If you’ve been looking for sustainable underwear, you definitely heard of Pantee, or recently renamed NOT BASICS and their undies made from deadstock fabrics. Does it live up to the hype? Here’s my honest NOT BASICS / Pantee underwear review, after having tried some of their pieces.

This review is not sponsored, I bought these pieces myself.

About NOT BASICS (ex-Pantee)

Pantee was created by 2 sisters, Amanda in London and Katie in Vancouver.

The mission? “Bring you comfort in a more stylish and less wasteful way”, starting with undies.

The concept? Encapsulated in the brand name: Pantee makes pants (amongst other things) from deadstock tees. Deadstock is excess stock that often ends up in landfill. It is estimated that the fashion industry produces 92 million tonnes of textile per year, with 30% being never sold.

After spending a year on the design, sampling and fit testing process, the sisters launched their crowdfunding campaign in late 2020 and started taking pre-orders. The initiative was a success and the website officially launched a few months later.

Since then, Pantee have upcycled a few thousand kilos of deadstock fabrics and have been featured in Vogue. They’ve also been venturing into clothing with timeless basics such as tank tops and bodysuits.

As of September 2024, Pantee is now NOT BASICS, offering an even wider range of clothing and underwear.

What makes NOT BASICS a sustainable underwear brand?

The team are the first to say that their products are not 100% sustainable, but they are being honest about it and are thriving to find ways to become more sustainable.

The materials

The company uses both upcycled deadstock t-shirts and deadstock rolls of fabric that meet their grade and quality standards.

The bras and briefs also contain elastics which are never dyed to avoid wasting water and using chemical dyes.

The production

The undies are cut and sewn in Bangladesh. Their facility is run by the owner of a Buying House and Sampling room who helped them start their business without high minimum order quantities and guarantees fair wages (above the average living wage) and healthy conditions for the workers.

NOT BASICS produces in small batches and the coloured sets are limited editions, based on how much fabric is available.

The packaging

From recycled cardboard boxes to recycled swing tags and water-based ink, the brand also aims to make their packaging as eco-friendly as possible.

Honest NOT BASICS review

I had been eying up Pantee (NOT BASICS) for quite a while and decided to order some pieces when they had a sale a few months ago. I bought the following items:

• The Crop Bra - RRP: £30

• The Bralette - RRP: £30

• The Mid-Rise Thong - RRP: £16

• The High-Rise Bikini - RRP: £16

The style

These undies are timeless basics that will never go out of style. They’ll always be staples, you don’t need a special occasion to wear them and that’s what I love about the brand.

Some pieces are plain basics, like the crop bra, whilst some others like the bralette have a slightly more elaborate design but are still perfect day-to-day basics.

The fit & feel

All the items I bought feel extremely comfortable to wear, the cotton fabric is really soft and breathable. The elastic bands on the bras do not cause any discomfort. I never want to wear bras with underwires ever again!

Support-wise, I’m not the best person to advise as I’m in the itty-bitty committee. Reading the reviews on the website, it seems that most customers are very satisfied with the level of support.

The bras are not padded, which is not really a problem for me most days but in some instances I’d rather wear a padded bra. I hope they will come out with some padded options in the future.

I followed the size guide on the website and ordered the same size as I usually do in other brands, so it’s true to size in my experience. The bottoms fit perfectly, so does the bralette which has adjustable straps.

The crop bra is slightly tighter, because the elastic band doesn’t stretch as much as the one in the bralette. That being said it’s still really comfortable to wear.

Final words

Even though people don’t see them, there’s something about wearing well-fitting undies you feel good in that helps boost your self-confidence, and it shows on the outside.

For the past few years I mostly bought cheap, fast-fashion undies because I didn’t really care but since getting these pieces I realise how much of a difference it makes to wear undies that make me feel really good, even if it’s just a simple cotton bra and thong.

I hope these undies will last a few years, I would expect them to be as durable as a cotton T-shirt, which really stands the test of time when cared for properly.

To conclude, I admire what the founders stand for, their undies are a dream to wear and I’ll definitely be ordering again.

Discover the whole range on their website.

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