Recent History of Men's Underwear


Underwear, like anything else, has it's origins and men's underwear is no exception. Believe it or not, the origins of underwear for men dates back to about 2000 B.C and was something similar to a loin cloth worn beneath the script. It Roman times this was developed to a pair of shorts worn under the toga. The pull on underwear more similar to what we wear today came into their own around the 13th century in the Middle Ages.

Anyway, coming closer to our day and age, it is interesting to look at how underwear fashion have changed even in the modusvivendi design collections since the company first started designing men's underwear. As you can see from the (rather hazy) black and white shootings of the 90's, this trend has vanished. In fact they now seem so outdated they could almost be described as avantgarde if they were to appear of the fashion designer catwalks today.


If now we jump to the 21st century we can observe azazing differences in both design and color. Th essential difference which I maintain developed during the nineties was the true breakthrough of men's underwear as a fashion statement. Starting I suppose one could say with companies such as Calvin Klein, the trend turned to emphasing the contours of the body. Previously to this the image was more one of hiding the natural body contours as you can see from the black and white set above. And then the second most striking feature is the departure from the traditional white Y front ethos which had characterised men's underclothes for decades. Again this goes to prove that in that period underwear - men's at least - was a commodity item but in no way was it a fashion or a personal statement. It was the big names like Dolce Gabanna, etc which changed men's underwear to actually become what I would call a status symbol.

Quiet quickly there took place what called almost be called a revolution in the men's underwear industry and everyone followed suit. Why, simply because it made good business sense - follow the market or die. Color - daring colors and great and innovative designs came to rule the underwear fashion world. The days of the plain elastic jockey Y fronts were gone forever - well almost although strangely enough even that has become to some extent a fetish for some today - those who like nothing mroe than to see a man in his white jockey underwear,