The manufacture of underwear is a story indelibly linked with the history of Warren County for more than 70 years since Union Underwear first opened its Church Street plant in Bowling Green in 1941. “The Story of Underwear,” told in companion volumes for men and women, became an instant reference best-seller in 2010 in Europe, where owning fine underwear is a tradition of long standing.

“The Story of Men’s Underwear” was launched at the fashionable Westfield’s in London, complete with scantily clad male models strutting their stuff. This followed a talk at the London College of Fashion, appearances on BBC radio and even commentary in the New Yorker. The author, Shaun Cole, is principal lecturer in the history of culture at the London College of Fashion. It’s the first serious study of men’s underwear, which traces its development from King Tut’s tomb.

Initially, men’s underwear was purely utilitarian and had a dual purpose, to protect the skin from abrasive fabrics and outer garments and to protect those garments from the dirt of the body. Cole uses examples from classic works of art, as well as surviving garments from places like the Museum of London.

The codpiece, a term derived from an archaic term for the scrotum, when it appeared at the end of the 14th century, served a purely utilitarian function to cover the opening of the hose. Thereafter, writes Cole, it took on a decorative role assuming unnatural proportions, designed not to attract women, but as an aggressive warning to other men.

The production of men’s underwear did not become a specialized trade until the middle of the 18th century. By the 19th century, white shirts and detachable collars, cuffs and shirt fronts became popular as technological changes made mass production possible. An interest in hygiene became associated with the quality and cleanliness of underwear.

According to a myth, the T-shirt may owe its development to a visit by Queen Victoria to a royal ship. Since armpit hair was deemed unsuitable for the queen, sleeves were ordered sown into garments. Their popularity developed rapidly after the teen rebellion films of the 1950s.

First made by BVD in 1876, the “union suit” combined undershirts and drawers and cut down on bulk while providing warm comfort in cold winters. Men’s briefs first appeared in France in 1906, and were enhanced with rubber waistbands after 1929. A French swim brief became the inspiration for Jockey’s Y-front underwear. What Cole dubs “the peacock revolution” of the 1960s ushered in colored underwear for an industry that had now become a multimillion-dollar business.

Calvin Klein, with a loan from a French businessman, sewed his name into the waistband, hired handsome Olympic pole vaulter Tom Hintnaus to model, and photographer Bruce Weber to create a whole new market for underwear designed to be seen as well as worn. The proliferation of styles with innovative fabrics such as microfibers and bamboo and even enhancements continues from European companies like HOM and DIM, Australian companies like aussiebum and North American companies like Ginch Gonch and Andrew Christian.

Cole treats the history of men’s hosiery in a separate section, tracing the development of socks with garters to the first self-supporting socks in the 1920s and the proliferation of colors and styles of the 21st century.

Finally, he discusses the advertising of men’s underwear. What began with pictures of the garments or emphasis on underwear and good health had by the end of the 20th century switched to an emphasis of what he calls “the body as statuary,” with increasing emphasis on sexuality and the use of athletes and models to promote a lifestyle.

Enhanced with color illustrations, including many from underwear companies themselves, this is a tour de force of men’s undergarments. Their importance should not be undervalued. To quote Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, “it is the first thing a man puts on in the morning and the last thing he takes off at night and therefore it is always framed by the body it clothes.”

“Volume 2: The Story of Women’s Underwear”

This handsome companion volume on “The Story of Women’s Underwear” treats women’s underwear not only from its original utilitarian purpose, but also shows how underwear became a means of seduction and an expression of women’s place in society in any given era. Lingerie, corsetry and hosiery are described as means of transformation of the body to suit prevailing fashions and fetishisms. Women’s changing silhouettes throughout history were either modified by the underwear or emphasized for erotic appeal. Materials, colors and the economics of manufacturing lingerie are described to give this picturesque book a seriousness belied by the copious risqu/ illustrations.

Muriel Barbier teaches decorative arts from the Middle Ages to the 19th century at the Ecole du Louvre. Shazia Boucher is a curator of lace for the Museum of Lace in Calais, France, hence the numerous old “naughty French postcards” used to illustrate various forms and styles of women’s lingerie. Actual antique garments are pictured in full color, also.

Heavily embroidered stockings and corsets from the 18th and 19th centuries, housed in museums in France and England, are exquisitely photographed. Modern high fashion glossy photos show exaggerated styles meant to seduce, not to protect. Today’s woman is just as titillatingly revealed in transparent nylon panties as the Belle Epoque prostitute was in her split bloomers and ruffled petticoats. In this book, there seems to be a definite fascination with corsets and their fetishist dynamic of woman bound versus woman supported. While the text is informative about the development of women’s underwear from ancient times to the present, emphasis is on the visual.

While in ancient times, women as well as men wore utilitarian strips of cloth (loincloths) under their draped garments, as centuries passed and women’s costumes became more structured, elaborate and unwashable undergarments like chemises, bloomers and petticoats made of light, soft, washable linen or cotton were used to protect the outer garments from bodily fluids, and the bodies of the wearers from abrasions from heavy, embroidery-encrusted textiles.

Twentieth century designers looked to the past during the romantic hippie revival of the 1970s, when embroidered petticoats and chemises were worn as daytime outerwear by the trendy young. Today’s Boho peasant blouse remains as a classic garment based on the chemise.

The authors note that technological innovations in textiles prompted a “rebirth of lingerie” after the 1980s with the invention of elastane (Lycra) and the popularization of microfiber in the 1990s. The importance of wearing underwear for sports first popularized in the U.S. is a 21st century trend in France.

Whether purchased in this attractively packaged slipcase edition or separately, “The Story of Underwear” seems likely to become a collector’s item.

— Reviewed by Brian E. Coutts, who selects the “Best Reference Books of the Year” for Library Journal and once served as an adviser to Jockey International, and Therese Duzinkiewicz Baker, who is a frequent reviewer of books on clothing and design and coordinator of Western Kentucky University’s Visual and Performing Arts Library.