Part CX
Several trends dominated men’s underwear in the 1980s. By then the idea that every young guy could only be seen by his peers wearing white cotton briefs (aka tighty whiteys) had gradually faded. The same change happened for older adults. But, if white cotton briefs were not the “go-to” design that guys just wore without thinking about even making a conscious decision, then what was the alternative going to be? This was a puzzle of sorts. Maybe some guys did not like having to think about trying to make a choice. The old system of just buying white cotton briefs at least was simple. likef a guy knew his waist size, he was good to go, so to speak.
Underwear manufacturers were coming up with new cuts, fabrics and colors. The two main trends away from white cotton briefs were going in two completely different directions. One major trend was cotton boxer shorts typically with inseams that went all the way to mid thigh. Somewhat coarse-textured plaid fabric was the favored design, most commonly in various shade of blue, but less often, red.
But the other trend was toward brief designs that broke all the white cotton brief rules.” First, the briefs could be purchased in a variety of colors, often a three-pak or a five-pak each in a different color—maybe somber gray or black but also colors like navy blue, dark red and forest green. And guys might be able to choose whether the rise needed to cover the belly button or not. Lower rises that let the belly button breathe, so to speak were in.
Then as the rise came down the issue became whether the underwear needed to have a fly or not. With low rise underwear it may be just as easy to face the urinal with the penis over the elastic waistband rather than through the slot of the fly. This is an interesting question that has never been totally resolved. But the bottom line is that some guys started buying briefs that were not only colored but lacked a fly. Only a few years earlier such brief fly-less underwear for men would be considered too “girlie” to be a viable choice.
Then there was the problem of the high school student in the gym locker room. Some of the old worries guys had about being teased or bullied in the locker room for their choice of underwear design remained, with the guys at school largly opting for those oversized loose-fitting plaid boxer shorts. Those were the new “safe” choice for guys who worried about getting bullied because they were wearing something too girly/sexy/gay-looking.
The market for the trimmed-down briefs was now really with the guys where were a bit older, in college maybe, and at a point where they were less prone to bullying, if at all. By that time guys usually were more confident with who they were sexually and less prone to thinking that underwear choice and popularity at school were somehow linked. And the underwear manufacturers were ready and waiting.
At this point there were racks of colored brief-style underwear is all sorts of cuts and designs, ranging from something large enough to simply be called a fly less brief. That was followed by what were called bikini briefs with sides maybe an inch wide. Next up was the so called “string bikini” where the sides merely consisted of a narrow elastic waistband with triangular pieces of cloth making up the front and the back and sewn together at the bottom.
Then there were the fabrics, cotton mixed with Lycra® but then, more prominently the polyester/Lycra blend fabrics that were very slick, snug and stretchy. Would such styles and snug-fitting fabrics give me a hard-on, and, if so was that really such a bad thing? Guys have always had a “love-hate” relationship when contemplating situations that could lead to an inadvertent hard on, because this could lead to an embarrassing situation if in a semi-public setting such as a locker room, but even the thoughts about how this could happen were fun
. Maybe the underwear would be used primarily as sleepwear, well maybe the sleep that “takes a break” every once and awhile. Every guy knows exactly what I am talking about, and if the new underwear sort of helps things along, what is terrible about that? Quite the opposite!
So guys did but these new underwear designs and in large numbers. Whether such underwear got a lot of use as daytime wear may be beside the point. Underwear is more than just for daytime wear. There are other situations where the right pair of underwear could be a valuable “accessory” and guys need not be so prim as to not be able to admit that.
Thong underwear for men did not make it to the US until the late 1980s, though rumor has it that adventurous Europeans were wearing the design earlier than that, Only the daring men in the US were willing to experiment wearing thongs. That is a topic for another day. I am finished for now.
To be continued…