NEW YORK - A new poll by ShopSmart magazine in the US has found that one in four women has their mood affected by wearing an ugly or ill-fitting pair of underwear.

The US nationwide poll found that nearly half of women (47 per cent) feel sexier or more confident wearing a nice or special pair of skivvies. 

What's more, nearly one-quarter of women (21 per cent) vary their underwear selection depending on their mood and 12 per cent feel it is an important part of their outfit. 

"What you wear under your clothes is just as important-maybe even more-as what you wear on the outside," said Lisa Lee Freeman, editor-in-chief of ShopSmart.

Another major finding from the poll, which surveyed 1,008 women aged 18 and older, is that the color of underwear is dependent upon the age of the wearer. 

Women between the ages of 18 and 34 are more adventurous with their color choices: More than one-third (35 per cent) indicated a color, not a neutral, as their favorite pair and 12 per cent chose a print. 

Meanwhile, almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of all women stick to neutral colors, with white (29 per cent) most popular followed by black (21 per cent) and beige (15 per cent). Green came in dead last (1 per cent).

In terms of preferred underwear styles, nearly half of women (46 per cent) cite the brief as the underwear style they wear most often, though women age 18 to 34 skew toward the bikini style.

When it comes to quantity, the poll found that on average, women own 21 pairs of underwear and 10 per cent own 35 pairs or more. 

Last but not least, one in 10 women admit they will venture out of the house without underwear on at all. 

This, in some cases, might be the better option for the one-quarter of women who have a pair of underwear they would be embarrassed for someone else to see.

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