By Tim Lambert
Men’s underwear has a very long history. Both Roman men and women wore a loincloth or shorts called a subligaculum. During the Middle Ages, men wore linen shorts called braies. The Industrial Revolution made the mass manufacture of underwear possible.
The word pants is derived from a character in an Italian comedy called Pantalone. He wore long garments down to his ankles (when most men wore ones that came to the knee). They became fashionable in England at the end of the 18th century; they were called pantaloons. In the 19th century, the word was shortened to pants. In Britain, pants came to mean long drawers that covered the whole leg. The garments worn over them became known as trousers.
Men also wore vests. Some men wore combinations of pants and vests in one garment.
Long Johns were first made for women. They were patented in 1868 by Gideon W. Dorsey. Initially, they were referred to as union suits. But long johns soon proved to be popular with men as well. They became known as long johns, but nobody is sure why.
Thomas Hancock invented elastic in 1820, but it was more than 100 years before it was used for underwear.
In the 20th century, men’s underwear also became shorter. The word drawers went out of use, and they became known as underpants or pants. Y-fronts went on sale in the USA in 1935. They went on sale in Britain in 1938. Boxer shorts were invented in the USA in 1925. They became popular in the 1940s. In the 1960s, it became common for men’s underwear to be coloured rather than the traditional white. Boxer briefs became popular in the 1990s.
