Practical garments worn for support, comfort, hygiene or layering, without any fetish meaning.
Back to the glossaryMaterials & dress
Lingerie fetish
An attraction to intimate apparel as an object, aesthetic or part of dressing and role expression. It can involve particular fabrics, construction, styles or the contrast between concealment and display.
Materials & dress
In brief
Intimate clothing can carry material, historical and personal meanings.
A lingerie fetish focuses on intimate apparel as an object, textile, image or part of dressing. Lace, satin, mesh, elastic, boning, colour, construction and the contrast between private and visible clothing may matter. Lingerie can also be ordinary underwear, fashion, costume or gender expression, so the garment alone says nothing about its wearer's interests or consent.
Design-led intimate apparel valued for colour, cut, textiles, history or self-presentation.
Focused attraction to the garment, material, dressing ritual, image or symbolic intimacy.
Lingerie may support role-play or gender exploration; style does not determine gender, sexuality or role.
Research categories and their limits
Scorolli and colleagues counted underwear-focused online groups within the wider category of objects associated with the body. Rehor's kink-community survey also documented varied clothing and role-related behaviours among women. These sources confirm diversity but are self-selected and cannot establish current UK prevalence or one typical wearer.
Interest and behaviour are not interchangeable. Population research by Joyal and Carpentier found that reported atypical interests do not perfectly predict corresponding actions. Seeing lingerie as attractive therefore does not imply owning it, wearing it, involving a partner or needing it for arousal.
Fabrics, construction and history
Lingerie may use cotton, silk, satin weaves, lace, mesh, elastic, synthetic microfibres, foam, underwires, boning, fasteners and decorative ribbon. People may focus on softness, transparency, structure, sound, craftsmanship, period styling or the transition involved in dressing.
V&A histories show that underwear has changed with technology, fashion and social ideas about body shape—from knitted garments and stockings to corsetry and modern stretch textiles. Historical associations can influence a fetish or aesthetic, but they do not explain every individual's interest.
Garments, collections and personal meaning
Relevant objects may include bras, briefs, slips, camisoles, robes, corsets, suspenders, bodysuits, packaging, sample cards or vintage advertisements. Some people value unworn collections and design archives; others focus on wearing, a partner's chosen outfit or the contrast between lingerie and outer clothing.
Sizing labels differ between makers and countries and do not define who may wear a garment. A style can support confidence, privacy, gender affirmation, playfulness or role-play. None of those meanings should be assigned to someone from appearance alone.
Consent, ownership and clinical distinction
Intimate clothing is personal property. Permission to see or touch it, wear it, keep it, smell it, photograph it and share an image are separate choices. Secretly taking garments or images is not made consensual by attraction, a relationship or previous access.
Fit, wire, boning, seams, adhesives and fibre sensitivity may affect comfort; a wearer should not have to tolerate pain or skin symptoms to match an aesthetic. WHO guidance does not treat an unconventional consensual-adult clothing interest as a disorder by default. Distress, impairment, serious risk and non-consent—not a drawer of garments—are the relevant clinical distinctions.
Non-graphic examples
What the umbrella may include
- Collecting unworn or vintage lingerie for textile, construction or design history.
- Choosing lace, satin, mesh or structured fabric for its sensory qualities.
- Wearing lingerie as fashion, private self-expression or an agreed adult costume.
- Enjoying the ritual of selecting and arranging garments without involving another person.
- Photographing a chosen outfit only with the wearer's separate permission.
Reviewed 30 August 2026
Keep exploring.
This detailed field note uses the best available evidence without treating one community sample as universal. Evidence limits and UK context are stated where relevant.
Prepared by The UK Kink Guide editorial team. Read the evidence and review methodology.
Found an error or important omission? See how to report a correction.
Explore all 268 entries