Knickers with an identity crisis

I bought these knickers a while back from Next that are something of a cross over but it seems theyre neither one thing or the other. At the back and front they are just regular knickers but at the sides they have an additional string that is somewhat pointless. If it was just the string then they would look fine as string bikini knickers or a thong. And similarly with the wider side. But as hybrid knickers they dont seem to work in my opinion