Manolo for the Men Fashion and Lifestyle Advice for Men

Boxers.

Next question.

Actually, I should expand on this a little, since it’s apparently a question of world import.

Boxers are for grown-ass men. Briefs are for boys and Southern European gigolos.

I don’t even know why we should regard this as a serious question, except we live in profoundly unserious times, when people who’ve reached the age of majority no longer wish to act as if they’ve become adults.

Personally, I regard the day I stopped wearing briefs and started wearing boxers as being one of the major landmarks on the road to adulthood, on a par with getting my drivers license at 16, and having my first legal drink at 21. It happened the summer between junior high and high school, when I demanded my mother go to K-Mart and buy me some boxers, so that I would not have to be seen wearing tighty-whiteys as I changed for football practice. In my teenaged clique, in 1976, boxers were a symbol of manhood.

Otherwise, except to say that boxers are a)for grown-ass men, b)should be made of cotton, c)in either a festive plaid or a solid color (blue, white, or military green only), I have few opinions about underclothing for men. Pick your style of underwear (as long as it’s boxers) and stick to it for the rest of your life.

Underwear is simple. I hate those online underwear stores (like this one Vocla) that treat underwear shopping like it’s bellying up to a smorgasbord of butt-hugging, nut-hugging styles. It’s all briefs and tight boxers, in a profusion of colors and cuts. Although, judging by the photos of the models it’s clear I, a middle age straight man of conservative tastes, am not their target audience.

So, to conclude:

Boxers.

Swiss garmentmaker Isabodywear is introducing underwear purported to protect a man’s nether regions from cell phone radiation.  Apparently, they are made with threads of silver.  Izzy wonders if instead of donning such a “fertility belt,” it would be eaiser just to avoid cell-phone users like the guy in the photo.

In any case, Izzy thinks it is just a matter of time until someone manufactures briefs made of lead thread—for protection against peeping Supermen.

Could novelty underwear really be on the rise? Izzy would like to remind his readers that a healthy sex life should include laughing, but not laughing and pointing.

From Down Under (appropriately enough) comes a new line of underwear meant to be the brief equivalent of the Wonderbra. Calling it the “Wonderjock,” the underwear’s makers, AussieBum, claim it is was designed to “separate and lift” so as to make one’s you-know-what appear bigger. Izzy is skeptical, but the product certainly gives new meaning to the term “D-cup.”