Chaps, it turns out, aren't nearly as obsessed with women's pants as they seem to be with their own – whether that be boxer short, brief, Y-front or, the most recent addition to the genus, the "jersey trunk".
"It's quite a selfish thing, but men really do take a lot of pride in what they wear underneath their trousers," says Nick Ede, a lifestyle consultant who, with the American brand Jockey, recently penned Pantology, a men's guide to choosing the right underwear. "Pants accentuate your body."
Elisabeth Eliasson of Bjorn Borg, the brand launched 20 years ago by the tennis star, goes further. "Women have been in corsets, but men don't like to suffer. They can't stand it if the fit is too tight. Everything needs to be elastic enough, but at the same time not be tight. Men are very sensitive about their underpants."
Retailers say women no longer buy the majority of male underwear. And, in the stores, men are getting pickier and demanding hi-tech fabrics that wick away moisture. Ruth Steven, marketing manager at Jockey, talks about innovation in the field of – ew! – "moisture management" .
"We're developing a sport line that will help keep men cool," she says, adding that seam-free waistbands, printed logos (rather than itchy labels), bias-cut pants and "new fly options" have all been addressed in the Jockey lab. A lot goes into the contemporary underpant, it seems, and these considerations reflect the technologies, aesthetics and sexual mores of the day. Look through the history books, though, and you'll find it has ever been thus.
The British love boxer shorts!!!!!
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