So it seems that Jeremy Paxman is unhappy with his Marks & Spencer’s pants. According to the Daily Mail he’s written a letter complaining about a decrease in the quality of M&S men’s underwear.

Frankly, we don’t know what sort of quality Mr. Paxman expects at the extravagant price of £3 for 5 pairs of y-fronts. You don’t wear underpants just so you don’t have to wash your trousers after every wear. You wear underpants to keep your tackle warm in the winter and cool in the summer, to offer an extra bit of support so you don’t jiggle around too much when you walk, and to help shape your nether regions and make them look good in whatever trousers you wear so you can impress the ladies. Underwear manufactured cheaply enough to retail at that price is never going to offer the comfort, shape, elasticity and durability that a more expensive pair of men’s designer underpants will provide.

Ultimately, you can buy cheap men’s underwear, but you’re going to have to replace it fairly often, you won’t look as good wearing it and it won’t feel anywhere near as comfortable against your skin. If you spend a little more money, you will get a pair of underpants on which attention has been paid to every detail from the quality of the fabric, to the levels of elasticity, to the strength of the gusset to the appearance and durability of the stitching to the way in which the underwear sits when you wear it and how it helps you look in a pair of jeans.

Schultz underpants are designed with quality and comfort in mind. We use only the most comfortable 100% cotton and we assure you that they will make you look great and will stand up to repeated washes, so both you and Jeremy Paxman can buy our men’s underwear with confidence. Besides, wouldn’t he look great presenting Newsnight with some “Heatseeker” briefs popping out over a Schultz Strap?

Male Mode has posted a rather amusing brief history of briefs. Strangely, they left out the emergence of the male thong.

What this brief glimpse into the history of men’s underwear does reveal is that not only have comfort and support have always been two key factors, but, at least judging by the photos in question, when they think they look good, men like showing off their fashionable underwear.

According to, the BBC, the town of Delacambre, Louisiana, has officially become the most unfashionable place in the United States after it passed a law making it illegal to wear low slung jeans that may result in the waistband of your underwear showing. It seems that anybody who makes the mistake of wearing low rise jeans now faces a fine of $500 and up to 6-months in prison.

So, what the unfashion police are saying here is they don’t want anybody wearing stylish clothing and they certainly don’t believe that fashion should be a form of self-expression. Surely, however, they are missing the point of designer fashion – if we can’t use clothing to express our moods and our personalities then we may as well all wear uniforms all the time.

Over the years, new fashions have always shocked and outraged the establishment just before they entered mainstream acceptance. In Victorian times cross-dressing was illegal and any woman caught wearing men’s trousers could be arrested, yet today we love seeing our girlfriends and wives wearing our clothes. More recently, in the late 1970’s the tabloid press printed article after article expressing concern over the possibility that punk subculture was going to destroy British society – today you can buy Ramones t-shirts and Clash t-shirts in H&M and Topshop.

By drawing attention to the rebellious nature of revealing your underwear while wearing low rise jeans, this uptight town in Louisiana has just ensured that anybody who believes in freedom of expression will be wearing this style soon, preferably with underwear that expresses just what they think of these absurd efforts to stop them.