How It's Used

“Are Y-fronts really making a comeback? Some men would argue that they have never gone away but lately the Y-front has been resuscitated by designers giving them a more fashionable image. Labels such as Aussie Bum and Jockey have introduced brightly coloured Y-fronts to make them more appealing. The latest must-have, however, comes from C-in2 which produces Y-fronts that promise 'non-surgical enhancement', giving men the same kind of full-frontal projection and uplift that women experienced with the Wonderbra.”

—Clare Coulson, “Who wears those clothes? Furrowed brows, hoots of laughter and snorts of derision—yes, the bizarre world of London Fashion Week is upon us again and the male of the species is as incredulous as ever. Each day's coverage brings a fresh batch of outlandish, and often unwearable, designs—and with it more questions for women (to attempt) to answer. Clare Coulson provides three baffled Telegraph men with an idiots' guide to fashion,” The Daily Telegraph (UK), February 15, 2007.

“He is accused of being one of the world's most powerful cocaine traffickers, a Colombian kingpin allegedly responsible for more than 300 murders. But when Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia's personal belongings went on sale yesterday in Sao Paulo the bestselling items were not the plasma screen televisions or his designer sunglasses. They were his underpants.

“Pnina Spett, a volunteer saleswoman, told Globo television that Abadia's pants had become 'folklore' in Brazil after he was arrested half-naked last year by federal police at his Sao Paulo hideout. The shoppers 'came straight for the Y-fronts', she said. Abadia's underwear was up for grabs at Sao Paulo's Jockey Club on Tuesday as part of an anti-crime initiative that aims to raise money for charity by auctioning off the ill-gotten gains of South American gangsters.”

—Tom Phillips, “Gangsters notorious underpants sell out fast,” The Guardian (UK), April 10, 2008.

“The former British prime minister John Major found his political life haunted by the scantiest garment.

“For years, he was drawn by The Guardian's cartoonist, Steve Bell, as a bumbling Superman, his Y-fronts worn outside his trousers. In the early 1990s, the Mirror journalist Alastair Campbell published an inside scoop revealing the sensational secret behind Major's wrinkle-free style of dress. According to Campbell—who later was to become, for Tony Blair, the most feared and reviled spin doctor in Britain—Major's recipe for sartorial success included tucking his shirt tails into his underpants before pulling on the trousers.

“It was only a gossip item, but poor Major never recovered; somehow, the revelation dovetailed snugly with what people already thought about their prime minister and it went on to define him, much as our former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer will never be able to escape his own early experiments with hosiery.”

—Annabel Crabb, “What lies beneath: a brief history of political apparel,” The Sydney Morning Herald, September 13, 2008.

“I thought of this the other day while walking through the ground floor of David Jones, past an acreage of shirting, a forest of ties and a miasma of gentlemen's cosmetics. Before too long, and while trying to clear an aggression of freshly-sprayed Eau Sauvage from my nose, I found myself in the thick of the underwear department. Y-fronts, boxers and long-johns were strung out as far as the eye could see. Thick waistbands, imprinted with large lettering, betrayed provenance and exclusivity in the same way other thick elastic bands identify the owners of airport luggage. It could work the same way with underpants, but only if your name happens to be Calvin Klein.”

—Michael Shmith (sic), “Vanity, thy name is underwear,” The Age (Melbourne, Australia), June 6, 2009.

“Best supporting pants: Donald Maxwell. The Y-fronts sported by the majestically fleshy baritone in Mr Broucek at Opera North, proving what a great sport the singer really is.”

—no author listed, “Best of 2009,” The Times (UK), December 12, 2009.

Links

Beyond eAlmanac
Wikipedia article on Briefs