How Low Can You Go?

Flash-forward about five years. The power coupling of the thong and the low-cut jean came down with a severe case of overexposure. In keeping with the backlash that most big trends experience, fickle designers got sick of seeing everyone's straps. "Jeans had been cut all the way down to the pubic bone," says Gillian Proctor, program leader for contour fashion at De Montfort University in the United Kingdom and coauthor of A Century of Style: Lingerie. "There was no place for the waistband to go but up." Suddenly, if your thong was showing, it meant it was time for you to update your denim to one of the new higher-rise styles.

And for those of us whose thong addiction had more to do with banishing VPLs than keeping up with fashion, an alternative popped up: NVPLs, the industry-wide acronym for undies with no visible pantie lines. Available in styles ranging from standard briefs to boy shorts, NVPLs are made with ultrathin fabric (usually mesh) and cut with a laser, a technique that melts the material so that the edge has a smooth, seamless finish. This ensures that it's invisible under even your tightest pencil skirts or bandage dresses.

The fact that the one advantage the thong had over all other styles of underwear has now been completely eliminated puts a major, er, crack in the thong's appeal.

Unleash Those Cheeks

Like Monica and Britney, a huge contingent of thong fans loved that the minimalist look was considered so sexy. But another saucy style is gaining ground as the undie with the most erotic allure: The butt-hugging boy short (with or without NVPL technology) is the new craze. "Sales of our boy shorts are more than double our thong sales," says Ali Mejia, creative director and cofounder of Eberjey, a lingerie line sold at Shopbop and Saks Fifth Avenue. Guido Campello, vice president of branding and innovation for lingerie line Cosabella, confirms the trend: "Our boy short is our fastest-selling item," he says, "and women have told us guys absolutely love it."

No doubt, male fans appreciate the fact that boy shorts make our asses look so amazing. Let's face it, unless you're blessed with Gisele�like DNA, it's likely that a string bisecting your backside wasn't doing your figure any favors. Most boy shorts have a seam running down the middle of the butt, which accentuates the curvature of the bum for any body, giving the illusion of a Kardashian�style keister, says Campello. And even seamless boy shorts enhance your bootyliciousness by exposing the very bottoms of your cheeks. "For a man, seeing that part of the buttocks is a great turn-on," says Daniel G. Amen, MD, author of Sex on the Brain. "His mind wants to fill in the rest of the picture."

The final thing the boy short has going on that the thong doesn't? It doesn't give you a permanent wedgie �" it's actually comfortable. And can we just say boo-yah to that?


Read more: Boy Shorts Trend - Cosmopolitan