In the old days, underwear for men was white, end of story.
.
Attempts by the Y-Front company to introduce light and dark blue versions with white seams met with grave suspicions of feminisation and brought ridicule from the straight-oriented male world of that time. Some of my earliest pictures picked up on this mood to create humiliation scenarios for the man caught wearing them. I'm think the critics were probably right – but for the wrong reasons.The highly functional design looks distinctly odd when jazzed up in this way.
The white vs colours divide still exists today but coloured underwear is commonplace. Designers have made clever use of colour to enhance the sexiness of the garment, but in making it self-consciously 'posey' have moved away from traditional Y-front 'values' and as a result, largely eliminated the sense of being undressed, exposed and vulnerable.
On the
Aussiebum reds, the low cut waist is largely responsible for the considerable erotic appeal which on the slender model recreates the effect of swimming trunks. The dark colour exaggerates the size of his hips and emphasises the line of the white seams. The waistband sweeps around his body in a very attractive way whilst the leg and pocket seams curve together and dive out of sight between his legs.
The Diesels worn by Pedro Andreas of
Stag Homme Studios look more like real underwear and the colour is very masculine. This image dismisses any notion that colours do not suit mature men but then this guy would make any garment look great, I suppose. It's a shame he ends up looking like an advertising hoarding, this underwear positively shouts at you, which is not terribly sexy.
The brown garment shows more restraint. It's another interesting male colour and the white seams are designed to give the model full credit for his bulges! These are more like shorts than briefs but I like the broad white leg hems which make his thighs look great.
Finally we have to have a Ginch Gonch boy.
This underlying design of this underwear is actually very traditional. Different patterns are patched together in a way that emphasises the seams and structure. The patterns themselves cleverly enhance the erotic areas, in this case with a net-like trellis design which increases the '3-D' effect just where the impression of size is wanted.
These garments are outrageously frivolous but in a peverse way they reinstate underwear as a garment which is best kept hidden and which clearly states 'I am undressed' when seen.
See more at
http://www.ginchgonch.com/.
The rebellious Ginch Gonch style prompted me to create a mitchmen picture in which the
two Ginch Gonch boys are punished for showing their outrageous underwear in public.
Read Part 18
Read this series from the start