Now while I am not a big fan of having items bigger than my postbox sent to my door (package goes to the local post office, post office shut when I get there, returned to sender) I do think certain things warrant a bit of online credit card flexing and that includes shoes (www. vivaladiva. com; www. office. co. uk), certain designer clothes (www. net-aporter. com; www. thelookdublin. com) and, most definitely, underwear.

(Top tip: get them sent to your workplace or to a neighbours' if you are never there) Once you've gone through all the pain of picking one or two sets of knickers and bras and know they look good, are comfortable and keep the muffin waists and the overhang splodge in check, do you really need to go to the hassle of shopping every time you need to freshen up your lingerie drawers?

The answer is no, you don't, which is why you also need to know about the less glamorous, very useful www. freemans. ie, the UK catalogue store now with a base in Ireland and with a whole online lingerie department that has everything from Triumph and Sloggi to Playtex and Fantasie in store. Fantasists should check out www. agentprovacateur. com and www. myla. com for nightwear (above left), and if you really want something special see www. figleaves. com, who are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the bra by teaming up with sexy smalls company, Damaris to design a vintageinspired set available from April.

You will never shop for underwear in anything but your underwear ever again.