Men's briefs get lower and sexier
By Michael Quintanilla
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — Alberto Mendez has had his fashion highs — and now he's riding low in hip-hugging skivvies for the low-rise jeans that have infiltrated his closet.
He's tried boxers and briefs under the low-slung trousers he wears on the weekend to show off the tattoo above his tailbone. But the styles "would rise and bunch up," he says. "I didn't know what to wear. I had to go commando a couple of times," says the 27-year-old television news assignment editor, who dresses corporate-style for work. Then he purchased low-rise briefs. Since then, he's been wearing them not just with his jeans but daily with his business slacks.
More and more options are available for men who prefer underwear with a briefer cut.
Mark Hewlett, an avid low-rise trouser aficionado, doesn't do boxers. They're not "sexy enough" for the blond 27-year-old importer. He prefers a briefer cut. "I like the short underwear that falls just below the hipbone. You know," he says pausing pensively, "underwear can be a complicated piece of clothing, which is why I have all the brands."
Men are finding more options than ever in their quest to drop their shorts — in a manner of speaking, of course — for their low-rise looks, a trend that once was the domain of women.
From pint-sized briefs to body-hugging boxers, many of the newer styles are so compact that they look as if they have shrunk in the dryer. Just this month, Jockey and Joe Boxer joined the low-rise posse that includes the likes of Calvin Klein, 2(x)ist and Playboy, which are churning out seamless, no-fly, body-contoured designs made of high-tech fabrics that promise to be lighter, faster drying, as soft as cotton and 1 to 3 inches lower on the waist.
The current dip at the hip trend — a popular European guy style for several years — is not about flaunting elasticized labels and boxer prints above baggy trousers, a la hip-hop-wearing nation. It's about making sure you're covered underneath those sexy low-riders, which can be tricky when you stand up and potentially encounter a cheeky situation.
"Let's face it: In the world of men's clothes, there are only so many silhouette options," says Randy Heil, men's fashion director for Macy's West. "To tweak a pant and create a new must-have look is exciting. But nothing is more exciting in retail than one product creating a demand for another. And if you've got the new jean, you're going to need the new briefer brief."
There are plenty of fashionable ultra-low jeans: Frankie B. Men, Diesel, Guess, Buffalo, Eisbar, Fever, Seven, Calvin Klein and even Levi. Other design firms are paying attention, including DKNY, slated to trot out a low-rise men's jean line next spring. And come December, 2(x)ist, a company known for sexy underwear since its start in 1992, will introduce its first sportswear product: a low-rise men's jean.
"For us, it's about tying in our low-rise underwear with the low-rise jean trend," says Jeff Danzer, the company's executive vice president, about the denim collection. "These days, a guy wearing a low-rise garment isn't about being gay or straight. It's about being confident and secure and not thinking about what people think."
At a July men's runway show in Milan, Italy, the jeans on a model were so low that they slipped down as he turned to make his exit. "He caught them halfway down his cheeks," laughs David Wolfe, creative director of the Doneger Group, a New York-based consulting firm that analyzes fashion trends. "As embarrassing as the incident was for the model, it illustrated the need for low, low briefs. And you can bet that underwear companies will send out the product because style today is all about sex."
At a photo shoot in New York, male models were wearing low-slung jeans. "We had to keep jamming down the waistbands of their underwear so they wouldn't show. That just wasn't sexy," says Wolfe. "Who wants to see underwear? Skin is in.
"For years, guys have been wearing standard jeans on the hip, low and baggy. That pretty much has been the mainstream norm," he says, which is why the company recently launched a more modest low-rise for men. "We just decided to put jeans where men want to wear them and at the same time show off their assets. This was not about chasing a trend. The Levi's brand is too old to get trendy."
With Levi and other brands competing for the men's low-rise market, naturally the $1.7-billion men's underwear industry would follow, says Marshal Cohen, co-president of NPDFashionworld, a company that tracks apparel industry trends.
"The low-rise brief has the potential to be the new rising star and could possibly stay for a long while," he says. "There's not a lot of reason to wear low-rise skivvies if you are wearing basic pants, but if the wearer likes them — even though he may not like the low-rise trouser — he'll wear them because it's the consumer who ultimately will determine the longevity of this new style."
But the future may ultimately rest with women. Cohen says NPD's research shows that more than 65 percent of women purchase underwear for men. "This is also about women liking the low-rise look on their men."
