act as additional 'matching' pairs

• Finally, you may wish to keep a suspender belt or two – one pale, one dark. If you wear one frequently, there are often matching suspender belts to bras and briefs so do always ask

STEP 3: ARRANGING YOUR LINGERIE DRAWER

After discarding the old, the worn and the uncomfortable, arrange the new your preferred format – even this is different for different people!

1. Some prefer every day to be separate from special occasion

2. Some prefer all bras together, all briefs together etc. because every day or special occasion could happen at any time!

3. Our preferred way to organise the drawer, is to place all the bras neatly together, bra behind bra and cup behind cup when padded; folded if not padded. Then each set of matching briefs has its own separate lingerie bag or 'pocket' which can be quickly identified once the 'bra for the day' has been selected. Luxurious, exclusive and very special.

If you seek an extensive collection of lingerie to stock up on, visit our new arrivals collections.