British menswear establishment, Sunspel, is celebrating its not-insignificant contribution to the collective contents of Britain’s underwear drawer, thanks to a landmark new exhibition at London’s V&A museum.
The exhibit charts people’s intimate relationship with fashion, their nether regions, and the undergarments they chose to cover said regions up with. As the company that introduced the UK to the original American-designed boxer short back in 1947, Sunspel’s place in this timeline is a significant one. The label has even released a limited edition Heritage Boxer Short (seen in white, above), made in the heart of England’s textile industry from 100% crisp cotton poplin, to celebrate the occasion.
Early boxer shorts were first created in 1927 by the founder of Everlast, the Kentucky boxing label started by Jacob Golomb. However, it was John Hill, grandson of Sunspel’s founder, that brought the design to the UK some 20 years later. Replacing the irritating rear seam with a single back panel and feldlocking the remaining seams so those rough edges wouldn’t rub up against you as you moved, Hill not only introduced Britain to the boxer, but he arguably perfected it as well.
However, it wasn’t until 1985 and the broadcasting of a Levi’s ad – an ad that went down as one of the most successful, and controversial, advertisements in British television history – that the boxer skyrocketed in popularity across Britain.
And the boxer that featured alongside the Californian denim label? The only one that was worth wearing in the UK at the time: Sunspel. As fast as Nick Kamen whipped off his west-coast denim, the tiny briefs and the baggy y-fronts (often crafted from inflammable man-made materials) that clogged men’s drawers up and down the UK were replaced by something a bit little more crisp, yet equally casual and just as comfortable.
Fast-forward 30 years and Sunspel’s 100% cotton boxer remains the gold standard, with the English label’s limited edition Heritage Boxer a useful reminder as to what made them such a revolutionary piece of menswear when they hit the UK. Sunspel’s Heritage Boxer is made in the label’s homeland of Nottingham – a center of the British textile industry – from 100% crisp white cotton poplin and features a classic button fly opening, traditional channel waistband and is presented in a matching cotton poplin pouch.
If you’re in London and you’re up for some high-brow culture, check out Sunspel’s unique contribution to the prestigious V&A exhibit, or cop a true original from Sunspel’s online store.