Continuing with our St. Patrick's Day Irish extravaganza, we carry on with some non-nudes.
Jerry Sullivan, a model who posed extensively for Bruce of LA and AMG, is shown here,
but I have no photographer attribution for this particular photo.
Edited: See comments for photographer ID as AMG.
Edited: See comments for photographer ID as AMG.
Based on the striped underwear, I would guess that this is from AMG. They used that type of underwear a lot.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct.
ReplyDeletePerhaps contrary to popular history and the rather conservative men's fashions, the 1950s saw quite a few ranges of very brief, bikini styles of underwear for men with the introduction of nylon and other synthetic materials. The problem for the physique photographers was that the materials were often one-ply, very sheer and became transparent under studio lighting, contravening the very strict censorship laws of the day. As the body-building culture was the only safe vehicle to publish male physique erotica, standard posing trunks were often the only option. The manufacturers of the ubiquitous traditional white underwear, Jockey, launched their range of Jockey Skants - a conflation of "pants" and "skant" - in 1958, with a unique cross-over at the hip, a full seat and a triangular pouch which became an instant best-seller not only for their comfort but because they kept the family jewels safely in the bank when wearing the very much tighter, tapered trousers - a revival of the Edwardian cut - which did away with the pleats and turn-ups (cuffs) of the previous 30-odd years. Jockey Skants came in plain colours and candy stripes, in a four-way stretch nylon, were cheap, serviceable and quick-drying. By 1960, they were being produced under licence in Britain and Australia, their "sporty" image permitting the ever so butch straight man to get away with wearing a daring, bikini brief. Doubtless owing to popular demand, in 1964 Jockey restyled Skants, making it briefer still, reducing the amount of material so that the briefs were lower on the hip. As we are, of course, only interested in sartorial history, this picture of Jerry Sullivan is of him in the earlier, fuller cut, and so I would tentatively date this shoot to before 1964. Bob Mizer found that material and dyes used withstood studio lighting and so Jockey Skants were frequently used in his shoots prior to the relaxation of the nudity laws in published imagery. Because of their great popularity as a staple of most young men's wardrobes, it is difficult to say if he handed them out as props, but many of his models wore them, including most of the well-known and popular models in his, and other photographers stables. Jockey continued manufacturing the Skants range well into the 1980s and, in Europe, were used by a whole generation of athletes in place of the once-popular jockstrap.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. Thanks!
Delete