Cream is ivory with more yellow in it, roughly the color of unbleached cotton or raw silk. In lingerie it carries a vintage look: cream satin slips, cotton camisoles with crochet trim, and lace that is meant to resemble an older piece kept in a drawer.
Cream works best in natural fibers, where it looks intentional. In polyester lace it can read as a white that has aged badly, which is why many brands avoid it in budget lines. It pairs naturally with tan, gold hardware, rose-gold sliders and dusty rose, and it softens black when used as a contrast lining.
Under clothing, cream is slightly less visible than white on medium skin tones. The classifier separates it from ivory by yellowness and from beige by lightness; the boundary with beige is the most common error.