Mentioning the Unmentionable
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
If a scantily clad model approaches you on the street tomorrow and asks you about your underwear, don’t credit your new cologne or those extra trips to the gym. Wednesday is National Underwear Day, according to online retailer www.freshpair.com, and models throughout Midtown will be talking undies with just about anyone.
It’s all in the name of celebrating skivvies. The models, aka “underwear ambassadors,” will poll passers-by on their preferences, hand out freebies, and promote prostate-cancer screenings. The new brand C-IN2 has set up mobile changing stations and will hand out a men’s brief called “the sling” to guys who are brave enough to try it on.
Some might wonder whether underwear needs to be promoted; after all, few of us go without it. But Fresh Pair and more than 10 co-sponsoring manufacturers, including Hugo Boss and Maidenform, insist that long johns and lingerie deserve a day in the sun. So they’ve set out to mention the unmentionables, with the hopes of selling them along the way.
After tomorrow, most of us will go back to forgetting our underclothes the moment they’re covered up, and Times Square will become a zone for the fully clothed again – except for the Naked Cowboy, of course.
