Thong Thistory
The thong was originally a men’s garment, believe it or not. It is one of the earliest recorded clothing styles, used to protect men’s genetalia in sub-Saharan Africa, where clothing was first worn 75 000 years ago. Tribal peoples, such as the Khoisan people of Southern Africa, wore thongs for many centuries.
Fashion designer Rudi Gernreich was credited with introducing the modern thong in 1974 which grew in popularity in South America, especially in Brazil. In the 1990s, the thong began to gain widespread acceptance and popularity in the United States, amounting for sales of more than $2 billion per year in 2006. Popular culture icons such as the ladies of Baywatch and Britney Spears helped push sales of the thong to the masses.
Recent surveys place the number of American women who wear thongs as their preferred underwear style at 28%. While thongs are available for girls as young as eight years, it is common for parents to not approve of girls wearing them until they reach their teens. We tend to agree on this point. Perhaps though, that’s another blog topic altogether.
Many reasons exist why women may choose to wear thong underwear: prevention of visible panty lines; prevention of ride up so one needn’t pull at one’s underwear in public; comfort; fashion consciousness, including the feeling of being more adult; saving storage space during travels.
In our stores we’ve noticed that the thong has recently taken a back seat (pun intended) to the boyshort. It was noted in the Times Online UK in 2005 that thong sales had fallen dramatically – nearly 17% that year. The trend had moved away from more revealing garments towards more comfortable options, such as the boyshort. Certainly this is the trend we’ve experienced as well, though we do have a strong and loyal following of thong-lovers who shop in our store. To each her own!
Boyshorts are cute and comfortable and in many cases eliminate visible panty and visible thong lines, as they lay seamlessly flat against the skin. We also find they are extremely flattering, so this is another one of the reasons. If you’ve never tried a boyshort style, it is time!
But back to our topic: our most popular thong styles are by Cosabella and Commando because they are lower rise and sit comfortably below the waist band of jeans. No more ‘whale tail’ to worry about. They also have a comfortable stretch to them which allows you to move and bend without any uncomfortable pulling. We generally prefer a thong style when wearing tights – a bunched up pair of bikini or boyshort style undies under a pair of tights is never fun. Perhaps we are lingerie obsessed (perhaps is likely an understatement) but we find it best to mix it up and keep a variety of styles on hand to work with different clothing items.