A briefs moment in history

All Black Daniel Carter and friends are fans of a Jockey range of performance underwear. Picture / Alicia Bennett

To the inhabitants of Chicago, the day had no more significance than being one in which they had to endure the worst blizzard of the winter.

What they did not know was that this would become one of the most important days in the history of the male sex. At least in the way they dress.

For men, January 19, 1935, was their equivalent of the day Mary Jacob patented the first bra in 1913 or the moment in 1959 when Glen Mills had the inspiration for tights - it was when Arthur Kneibler's Jockey briefs first went on sale at a department store.

But it was a nervous launch. Although the briefs had been put on show in the window at the Marshall Field & Co department store, its management thought it ludicrous to try to sell such skimpy items on a cold day that cried out for long johns - then the dominant form of men's underwear - and ordered the display to be removed.

They were so wrong. Before their orders could be carried out, 600 packages of Jockey shorts were sold.

And 30,000 pairs were sold in the next three months.

Kneibler was an "apparel engineer" for a company called Coopers, originally set up to sell socks to lumberjacks, but which had been hit hard by the recession. While searching for an idea to help the company, he received a postcard from a friend on holiday in the south of France, which featured a picture of a man wearing an abbreviated swim suit.

At this point, the only serious challenge to the hegemony of long johns had come from the boxer short, a cotton version of the trunks worn by boxers, and first designed in 1925 by a Joseph Golomb, founder of the Everlast company that still makes boxing equipment.

But they were slow in finding customers because they did not provide much of what was termed "masculine support".

One thing that did was the "jock strap", a method of protection mostly worn by sportsmen and named after the bicycle "jockeys" or messengers who rode penny farthings for whom they were designed. Kneibler's mission was clear - the Jockey brief was born.

Today, Coopers, known as Jockey International, are pretty much the biggest thing in briefs in the world.

It would no doubt have gladdened the heart of Kneibler to have learnt that this week, a pair of 37-year-old cotton Y-fronts were sold on eBay for $384. They were the property of John Clarke, who had bought a selection of string vests and briefs from Marks & Spencer some time in 1969 or 1970.

They were shoved into the loft when his wife expressed her dislike for them. His daughter felt there might be a market for antique underwear and so put them up for auction on eBay - she was right.

A second pair of briefs sold for $272 to a buyer in Hong Kong. Clarke, a retired taxi-operator in England, said: "I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy them. It doesn't make any sense."

His wife was said to be deeply embarrassed about the whole thing.

Traditional briefs, of the type sold by Clarke, are a declining market, says Neil Ainsworth, male underwear buyer for M&S stores. "Men tend to stick with the kind of underwear that they have always worn."

In the 1980s, the market mutated rapidly from being one of functional garments into one where a man's choice of underwear amounts to a lifestyle statement.

Kneibler's simple brief now faces competition from boxers as well as slips, thongs, trunks and all manner of hybrid versions.

Men's underwear is now a designer accessory, marketed with all the blatant sexuality the advertising industry can muster, as well as an empowering personal statement.

All of these are just contemporary versions of the loincloth, which is as old as mankind and was worn by both sexes in Greek and Roman civilisations. It still exists as a traditional form of undergarment in many Asian cultures and among primitive peoples.

In the Middle Ages, the loincloth was replaced by a loose, trouser-like garment called braies, which were laced around the waist and calves; the flap at the front was called the codpiece and allowed men to urinate.

It was Henry VIII who began the fashion for padded codpieces.

By the 18th century and the advent of widespread cotton fabrics, the dominant type of undergarment for both sexes was the close fitting union suit, which eventually became long johns.

While women's underclothing spiralled off into all manner of stays, corsets, drawers, chemises and so forth, men were stuck with various types of long johns until well into the 20th century, when Kneibler, Golomb et al came along.

Pundits such as fashion writer Iain R. Webb say the brief is down, but not out. "Fashion tends to go in swings of the pendulum. I think we are going to return to traditional conservative, supportive briefs."

- INDEPENDENT