Readers reply: why do we wear underwear – and when did we start doing so?
Notes and queries
Why do we wear underwear – and when did we start doing so?
January 2024
Brief letters
Is now the time for Karl Marx’s resurrection?
Brief letters: Dancing on Marx’s grave | Multi-faith peace march | Men’s underwear | Scallop or Scollop? | Baffle over waffle
May 2022
Ethical pitch: ‘You wouldn’t expect Jane Goodall to be fronting a campaign for underwear’
Renowned primatologist ‘had a laugh’ at the idea she’d be surrounded by models wearing Australian bamboo fabric brand Boody
May 2021
It’s just pants: ads for skimpy men’s underwear too racy for media giants
Retailer Moot fears for future of its business as TV and web companies remove its promotions
May 2020
Brief letters
An apology to pet food manufacturers
Brief letters: Cherry trees and old tights | Coronavirus advice lost in translation | Boris Johnson’s Covid-19 broadcast | Bras for all
August 2017
Nicked! New underwear brand loses £1m of stock in lorry heist
Luxury garments from Agent Provocateur founder Serena Rees’s range taken from Barnsley car park days before label’s launch
August 2016
Gary Lineker says vow to appear in his pants 'depends if the studio is cosy'
Match of the Day hints that Gary Lineker could host show in his pants
June 2016
The rise and rise of Calvin Klein underwear
Calvin Klein logo’d underwear has been a consistent hit for the past 25 years with no signs of abating – sales of womenswear are also on the up. Why do we love the branded waistband so much?
May 2016
The joy of socks - smelly ones, that is
Peter Ormerod
From the Guardian archive
The flowering of men's underwear - fashion archive
April 2016
Brief encounters: Undressed at the V&A
From Queen Victoria’s mother’s pantaloons to Kim Kardashian’s ‘butt-lifters’ – an exhibition about the history of underwear explores the beautiful and bizarre inventions beneath our clothes
Design futures
Smartypants: the fart-filtering future of underwear
We live in an age of undies innovation: from self-medicating bras to briefs that smell of breakfast or hide a weapon (and that’s not even a euphemism)
Underwear goes on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum
Undressed exhibition to include clothes worn by Kate Moss and Queen Victoria’s mother as well as rubber corset and men’s pants
November 2015
Media Monkey
Bacon-scented underwear? It's enough to put you off your breakfast
The PR company flogging pork-fragranced pants has a whole new take on ‘meat and two veg’
A brief history of underwear: V&A exhibition goes big on the smalls
London museum to showcase fashion’s supporting cast, from 19th-century whalebone corsets and bustles to David Beckham’s modern boxers
Gender-neutral underpants to be displayed at the V&A
The museum’s big spring exhibition will aim to explore how underwear reflects contemporary ideals, presenting gender-free pants from the present and whalebone corsets from the 1890s
July 2015
From the Guardian archive
Flaunting fashions on the Kings Road
Fashion archive, 7 July 1966: Boys and girls shock their elders and inflame the local youths on Chelsea’s ‘village street’
August 2014
Fashion blog
Boxer shorts – the new underwear-as-outerwear trend?
Underwear-as-outerwear used to mean bras worn as tops. Now, it’s women wearing boxer-style shorts. Think of it as luxe-loungewear – posh pyjamas for summer
