Where Did Underwear Come From (The Evolution of Underwear)
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So, let’s start things off the most interesting style of underwear in all of human history.
What am I talking about, gents?
The codpiece.
So, the origins of the codpiece are interesting because it was a total accident.
You see, in the 14th Century, most men didn’t wear underwear.
The only guys wearing underwear were those with money and they were wearing it to protect
their outer clothing, they wore a very simple linen loincloth.
Now, the fashion trends at the time encouraged men’s of means to actually wear stockings
a.k.a. pantyhose.
Now, these stockings were in two pieces, one for each leg and these trends went on it moved
higher and higher up a man’s legs.
Eventually, these stockings went up so high in a man’s legs they were connected at the
back right above the buttocks.
And what this did is it overemphasized attention to the genitals.
And, at this point the codpiece was created to help cover up the crotch.
But, something funny happened at this point, somebody decided, you know what?
Why cover this up?
Let’s celebrate a man’s crotch.
So, for the next hundred years, we saw codpieces shaped and padded not to conceal, but to emphasize
a man’s penis.
They had metal codpieces designed for suits of armor.
Seriously, if you go to the Tower of London, you look at King Henry VIII’s armor, you
will see this huge codpiece.
In today’s video, gents, we’re having fun.
We’re talking about the evolution of men’s underwear.
So, let’s start things off by going to the Garden of Eden.
Let’s look at the fall.
What happens?
Adam bites into the apple.
He realizes he’s naked, Eve realizes that she’s naked and they went to cover themselves.
What did they grab?
A fig leaf.
Fig leaves on average about 8 inches long.
That’s going to be fine for most people most guys out there.
Well, really would a fig leaf would that give any support?
No.
Let’s – what was truly probably the first piece of underwear?
The loincloth.
We go back 7,000 years, archeologists have found leather loincloths which actually did
a pretty good job of giving you support.
And this takes us to the core point of why was underwear invented.
Initially, it was about to give a support and to protect us because if you’re out
there hunting, if you’re out there moving around in vegetation, if you are out there
being active, you do no want – you know you don’t want the boy – twig and berries
to be out there flapping in the wind.
A loincloth, a simple strip of material that passes between the legs and goes around the
waist is going to do a decent job of keeping everything in its place.
Now, the first civilization that made it really clear that underwear was an important garment
in their day-to-day lives, the Egyptians.
In 3000 BC, what we see on the Pyramids is that they wore loincloths.
Now, over the next thousand years, there were many other civilizations which started using
the loincloth.
We see a pop up over in Japan, we see a pop up over in Hawaii, but the Egyptians are credited
being the ones that really put it on the map.
Now, the funny thing about underwear is that we went thousands and thousands of years without
really any innovation and then, in the last hundred years we have had tons of innovation.
Now, one of the coolest innovations that I’ve seen is coming from the company SHEATH.
What they’ve done is they’ve created underwear that has a package for your package.
Yes, guys, a dual pouch where basically it takes care of the boys.
This has to be one of the most comfortable pair of underwear I’ve ever worn.
Now, gents, SHEATH is the sponsor of today’s video and I’m proud to bring them to you
because it’s a veteran-owned business.
I love their story.
Robert, he’s over he’s deployed and he’s having a lot of chaffing issues.
If he gets out and he has this single-minded mission, he is going to create the best underwear
for guys that simply are tired of having to adjust, tired of all of the pain down there
if they’re really sensitive.
These guys are constantly innovating listening to their customers and creating the best underwear
on the planet when it comes to comfort, when it comes to taking care of the boys.
They’ve got now a wider range of selection, so if you’re looking for cold weather base
layers, if you want underwear that has a longer inseam like 6 inches, they’ve got you covered.
And, for the 8% of my audience that’s women or for guys that just want to present their
wife with a gift, check out the new women’s underwear over at SHEATH.
And, let’s talk about the material.
Incredibly soft, they’re using micromodal and spandex and I can tell you this stuff
is durable.
I’ve got pairs that he sent me three years ago that I’ve washed probably over a hundred
times.
Yes, I wear and I use this underwear, I think is just a great product.
I’m linking to SHEATH down in the description with the best deal you’re going to find
out there.
I love this company, I’m proud to support them.
Go check them out.
So now, let’s go to the Middle Ages.
We talked about the codpiece, but closely with the codpiece was the braies.
And, the braies was a very simple codpiece that basically held up it was attached to
the loincloth, but the idea with the braies was to provide a bit of modesty.
But, if a man had to urinate he needs to take care of business, it was something you could
just drop down and then you could, yeah, get done what needed to be done.
Now, something big happened in the 18th Century and that is we saw the spinning jenny machines
and we saw the cotton gin.
All of a sudden, being able to produce and mass manufacture clothing became a possibility.
You see the reason underwear was so simple up to this point is because everyone had to
pretty much make it for themselves or it was very costly you would hire someone to make
one off pieces.
[0:05:02] Now, in the 1840’s, 1850’s, 1860’s,
we saw underwear little bits popping up here and there, but it was in 1868 that we saw
the union suit pop up.
Now, the union suit was a one piece front buttoning garment that would extend all the
way out to the wrist all the way down to the ankles and actually had a back flap.
Now, from the union suit, we actually saw the evolution of long johns which got their
names from a boxer, John Sullivan who used to wear them in the ring.
Now, when you look at the union suit, you may be wondering why did they make it so complex.
Well, don’t worry because in 1874, they came out with a jockstrap.
Now, what’s interesting about the jockstrap is the inventor, C.F. Bennett, he had a bike
company and that’s what he was focused in on.
And, as a biker he realized, hey, he needed some support, so he created the jockstrap
to actually help fellow bikers and that turned out to be something that just sold really
well.
So, it was in 1935 that men’s underwear as we know it really started to take off.
There’s a company, Coopers Incorporated, they came out with the jockey shorts also
known as the wide strap over in the UK, nowadays, known as the tidy widy.
When this hit the market, we’re talking tens of thousands were sold immediately.
And, by the way, that company eventually became known as Jockey.
Now, in the 1930’s we saw another modern classic introduced the boxer shorts.
Now, similar to the widy tidies, boxer shorts started off as simple white cotton garments,
but eventually we see over the years that they’ve evolved they’ve really taken on
a wide variety of colors a wide variety of styles, but really the boxer shorts have elastic,
they’ve got a very loose fit and they were really for the guy that maybe wanted a more
modest look, he wanted something that maybe he could wear in and around the house and
not be showing off his whole package.
In the 1940’s we saw innovation in underwear all of a sudden go to zero.
Why?
Because we had World War II going on, all of a sudden we’re rationing things.
So, all the rubber that was used in the elastics of the waistbands was pulled out.
We actually took a step back in 1950’s, 60’s, started to see a little bit of innovation
here with different materials, but it was in 1980’s that we started to see things
picked up.
So, let’s talk about boxer briefs.
In the 1980 movie, American Gigolo, Richard Gere wore boxer briefs and all of a sudden,
millions of people are exposed to this new style of great-looking underwear and all of
a sudden, they started flying right off the shelves.
This new style was basically taking the silhouette of the boxer and basically slimming it up.
They were able to leverage new materials that were now made available and the boxer brief
was born.
And, what about bikini briefs?
Well, gentlemen, there are some parts of history that I will choose to forget.
So, what video to watch next?
Check out this one, ten life and style tips learned in the military.
I talk about my time in the United States Marine Corps, some of the tips some of the
tricks that I can share with you guys, the rest they’re top secrets I can’t share
everything.
No, just kidding.
I have a lot of fun in this video.
Go check it out, guys.
I will link to it down in the description.
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