The Class of 1984

College Graduation Party- St Augustine, FL May 1984

"...because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young." Baz Luhrmann

Heavy Tweed In Spring?

Only this one.

Gant or Mant

It's up to you. Thanks, DB.

The Real Playboy: Victor Lownes

NBC announced yesterday a Mad Men like series this coming Fall called, The Playboy Club. Maybe it'll work. In the interview below actor Eddie Cibrian (Nick Dalton) tells us the series is about the Chicago Playboy Club, "...where life is magic. Where anyone can be anything they want to be."



Hugh Hefner was a great magazine editor but not so great in business. Little known, but far more interesting than Hef is a business man and the real Playboy behind Playboy, Victor Lownes. A marketing genius, Lownes loved telling friends the Playboy Club was for loser salesmen from Ohio.




Russell Miller's 1984, Bunny - 'The Real Story of Playboy' is the only book I've found which exposes Lownes and his critical involvement in the company. In short, Lownes is the erudite sophisticate while Hefner is the Midwest rube swilling Pepsi and eating fried chicken and ham sandwiches prepared by gourmet chefs. While reading the book I couldn't help but picture Hefner as Jethro Bodine working on a math problem.


Marilyn Cole 1972

Lownes was with Playboy 26 years before he was fired by Hefner (rare Lownes interview here). Most agree he was canned because centerfold Marilyn Cole preferred his company over Hef's. They married and are still together today. Once Lownes was out; Playboy took a dive. Lownes knew the casinos and clubs were subsiding the magazine. It's not clear whether Hefner knew or, I'm guessing, he would never have let Lownes go.


Victor Lownes 2010 (from Spitalfields Life)

Before being fired Lownes was called to Chicago from London to fix dropping club visitation. Standing in his office overlooking the Drake Hotel, Lownes looked down to the street and saw a commotion of reporters and TV news cameras covering the arrival of a VIP at the hotel. Lownes ran through the Playboy offices collecting women, put them in Bunny costumes and made protest signs, "HEF UNFAIR!" "BUNNYS DATE CUSTOMERS!" "WE WANT TO DATE!"

The Bunnys "picketed" in front of the Playboy building and without much persuasion the press at the Drake turned around and saw their news story. Playboy Bunnys protesting the unfair, "No dating customers" policy of the Playboy clubs. The demonstration hits the six o'clock news and Hefner makes a statement that night allowing Bunnys to date customers. Just in time for the 11 o'clock news. Club visitation soars. Sounds like something Don Draper would do.

And now for something painfully honest...

NY Style - Lunch with a Writer & Designer

There's a diversity of style in NYC that Antonio Ciongoli (Michael Bastian) and G. Bruce Boyer (Elegance - A Guide to Quality in Menswear) made clear a couple weeks ago over lunch at Txikito in Chelsea. El Doble burgers, Piperrak peppers and Farnum Hill cider managed to stay off everyone's tie as well.

Each man brings an intelligent creativity along with notes of personal nostalgia. Antonio's inherited WWI watch doesn't work but is worn as jewelry. Why not. Cell phones keep better time than a Rolex.

Bruce wears a surcingle belt with double breasted jacket and slides the buckle to his left. A nod to jazz musicians protecting guitar backs. Brown & tan is echoed in the belt, shoes, hose, tie, watch strap and pocket square. Not loudly. But advisedly. Reverently.

Antonio makes use of texture more than color. A thickly folded pocket square shares depth with desert sand driving mocs worn without socks. No socks make sense here rather than the sockless double monk calf shoe which screams, 'Hipsters with blisters.' Not that there's anything wrong with the blistered hip. Those Piperraks were blistered and there was nothing wrong there.

'Going Commando'

from The History of Underwear by Shaun Cole

I don't have a kilt but the idea of wearing wool next to bare skin leaves me slightly...anxious. Like the first time I climbed a rope. There's that odd feeling near the top...Anyway, the old kilt story has been kicked aside by a better American story.


Special Forces bunker in Vietnam circa 1966-67

My father (on your far left) told me the heat and humidity of the jungle created biblical cases of crotch rot. Preventive maintenance consisted of sitting around in your underwear in air conditioning (they had it) while applying liberal shakes of talc. It's a lesson I ignored while training in Panama.

The expression 'Going Commando' comes from the Vietnam War. According to journalist Daniel Engber in Shaun Cole's, The History of Underwear, "...troops spent extended periods of time in hot, damp conditions, when it was more comfortable not to wear underwear."

Even Tom Ford has used the expression, "I always go commando; I never wear underwear...My mother keeps saying, 'Please stop telling people you don't wear underwear.'" I don't have a problem with Tom not wearing underwear although his use of 'Go Commando' is not without some irony.

Castillo de San Marcos NHS, St Augustine - 1984

Today I limit commando to jeans but there was a time when authenticity and the N.P.S. demanded commando. 18th century 'small clothes' consisted of a knee length shirt and breeches made of linen. The small clothes alone acted as underwear. Once the linen went through the wash 20 or so times, the result was amazingly soft and comfortable. Enough to go commando or, as they might say at the Castillo de San Marcos, "Andar a lo gringo."

A Brief on Briefs

Always in my Christmas stocking (from The History of Underwear)

This will be brief. I confess to wearing boxers and briefs. Not at the same time although I guess it makes me 'bi-undie.' Not that there's anything wrong with that. Back in the early '90s, I began a losing battle to stay in shape and joined a health club. Much as I like boxers, they didn't work with spandex shorts. Club members reckoned I had an accident. I don't like jock straps for the same reason I can't stand seamed boxers. So it was briefs.

My favorite were the house brand from Saks Fifth Avenue. They stood up to the hades water of the gym's laundry and I still have a couple pair. Telling as it is about my work out frequency-- I'll spare you the photographs.

The French Slip (from The History of Underwear)

MIA Brief Post has been returned.

Most of what I've read about briefs give the impression it was a US invention. The idea of comfort, utility and plain old 'merican common sense' adds up to some guy from the Midwest having a eureka moment resulting in numerous great grandchildren who are filthy rich, have truck loads of 'issues' and donate to wack job Republicans. That it came from the French isn't all that surprising to me. They like comfort and Socialism.

Valton-Quinquarlet et Fils was founded in 1893 in Troyes by Pierre Valton and manufactured socks. In 1918, Valton cuts the legs off a pair of long johns and voila! Briefs. Being French, he replaces buttons with a comfortable elastic waistband. I'm pretty sure that around this time the English were trying to make elastic out of twigs.

Valton goes one step further and swaps the scratchy wool goods with white cotton and names his creation, Petit Bateau. They're still around and so are the briefs which can be ordered here. Can you get any closer to wearing apparel history? Better, can apparel history get any closer to you?

The French think of everything. Even southpaws. (from The History of Underwear)


Rejected New Yorker cartoon by Michael Shaw


Advertising long ago... (from The History of Underwear)

Advertising yesterday (Esquire Magazine September 1960)


and advertising today. (from The History of Underwear)


In case you're British and the notion of wearing anything comfortable doesn't appeal... I offer these tweed boxers. (Click on image to enlarge and note perfect pattern matching)


Optional silk lining for Yanks. Tomorrow, 'Going Commando.'

A Brief History

Especially brief since Blogger has not restored my May 12th "Brief" post. Maybe just as well. One reader commented before the post disappeared,

"Jesus. You need a rimshot sample or something popping up after some, no, most of these one-liners. You cornball!"

Blogger advises the missing post will return. I can only hope they include the corn.

My Boxer Story Part II

The single best ad campaign for boxers without Seams (from apostrophe...9)

The Duke of Windsor's Boxers - Can't see any Seams


The point of comfort

Boxers with a seam - Uncomfortable and very British

Sunspel makes good looking boxers -- but with seams


Derek Rose also makes boxers with seams -- why are men in the UK so unhappy?


Tied boxers from Brooks Brothers - No Seams.

Even the Italians - No Seams -- Loerenzo Uomo boxers - Now made in China


Saks house brand and made in Italy - No Seams - Still available for $28.50


Luxe, John Nordstrom boxers discontinued in 2003 - - Two pair left and No Seams


Regular Nordstrom boxers - - No Seams - Still available for $18.00


Brooks Brothers Makers -- No longer made and No Seams

If you've never worn seamless boxers then the odds are pretty good you have a Morning Suit. That is, you're from the UK. The US invented the boxer (circa 1927) but they didn't get to the UK until 1947. I assume they were far too comfortable. But English underwear manufacturers fixed that. They created boxers with two seams running the length of the back panel.

This panel seam is a fatal shot to Sunspel's beautiful and expensive (40 pounds) Liberty print boxer made in Turkey. The Sunspel white boxer is a more affordable 20 pounds but those seams are just as deadly. Imagine, walking around with two pieces of string hanging down from the waistband to the crotch and you have a pretty good idea of what these things are like.

These Derek Rose boxers also have seams. Is this is an English phenomenon? Derek Rose, now made in the Czech Republic, sells their boxers in Saks Fifth Avenue for $40 a pair. Little steep considering Saks house brand boxer sells for $28.50 and is made in Italy. It's also seamless.

College girls in the '80s were fond of stealing boyfriend's boxers and sewing velcro closures to the fly. Patch tartan and madras were usually in their sights. It was also popular for men to allow a little boxer to peek out from the legs of their shorts. Some called it 'peacocking' although I'm not sure why.

Here in NYC, the options for boxers have dried up considerably in the last 10 or so years. Brooks Brothers no longer offers anything made in the US although they do offer a German made Golden Fleece boxer for $80. Hanro, which was made in Switzerland, and is now made in Portugal, retail for $70 a pair. These options are the provenance of fur sink money.

I haven't tried shirtmaker David Mercer's boxers yet. Knowing David, I'm guessing they're built pretty tough. He's using shirt fabric and I have no issue with that. At $25 a pair they can be stolen here. I was once described by a relation as someone who would spend his last $50 on a pair of silk monogrammed boxers. To which I replied, "Hunter green with a red monogram." But silk boxers aren't what they used to be and neither is that relation.

My Boxer Story

It was 1972 and Muhammad Ali had an exhibition fight at the Hampton Coliseum. After the fight, I had a head ache for the rest of the night. Ever since, I've never been much of a boxer fan. Wait. Wrong boxers.

I had always worn briefs. A girlfriend hand embroidered a pair of yellow Hanes with Winny the Pooh on the left cheek. But my relationship with briefs came to a halt on 20 May 1976. The Army called it, The Reception Center." Two or three days before Basic Training started. No Drill Sergeants. Just fairly nice fellas in black polished helmet liners taking recruits through the mind numbing paper work of joining the Army. Haircuts, uniforms, life insurance, etc.

As the top document can attest - my "Personal Clothing Request" included six pair of, "drawers, ctn, white" but that doesn't tell the real story. We stumbled down a line through an old warehouse with an open duffel bag while the above gear was more or less thrown at us in varying degrees of speed depending on how lost you looked.

The buzz haircut, given only moments before, and the still warm, 'birth control' issued black frame glasses unfairly established some of us as looking...very lost . The key to getting through all this was keeping your mouth shut and ears and eyes open. I heard him from at least 10 recruits away, "Boxers or briefs!" in a booming and chunky thick voice that was black and belonged, I was guessing, to Louisiana or Arkansas. Maybe even Texas.

Everybody was asking for briefs. I thought back to the day before when about 80 of us went through the Army physical together. Long lines of men naked, except for briefs, and holding a manila envelope. Most of the underwear was falling apart. Almost all of it filthy. I was happy that everyone was getting new underwear. I suppose it's the Socialist in me.

"BOXERS OR BRIEFS, SHITHEAD!" the loud chunky voice yelled. I snapped out of my daydream and shouted back, "BOXERS, SERGEANT!" But I didn't want boxers. The boxers came sailing at my head. I grabbed them and, I will never forget this, I said, "Can I get briefs instead?" The chunky voiced sergeant looked at me -- In my birth control glasses and shaved head. His mouth opened and he breathed in deep. I must have made his day. Maybe even week.

That's how I became a Boxer man. How about you?

Tomorrow: My Boxer Story: Part II

The Story of Underwear

(Used with permission)


(Used with permission)


(Used with permission)








(Used with permission)


(Used with permission)

















(Used with permission)












This week: Boxers - Briefs - Going Commando

US Book here. UK Book here. Author's photos used with permission. I'm working on the others.