Super Undies

The Age

Friday May 11, 2007

Lara Zamaitan

Dads, dags and nerdy bank clerks unite. The Y-front has returned with a high-tech vengeance, writes Lara Zamaitan.

UNWITTING contraceptive or man's best friend? Reviled for years as a cheesy brief, fit only for older gents, the Y-front has made a spectacular comeback. This time, however, the humble undie is the preferred pick of hipster 20- and thirty-somethings. Much of the renewed interest in the iconic Y-shaped brief can be attributed to the Australian men's underwear brand, AussieBum. In November last year, AussieBum's owner, Sean Ashby, decided to re-invent the Y-front as a tongue-in-cheek affair. Ashby renamed it the Wonderjock. Since its release, more than 140,000 Wonderjocks have been snapped up by young men in 20 countries, including France, Germany and Japan.

The Wonderjock is the number one-selling men's brief at Selfridges in London. To honour the Wonderjock's supremacy, this month the department store is devoting an entire window display to the brief from Down Under. "The Y-front is undergoing a definite revolution," affirms Ashby. "Dads used to wear Y-fronts and they weren't cool. Now men are embracing the whole retro trend and the Y-front is very much old-school."

Just as the Wonderbra pushed women's breasts to extraordinary heights, the Wonderjock, claims Ashby, also lifts men's privates, up and out. "There's no padding involved," he insists. "Older-style Y-fronts tended to flatten men, but the Wonderjock's shape makes guys look bigger. Men are sensitive to size."

Also offering a non-surgical enhancement of men's nether regions is the Contour Pouch Brief from the New York brand C-IN2. With an elastic sling support that's attached to what the brand describes as an "ultra plush microfibre waistband", the briefs guarantee to lift the crotch to more flattering dimensions.

Australian men would concur. Since its local release in July last year, C-IN2's Y-front is the brand's top seller Down Under. Coming in tantalising colours such as blueberry, yellow and lime, the brief is aimed squarely at fashion conscious 18-to-35-year-olds. The marketing manager for Mitch Dowd, the company that distributes C-IN2's underwear in Australia, Jane McCarrison, says: "Men's fitted underwear has undergone a revival in the last three years.

"Fitted trunks and briefs have become popular and lately it's really swung towards the Y-front."

While the modern Y-front, with its myriad prints, is enthralling young men, the original Y-Front (Jockey owns the trademark) has retained its original devotees. Designed in 1934 by the American Arthur Kneibler, in collaboration with a urologist, the brief with the front-opening fly was revolutionary. Since the late 1930s, more than 50 million pairs of Jockey's Y-Fronts have sold in Australia. And, despite its association with older men, aged 65-plus, sales of Jockey's Y-fronts have never slumped, says the marketing and communications manager for Jockey Australia, Madeleine Kelly.

"It's never waned because the age group that originally bought the Y-front keeps buying it," says Kelly. "We've made a few changes to the sizes due to changes in body shapes but the fabrics are the same. The original product has changed very little."

Aware of the Y-front's ageing market, last year Jockey introduced the new Recut Y, a low-rise hipster style aimed at a more youthful clientele. Kelly admits the new, improved Y-Front isn't Jockey's best performer, but as she insists, "Jockey's Y-Front has heritage. There are people out there who know the product; that's all they want. We don't advertise it. There's no need. It's an absolute classic. We'd never delete the Y-front."

WHO'S GOT THE Y?

Jockey: Classic Y-Front and Recut Y at Myer, David Jones and other stockists; 1800 034 409 and jockeyaustralia.com.au

Bonds: Guy Front (available in briefs and trunks); 1800 054 321 and bonds.com.au.

Calvin Klein: 365 brief; 8412 9999 and cku.com

C-IN2: Contour Pouch Brief; 1800 671 319

AussieBum: I Want Out, Commando, Tutti Frutti and Seven Deadly Sins; 02 9560 2626 and aussiebum.com.au

DT Clothes: at City Beach shops, Louis Epstein and dtclothes.com.au

Hugo Boss: will introduce boy-leg Y-fronts in 2008.

© 2007 The Age

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