London! France! Jake Gyllenhaal’s Underpants!
June 16, 2011
Boxers or briefs? Well, we all know now; Jake Gyllenhaal is definitely a briefs man. And we know this because of a picture that surfaced recently with him in a very specific and popular pose.
It all started when Kanye West posted a photo of his girlfriend, Amber Rose, in the iconic pose made famous by Grace Jones on the cover of her ‘Island Life’ album. This photo then set off a firestorm of interpreters in all shapes and sizes contorting into the same pose and posting themselves on Twitter.
So, which tightie whities is Jake wearing? According to my men’s buyer, Jake is sporting a pair of Polo Ralph Lauren Stretch Cotton Jersey Briefs PO82. As for those socks that seem to match the carpet… We’re looking the other way.
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Posted by Tomima at 7:54am
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Public Service Message Posted in Your Underwear?
May 22, 2011
I always enjoy seeing a quirky solution to a public problem. So, this is my new favorite. The Brazilian Government just passed a bill requiring underwear manufacturers to add a warning label to all bras, panties, and men’s underwear about the importance of getting screenings for breast, uterine and prostate cancer respectively – yes a specific warning for each type of underwear! Oh, and for good measure the bill also threw in that all adult women’s underwear should have the suggestion that they make sure their partner use condoms. That’s right, not the men’s underwear, but the women’s. So, Brazil feels it’s the women who need to be the gatekeepers of condom use.
No, this hasn’t become law just yet – the president of Brazil has not yet signed it. But, it’s telling that this bill has been floating around in their congress since 1999. And a lot of thought has clearly gone into it. For example, realizing that this is a lot of information to put on a lingerie tag (after all, Brazilians are known for their skimpy underwear), an amendment was written to only require these warnings be printed on underwear packaging. But, thinking about this in a practical sense, doesn’t this defeat the purpose? The packaging is quickly discarded–the wearer never sees the warnings again.
Underwear and lingerie is big business in Brazil. They have over 6,000 manufacturers who make more than 2.8 billion pieces of underwear. And HerRoom and HisRoom have several brands coming from Brazil. LZ at HerRoom, for example. So, don’t be surprised to see this warning coming to a piece of underwear near you!
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Posted by Tomima at 2:52pm
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Cup-Sized Underwear for Men
July 18, 2010
There’s a curious reality to men’s underwear sizing; It assumes all men who wear the same size underwear have the same size…er, private parts. So, to put this in bra terms, it’s like thinking that all woman with a 36 band size, for example, have the same cup size. And we know that’s not true.
I discovered this fact back in 2002 when I first went live with HisRoom. I interviewed some mens underwear manufacturers and asked how a man is supposed to size his jock strap and thongs for a document I was creating. Naively, I just assumed it was a similar system to a woman’s bra. A few questions into my interviews, I found out I was wrong. All the jock manufacturers told me that if a man’s "package" didn’t fit in the cup, he would need to go up a size (e.g. from a medium to a large) to get a larger cup – even if that meant his waistband would now be too big.
I admit I was surprised by this because it didn’t make sense to me. Men are already size conscious when it comes to their package. Why wouldn’t they have a sizing system in place to accomodate this? Since over the years, HisRoom received very few comments on this subject, I chalked it up to sizing and fit not being a big deal with men.
So now, along comes a new men’s underwear line, HARDDRIVE, with an attempt to address this issue. They claim to have created proportion fit underwear for men, and it’s sized by both a man’s waist AND cup size.
When I saw this my mind immediately started racing… How are they determining cup size? I jumped to their size chart, found their "How to Find the Perfect Fit" instructions, and let out a howl that brought my dogs running to my office. Here is what it says:
"First, measure length. Next, measure girth. Multiply length & girth." And, I particularly loved the footnote: "Remember… always measure yourself in the state of mind that you expect to be in while wearing." At last, giving men worldwide a legitimate reason to measure.
Not being one to totally dismiss an "out-of-the-box" idea, I decided to do a little research. Searching on "average penis size" I found that this apendage averages 6 inches long with a girth of 3.5-4 inches when at rest. Their calculation therefore concludes that the average guy is a 21-24 measurment. And, according to their size chart, this would be an "A" cup. Oh, did I mention they decided to match the letters given to womens bra cup sizing? At least I would have thought they would have chosen something more "guy-friendly" like, I don’t know, maybe coffee sizes… regular, tall, venti? Or, maybe a car analogy like Boxter, Cayman, 911 and Panamera? Oh, what about hamburgers: Junior burger, Big Mac, Quarter Pounder and Angus Delux? But, I digress.
Feeling that further research was needed, I grabbed a tape measure and headed for my pantry. I wanted to find examples that represented the various cup sizes they are porporting in their size chart. Here’s what I found: a can of tuna fish qualifies as an A cup. A traditional soup can is a C cup. A 16 oz. water bottle is a D cup. And a mayonnaise jar or larger is a DD cup.
And this final suggestion from a male friend re naming the sizes: there’s no such thing as Small and Medium. Just start with Large and go up from there.
Shop for men’s underwear at HisRoom.
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Posted by Tomima at 7:40am
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