From riotously colourful corsets and ‘virile’ Y-fronts to punk-rock leggings, underwear has long possessed a rare ability to push creative boundaries and spark moral outrage. Edwina Ehrman, curator of a new Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition, introduces Spencer Mizen to seven of the most influential designs of the past 300 years
When men went mad for Y-fronts
Today, they’re the butt of countless jokes but, in the 1930s, ‘virile’ men couldn’t buy briefs fast enough
Y-fronts have endured a dubious reputation over the past 30 years, arguably hitting an all-time low when The Guardian printed a cartoon of Edwina Currie wearing a pair of John Major’s pants on her head. But, says Edwina Ehrman, when Arthur Kneibler’s ‘Jockey briefs’ first appeared in America in 1935, they were enormously popular.
“Until the 1930s, men were often condemned to wearing ill-fitting woollen pants,” she says. “Suddenly, with the Y-front, they had a tailored, snug-fitting fashion item that offered plenty of support.”
And, as the 1950s display figure, shown left, demonstrates, it wasn’t long before British men had caught the brief bug.
“The Scottish knitwear company Lyle & Scott obtained the licence to sell Y-fronts in Britain in 1938, and they’d soon become a symbol of masculinity and agility,” says Ehrman. “So, during the Second World War, advertising would feature models stood in their briefs next to tanks.”
And what did the British team choose as its official underwear for the 1948 Olympic Games? Yes, you guessed it: Y-fronts.
A colour explosion
This Victorian corset challenged the idea that underwear should be understated – in one big splash of pink
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