Underwear is not something that men have ever paid much attention to if you compare it with the care women take in selecting the right garments for comfort and style. If we look back at the days of the Wild West movie, we are often treated to the sight of tough guys yanking up their combinations–or union suits, as they used to be called. They hitched up their red flannels and the task of putting on underwear was complete. No skill was required in the underwear fashion department.
Tiny pants with low-cut waists were not something that Buffalo Bill, or Jesse James would have considered manly. John Wayne is never seen in any western movie without a protective set of fully functional button-up and conveniently trap-doored combinations.
If we go back even further it would seem that the first male underwear designed to conceal, rather than make comfortable, was the fig leaf that Adam wore once he discovered that he had no clothes on. Tribal warriors from Africa and Brazil also wore garments made from leaves which fulfilled the same purpose.
Then, along came the loin cloth made from animal skin, and the complex wind around-garment designed by wealthy Egyptians. Variations of this were worn in India, Italy, Japan and some other countries; however, it took a long time before men’s underwear as we know it know came into being. During the First World War US soldiers were provided with cotton shorts which tied at the side, but cotton became scarce and rayon was then utilized.
Men became accustomed to wearing these more comfortable garments and in the 1920’s advertisements for fashionable gent’s underwear were first seem in the press.
The 1930’s saw a US company known as Coopers design and manufacture the very first ‘Jockey pants’. They invented the first Y-fronts which came as long, short, or the very modern and slightly racy, brief version. Jockey became the fashionable brand to wear.
World War II saw the production of the first colored nylon men’s pants and after the war, the designs continued to change with an increase in the number of patterns and colors, and the advent of mini briefs. This was the beginning of the fashion business in men’s underwear.
Today there is a fantastic range of colors, styles, fabrics and designer labels to choose from and men’s underwear has become as much a fashion items as that worn by the ladies.
