Undergarments

 

Put three academics in a small elevator, ask them to give a learned posit on a pair of underwear, and you might drown in the august theories sure to flood the box. Undergarments are inherently a little fun, especially when they're little. Nowadays, most underwear visuals are little more than soft-core porn, appealing to every sexual urge, body image lust, and demographic niche, often all at once. But this was hardly the case not so long ago. One can only imagine the prurient consternation (or titilated delight) gripping thousands of unknown mannequin dressers, store clerks, manufacturers, and advertisers from days gone by in accomplishing their respective tasks without revealing too much contour, too much package, too much bush, or ginning up too much frisson while still moving the product. In such an atmosphere, it's easy to see crypto queers and black-humoured photographers & ad copyists going to the races when working on undergarments.

 

Here are but a few early-model underwear ads that all but scream, "Hello, sailor!" or, "Can I get your number?"