Review - ExOfficio Give-N-Go Underwear
I've tried moisture wicking clothing/fast drying underwear before with varying results. A friend recommended ExOfficio underwear and tank tops so I found a coupon code at RetailMeNot.com and tried them out.
The Claim: "Give-N-Go underwear are packable, odor resistant, durable and above all comfortable."
The Pros:
These garments do dry very fast and stay pretty comfortable no matter how sweaty I got. One note that should be obvious, but is easy to forget, if you wear breathable undergarments under clothes that don't breathe, the benefit is pretty limited. That said, these did pretty well under my poly-spandex blend milonga clothes (which I wear mostly because poly-spandex doesn't tend to show sweat or wrinkle.)
On the skin, even when these do get damp, they dry pretty quickly. After washing in the sink (and blotting dry with a towel - don't forget to do this or they take much longer to dry) they dry in about 5 hours hanging on a line. If you're in a hurry (not that I would forget to wash my clothes until right before the milonga or anything) they dry in the clothes dryer in about 15 minutes.
Since I'm going to be using these for travel, the very light weight of these garments is a really bonus for me. They add almost no weight at all to luggage.
The fabric itself, even the lace, is very soft and comfortable.
Another plus, especially when purchasing from SierraTradingPost.com - even though the pictures of the "Wine" color garments all look like a different shade of burgundy - they all matched when they arrived. I think this is just a photography issue - not a dye lot problem.
The Cons:
Fit:
Even after taking my measurements and checking the sizing chart, the fit of these is so hit or miss. I highly recommend purchasing them somewhere where you can try them on. Almost nothing I purchases was true to size. The "large" sizes tend to run really large, but the "medium" sizes ran a little small. The spaghetti strap shelf camisole was a perfect Medium fit, yet the Medium regular lace tank ran too big. The reviews of the crossover non-wire bra said that the bra ran very big. I found it to be a little bit small.
Price:
These aren't cheap. Even though they feel quite nice on the skin and perform pretty well - I don't know that I can really recommend them at full price. You can get them at a discount on sites like SierraTradingPost.com - and that's where I got some of my selections. They're usually 1/3 to 1/2 the price. The downside is the limited selection of colors, sizes and styles.
Wrinkles:
This really only matters for the tank tops if you're going to wear them showing - they do wrinkle very easily. In undergarments it doesn't usually matter, but I was hoping to wear the tanks at least sometimes on their own. If you take a little of care to straighten the fabric as it dries, it's not a problem. Just fold them in half to minimize wrinkles later.
Conclusion: If you can find a retailer where you can try at least some of these on - and you can get them at a discount, I highly recommend them. If you can't try them on, then I recommend finding a site or store that sells them at least at a discount.
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