National Underwear Day

Every August, Freshpair.com's underwear models promote and celebrate underwear retail and advertising culture in Times Square with live runway shows and a changing tent where passerby can change out of their underwear into a fresh pair.

DATE: Tuesday, August 7, 2007 from 11am - 2pm

WHERE: Runway Shows on Military Island, at the intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets and Underwear Changing Stations on Fence Island.

TIMES SQUARE'S UNDERWEAR HERITAGE

It may be difficult to imagine today, but when Calvin Klein unveiled a giant billboard depicting a muscular man wearing white briefs in Times Square in 1982 - his first publicly displayed advertisement for Calvin Klein underwear - it sparked more than one revolution. It not only radicalized the way women and men regarded underwear, but it also set in motion a new era for sexual expression and male representation. It also helped to sell a lot of underwear.

Of course, skivvies were not a foreign concept to New York's Times Square throughout the 20th Century. After all, the neighborhood has always been a place where boundaries could be pushed and broken and a place for showing off and making a statement. In one form or another, the Crossroads of the World has always been a crossroads of desire and an intersection of commerce and sex. While the seedy, dangerous and exploitive manifestation of sex in Times Square is thankfully a thing of the past, this neighborhood remains a place where desire and design are always on display - and National Underwear Day is no exception.

A MARCH THROUGH TIMES SQUARE'S UNDERWEAR HISTORY!

1915 - The Midnight Frolic

In 1915, Florenz Zeigfeld created a companion piece to his legendary Ziegfeld Follies. The Midnight Frolic, staged on the glamourous roof of the New Amsterdam theater, was the pinnacle of contemporary Times Square nightlife. The "garden" featured a glass ramp leading up to a glass parapet lining three walls; once the girls in their narrow, clinging dresses had ascended to the parapet, their undergarments could be plainly seen from below.

947 - Miss Youth Form

Miss Youth Form, a 60' tall size 14 (10 in today's sizes) woman was the subject of a 100-foot wide neon sign created by Artkraft-Strauss in 1947. The sign informed passers-by for the next five years that Miss Youth Form was, in fact, "The Aristocrat of Slips". Neon overlays were used to make the image appear to "walk" when the words "Cannot Ride Up" were illuminated.

Artkraft Strauss built 300 mini-versions of the sign to be used as point-of-purchase displays in stores, but the original was perched atop the Brill Building on 49th and Broadway. The company she represented is long since out of business and forgotten.

1948 - Bond's Clothing Store Sign

The last and arguably greatest masterpiece created by Douglas Leigh, the legendary designer of Times Square spectaculars, was the sign mounted atop the Bond Clothing Store in 1948. The block-long, 90-foot sign featured fifty-foot high plaster casts or heroically-proportioned nudes (male and female) draped in golden neon togas. The statues were originally posted on either side of a real waterfall (27' high, 132' across).

1980s - Calvin Klein

"I drive down Broadway every day to my studio, and I purposely have the Calvin Klein billboard arranged in Times Square so I can see them."

-Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein is not shy about pushing the envelope when it comes to advertising. He has mounted giant billboards in Times Square featuring chiselled male models wearing only stark white briefs.

In 1982 Calvin Klein unveiled his iconic white brief billboard in Times Square, forever changing underwear's advertising identity. Calvin Klein continued to break new ground in 1992 when ads for his new men's boxer briefs - modeled by then It-Boy "Marky" Mark Wahlberg - also graced Times Square billboards. Other companies soon followed suit - from Jockey to Wonderbra to Maidenform to Diesel - and soon Times Square became more well-known for its underwear billboards than the seedy XXX marquees that preceded them during the '70s.

1990s - Eva and Friends

Other notable moments in Times Square's underwear history include the 2,800 square foot billboard of Eva Herzigova modeling the Wonderbra in 1994. In 1995, Joe Boxer launched the world's first "interactive" electronic billboard in Times Square - the 6,000 square foot "Zipper" - which displayed email addresses delivered to their site. All of these examples add up to the vital contribution underwear has made to the economic development of New York City.

2000 - The Naked Cowboy

In 2000, a more guerilla approach to underwear visibility was starting to emerge in Times Square. Robert John Burck, an exhibitionistic body builder wearing just a cowboy hat, white briefs and a guitar, began making daily appearances as the Naked Cowboy during the warm weather months.

2003 - National Underwear Day

In 2003, Freshpair founded National Underwear Day and on a steamy day in August, paraded male and female models clad in the latest underwear fashions to high-profile spots around New York City including, of course, Times Square. Every August since then, Freshpair's underwear models have created a fun presence in Times Square - promoting and celebrating underwear retail and advertising culture, delighting commuters and tourists (and encouraging them to join in), and gathering data regarding people's underwear preferences and purchases.

2007 - The Fourth Annual National Underwear Day

Lacey unmentionables return in force to the Crossroads of the World.

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