Panty line

A prominent, visible panty line or VPL (visible panty line) occurs when the outline of one's underpants becomes visible through one's clothes. [Valerie Steele (2005) "Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion" vol. 2, ISBN 0684313960, p.121] There may be a ridge or depression in the clothes, or the clothes may be slightly see-through.

The taboo in many cultures against showing one's underwear means that panty lines are generally considered undesirable and embarrassing. At the same time, this also makes VPL an attribute of erotic clothing. Its erotic value leads to women and fashion designers paying a lot of attention to lingerie that will be worn under a see-through garment.

The origin of the term is probably traced to barracks humor, the term "VPL" for 'visible panty line' as a mockery of overused bureaucratic initialisms, coined in an analogy with water line. [David Halberstam, a reporter, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his reports on the Vietnam War, in his 1967 novel about the war "One Very Hot Day" writes: "They all wore white dresses, that was the prescribed legal uniform, but they wore hem so short and tight, that was almost obscene. (So tight that the panty lines could always be seen, and the helicopter pilots, who were insane for military abbreviations, had invented the phrase VPL, for Visible Panty Line)." "The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English" claims that the phrase was popularized by Paul Simon in Woody Allen's 1977 comedy film "Annie Hall"]

Some lingerie companies advertise "invisible panty lines" as a selling point for, e.g., boy shorts and C-strings.

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