Modesty Garments: A Brief Coverage on the Topic

It’s finally happening… Perhaps you’re an actor about to do your first scene of nudity... Perhaps you’re an intimacy professional finally getting to put your training to work with a moment of hyper exposure… Maybe you work in costuming and are being asked about modesty garments but have never worked with them before! Wherever you may fall in the wide range of production, we’re here to help you out with an introduction to Modesty Garments! Before you step onto set or into rehearsal for the scene of nudity or hyper exposure, here’s a breakdown to help you out with some of the lingo that might be involved in your show!

To begin, let’s take a look at some of the different and most used modesty garments and tools that you may come across.

• Strapless Thong

• These are sort of self explanatory! A strapless thong is a thong, with no straps, that adheres to the skin at the top in the front with a small strip and at the back with a  heart or flower shaped sticker. These are skin toned and can be used for scenes of side or rear nudity as well as a very low shot of exposure from the front! Quite often, while using one  for rear nudity, you can cut off the little flower/heart shape and replace it with a small bit of fashion tape. While usually these are used on actors with internal genitalia, there are versions for actors with external genitalia as well! We tend to use pouches for those actors which we’ll get into below.

• Nipple Stickers/Stick-on bras

• Many people may have come across these  when wearing a backless dress or tops that don’t work with regular bras. These are small, usually round or petal shaped, “stickers'' that are designed to cover the nipple specifically. They have a small, nonstick middle section for the nipple itself which is surrounded by adhesive. These are often skin toned but may be a bright color so a camera can pick it up easily – this is vital in cases where an actor hasn’t consented to certain exposure so, if they are captured on camera, it’s very easy to see in post and crop it out!

• Pouches (padded and non padded)

• For our actors with external genitalia, these are our best options! A pouch is exactly what it sounds like , everything goes inside with a drawstring to tighten the top to keep it from falling off. In these pouches, there may also be a pocket for a barrier material to help with added protection and coverage. Some of these, as well, have additional “tails” or pieces of thin fabric like the back of a thong that go between the actor’s buttcheeks to help keep the pouch from bouncing around too much. 

• Athletic Cups

• If you’ve ever played a sport, chances are you’ve heard of these before! These are a great way to provide very obvious protection for our actors with external genitalia specifically for scenes that may have a crotch grab or something more aggressive. A hard athletic cup gives both actors confidence that they won’t accidentally hit the target.

Now that you’ve got the garments covered, chances are you’ll also need some of the items below!

• K-tape My Skin

• We love K-tape because it comes in different colors and all skin tones! They are much stickier and more dependable than fashion tape for higher activity scenes as they’re designed for athletic use. It’s also easy to match skin tone with these for the most natural looking coverage. 

• Fashion Tape

• Similar to K-tape but a little smaller and less noticeable, fashion tape tends to also be double sided! This is a great way to help attach a modesty garment like a strapless thong with as little material as possible. Often we’ll use both this and K-tape to really help keep the garment in place. 

• Neoprene/Yoga Mats

• A lesser known material that we keep in our kits and have ready to go is this, household barrier material! In a pinch, having a yoga mat and scissors allows an IP to build an extra barrier for either in a pouch or between underwear layers for an actor. While we love the accessibility of the yoga mat, neoprene gives us more variety in thickness! You can buy multiple different thicknesses of neoprene online and have the option of more or less protection depending on the needs of the scene and the action the actors are performing.

Wondering where to look for these garments? Here are a couple of our favorite companies who are spearheading the industry!

• Covvier

• Intimask

Are you looking for something a little more immediate or just for practice? You can always search online for strapless thongs, nipple covers, and more on places like Amazon!