Early in the century, whole one-piece union suits were $1.00. The cost of men’s underwear remained at $1.00 or less, per garment, for over 50 years. Then in the 1960s, prices started creeping up. By the mid-1960s, Jockey was selling it’s Super Briefs for $1.50. Others followed suit, and it’s been an upward trend in pricing ever since.
Today, underwear has become a fashion mainstay. Some of the old houses are still strong players, but there are many recent upstarts. And they almost all use the lure of the sexy, scantily clad male body as their primary advertising gimmick. On magazine pages and billboards, 2(x)ist, Calvin Klein, Sauvage, Ron Chereskin, Tommy Hilfiger and even Jockey vie for your attention using supposed sex appeal as the bait. They emphasize look more than function, brevity more than comfort and scarcity of features more than quality of design.
Compare this blatant use of sex to the more innocent — or at least more subtle — approach used in ads of yore. Browse through our ad gallery to discover everything we've discussed in this brief history. And visit our skivvies store to find out how to obtain your own personal pair of groovy vintageskivvies.com drawers – based on time honored traditions – yours for the asking, today.<<
