Now's the time for a brief history of the world of underwear

Let's be brief: Wednesday is National Underwear Day.

OK, maybe Milwaukee isn't ready to go wild over panties and boxers. After all, it was just last fall that a Wauwatosa couple got their attitudes in a bunch over racy window displays at Victoria's Secret in Mayfair Mall.
Sure, we probably contribute significantly to the $14 billion spent annually on undies. But we might not be ready to do the day up like folks in New York, where online underwear retailer Freshpair.com started the celebration three years ago by sending "underwear ambassadors" out to parade through the city in nothing but the bare necessities.
Nope, we don't expect you to strip down to your skivvies at Pere Marquette Park.
But, if you'll simply put a tiny bit of thought into your underwear as you get dressed Wednesday, that will suffice.
It's like mom always said: "Be sure to wear nice underwear. You never know when you might have an accident - or who's gonna see it."
How to celebrate
Women: Wear a lacy bra and let it peek a bit from the neckline of your shirt.
Men: Sport your pants a bit lower to expose the band of your briefs or boxers. Pick a pair in a bright color or pattern for added charm.
Famous underwear moments
Prince appeared on the cover of his 1980 album "Dirty Mind" wearing an open coat and a thong.
Madonna struck a pose in cone-shaped bra cups on a corset for her 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour.
Hip-hoppers including Naughty by Nature and TLC popularized sagging in the early 1990s, when they wore loose jeans around their hips that let underwear peak above pants' waistlines.
Mark Wahlberg frequently dropped his pants to expose his boxers when he performed in the early 1990s. His antics earned him an underwear modeling deal with Calvin Klein in which he wore nothing but boxer briefs in the ads.
Sharon Stone caused a buzz for not wearing underwear in a scene in the 1992 movie "Basic Instinct."
Bare facts
Among 125,000 people asked about underwear, 41% of the men preferred briefs; 37 % of women said they liked bikini briefs.
The average bra size for women in the United States is 36C.
In 1935, a company called Coopers introduced men's briefs, a style dubbed the "jockey" because it offered jock-strap-like support. The company later took the name of its product.
Sara Lee launched the Wonderbra in the United States in 1994 and sold one every 15 seconds in its first weeks on the market.
Undergear recently announced a line of shape-enhancing underwear for men, including a knee-length shaper that flattens a man's tummy and a padded brief, to give a dude a fuller back side.
Sources: Freshpair.com, Time.com, University of Michigan Business School, Jockey.com, Undergear