By Ethan Trex, Mental Floss
UPDATED: 11:28 AM EDT 10.27.09
(Mental Floss)
Most guys pull them on every morning when they step out of the shower. In fact, at this very moment, there's probably nothing closer to you than your underwear.
It's taken thousands of years to perfect the boxers or briefs that you're wearing right now, though, so here's a brief and incomplete look at the history of men's underwear:
Loincloths offer some coverage
The first known underwear dates back almost 7000 years, when prehistoric man used leather to cover and protect his loins while running prehistoric errands. For several millennia, not much changed.
Ancient Egyptian art shows everyone from the pharaohs on down the line decked out in loincloths of their own. The pharaohs even wore a sort of specialized kilt/loincloth called a shendoh, and took extra supplies of the garment into their pyramids for use in the afterlife.
Codpieces become all the rage
Variations on the loincloth seem to have persisted into the Middle Ages, when loose-fitting trousers called braies came into fashion. These linen duds extended from the waist to around mid-calf, and once the wearer stepped into his breeches he had to lace them tight around his waist and shins. Although all of the tying wasn't so convenient, these braies had the advantage of offering a lot of coverage, so if a laborer got too hot he could strip down to his skivvies while still maintaining some sense of decorum.
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