Design notes, re squarecut underwear

[Torchwatch]

A swim brief and an underwear brief can have the same basic design and both succeed. The stretch of the fabric needs to be taken into account when using stretch fabrics as a 7" piece of lycra will stretch to 10".

When a square cut swim suit or a boxer brief is designed the underwear designer has problems not faced by the swimwear designer using lycra. Although both garments have the same basic shape ie cover from waist to crotch with short legs, the designer using lycra has the advantage that the stretch fabric will conform to and move with the body shape.

The simplest design, often used in stretch swimwear, causes sagging at the front when made in cotton. Since men's underwear is sold by waist size and men of the same waist size have varying sized bulges the degree of frontal underwear sag varies man to man. Before the current craze for designed underwear, men in badly fitting, saggy, and sweaty grimy white boxer brief underwear would try to keep it hidden.

The secret of designer underwear is that it pulls in the frontal sag of the cotton boxer brief, makes them acceptable to be seen in public and charges you for the privilege. An angled line of stitching either side of the bulge is a good start, this tightens up the front and creates a slight pouch effect. Other designers seized the pouch concept and created brutal alpha male pouched boxer briefs, for the man who has it all.

Boxer brief underwear began to appear in brighter colours and with text and designs printed upon it. The printing inks used for this were the usual cotton tee shirt inks. To print on lycra though you need special rubberised inks that stretch with the fabric. Underwear designers discovered that by using rubberised inks on the front of boxer briefs they could actually control the frontal sag problem, printing on the front held it tight and not printing the bulge area allowed it to pouch under control. By this method a cheap simple boxer brief could be stitched then printed to give the effects of a more expensive product.

The boxer brief wearer is not afraid to be seen in his underwear, that is the point of all the design input. When he comes to swim in them he will discover that cotton does not perform well in water, at that point if well designed and excitingly printed square cut swimwear is available he may well buy and wear it. If not the board shorts will continue.