What rings and sliders to use
Rings and sliders I think are the easiest part to sort out when designing lingerie. They are consistent in their design and can be sourced over the internet without having to worry about what you going to receive.
There are 3 different types of rings and sliders:
Plastic - I never tend to use plastic in lingerie, the rings can break and distort with the weight of the boobs, and I just don’t think they look as elegant as the others available out there (just a personal opinion).
Next is metal, silver , gold, gun metal and rose gold - these are the types I usually use, I love the finish and you don’t have to worry about colour matching if you are doing small runs of lingerie.
Then there are colour plastic coated rings and sliders - these can can come in and be dyed to any colour
Sliders
Let’s start with sliders - the width of the slider follows the width of the strap, so a 10mm bra strap will have a 10mm slider, any smaller and the strap won’t be able to slide through it and any bigger then you will have a gaps either side of your strap and the strap is more likely to twist.
There are different widths of the gap in the sliders - the standard is two 3mm gaps, but the gaps can come in 5mm (see bronze 12 mm slider as an example) for straps such as satin covered straps so it slides through the slider with ease (normal straps can be used, or the bigger slider can be used to make a feature of the slider if you are using it instead of a ring at the apex.
Rings
with rings you have more freedom what size you want to use. Traditionally rings usually follow the size of the strap so a 13mm strap will have a 13mm ring. The only time this doesn’t work as well is if you have a 20mm strap a 20mm ring may look too big and cause the strap to twist as it has lots of room in the ring. In this case a smaller ring can be used.
Just because you use say a 10mm or 13 mm strap you don’t have to use the same size ring if you want to make a feature of the rings. I often use 16mm rings with 13mm straps especially at the front where the straps can’t twist. It all depends on what look you looking for.
Don’t be afraid to mix things up and push your design further rather than just relying on what past designs are.