Trends in Popular Underwear designs for males
I enjoy looking at the latest trends in underwear designs for males. The best way to learn about what guys must be wearing is to look in the men’s and boy’s underwear aisles in the big discount department stores such as Walmart and Target. These stores cater to where the majority of their shoppers are at any given point in time. So I wouldn’t expect anything too trendy. Besides, guy in search of trendy underwear now largely shop on-line. No, what you see in-store is what guys who still shop in-store are wearing.
I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. In that era the white cotton brief (aka tighty whitey) was almost like a uniform that any guy my age was “supposed” to wear. The alternative was the so-called mid-length brief that had maybe a 2-3 inch leg, but the material was the same. The mid-length brief is sometimes now referred to as the boxer brief. Generally, cotton briefs back then came only in white. A colored brief was risky. Moms washed white clothes together and colored clothes together. A red pair of cotton briefs, if thrown into the white clothes, could turn everything a weird shade of light pink, or so it was feared.
Probably late 50s was when briefs manufacturers first experimented with dyes colorfast enough so that they could be put in a washing machine with the white things, but that was still risky for moms. In the 60s they started experimenting with briefs made of other fabrics, such as colored nylon, but guys were wary of underwear that looked too much like a girl’s panty, and the nylon fit loosely, not like the Lycra-blend nylon we think of wearing today. So even when I was in college, all the guys were still wearing white cotton briefs. The briefs also worked well with the narrow-snug-fitting sand-colored denim jeans that every guy was wearing at the time.
But as the jeans styles went back to being loose-fitting and less butt-hugging, guys gradually made a transition to loose-fitting cotton or poly-cotton boxer shorts often in a blue plaid. No stretch at all. Private parts were now free to flop around and roam at will, but some guys—maybe most—seemed to enjoy the new-found “freedom”. But freedom comes at a price. Nothing was tied down. Then the jeans had gotten really loose-fitting as well. Still, having one’s private parts simply flopping around all day long got old. This wasn’t working all that well either. Still, this was the era when boys got teased and bullied for wearing anything other than loose-fitting blue plaid boxers—tighty whiteys were particularly singled out. The choice of underwear for the teen male boiled down to what would not attract undue attention in the high school gym locker room—and blue plaid boxers it was!
Then, a couple things happened. NBA players started showing up obviously wearing compression shorts under their uniforms, and the legs of the compression shorts dangled under the inseam of the uniform shorts. Players at the top colleges soon followed suit, and teen guys everywhere were wondering what this was all about. They soon ended up going out to their local big-box sporting goods store which had this new line of clothing from UnderArmor a company that was focusing on compression tees and shorts like the NBA players were wearing. And guys opted to give it a try first as gear for the gym, but then why not wear the same stuff as daily underwear as well.
The blue jeans market in the 80s and 90s was dominated by what I call the ‘hood look—that is loose fitting jeans that contained lots and lots of denim. The slimmed-down look did not really get going until the start of the 21st century. The loose-fitting boxer shorts were fine with loose-fitting jeans,, but jeans that fit snug in the butt and thigh required a more snug-fitting undergarment. Jeans manufacturers were still debating if guys would accept denim made with 1 or 2 percent Lycra® and initially worried guys would think it too “girlie” but accept this they did. With the Lycra®, a guy could easily wear jeans with an inch or even two inches smaller waist than he wore when the denim was not stretchy. (Girls had known that for ages). The tight fitting look was “in”.
However, tight-fitting jeans called for a drastic change in underwear. Plaid cotton boxers were out. Snug was in. The underwear manufacturers had taken note that UnderArmor, selling mainly compression gear of various sorts, was prospering. Why not develop underwear styles that were consistent with the compression look but designed for fitting neatly under the snug-fitting jeans? And thus the compression- style underwear made of stretch poly and Lycra fabrics was born. Tighty whiteys were out, but so were loose-fitting boxer briefs.
Dads take note of what their teen sons are wearing. If a teen son likes a particular style of underwear, it won’t be long until dad is wearing something similar. So right now we are seeing gobs of compression style stretch underwear with about a 5-inch leg length—designs that look almost like a compression short but are made to be worn under any style of clothing, but particularly the narrow jeans and other pants that are so popular right now.
The underwear can be in a somber navy blue, grey, or black, or maybe even in a brightly colored pattern. A related trend, one used by Hollister, one of the retailers that caters to teens, is to make underwear from the same pattern and stretch cloth in a variety of lengths. They make a brief, a shorter-length trunk that has about a 1-inch inseam and looks like a sunga, what they call a “classic” trunk with about a 3-inch inseam and a longer-length trunk that has about a 5-inch inseam. All from the same fabric [95 % cotton, 5% Elastane (Lycra)]
https://www.hollisterco.com/shop/us/...wear-and-socks
The 7- and 9-inch longer-inseam underwear are easy to find too at other retailers, and these look more like swimming jammers or true compression gear for sport, and fit mid thigh to just above the knee. The question here is “fly or no fly”. Both are readily available. Dad takes his lead from what the teen son likes, and what is popular with teen males soon finds its way to older guys as well. This as the popularity of classic cotton briefs for guys continues to decline for males of all ages, and the racier stuff (I.e. men’s thongs from Asian manufacturers) become stuff guys purchase on line only.
So there you have it! The short history of underwear for males from the 1950s to the present.