Underwear: A Brief History

Minnesota History Center, St. Paul

Through Sept. 11

Boxers or briefs? asked Tatiana Craine in the Minneapolis City Pages. Either way, the Minnesota History Center’s illuminating “trip through ‘unmentionable’ times” has got you covered—“whether you’re interested in the metamorphosis from corsets to bras, the precursor to Spanx,” or simply what exactly “was ‘under there’ decades ago.” The star in this provocative peek at “the skivvies of yore” is Munsingwear, a Minneapolis-based knitting firm that from the late-19th century defined the cutting edge of undies innovation. Indeed, itchy undergarments were the bane of a man’s existence until George Munsing patented a technique for plating silk onto wool. Throughout most of the next century—until the factory closed in 1981—Munsingwear was instrumental in ushering in underwear’s eventual transformation from “pure functionality to true fashion statements.”

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The more out-there the better, said Kristin Tillotson in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Highlights of the exhibit include Munsingwear’s “wildly patterned” bra-and-panty sets from the ’60s and “a sort of paleo–Wonder Bra from 1930 sporting some serious cone-shaped cups, dense enough to stop a bullet.” The company also took undergarment marketing to risqué heights. In the 1800s, “showing live models in underwear was unthinkable, even if they were covered head to toe in long johns.” Munsingwear was the first to try it, albeit “in wholesome family settings,” and sure enough, sales took off. Ironically, a few of its mid-20th-century ad campaigns might make modern audiences blush. “Some are laughably suggestive by today’s standards, including one that shows two men wrestling in nothing but tight briefs, with the tagline ‘Let’s get down to business.’”