Once, they were known as unmentionables, and it only mattered that they were clean. You never knew, after all, when you might be knocked down by a bus.

曾经，人们羞于谈论它，对它的唯一要求就是干净——因为你不知道自己什么时候会被公交车撞倒。

“When we were young, you would never show your underwear,” the designer Tommy Hilfiger said recently, referring to an era when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. “Now, if you don’t show your underwear, you’re just not cool.”

前不久，时装设计师汤米·希尔费格(Tommy Hilfiger)说：“我们年轻时，永远不会给别人看你的内裤。”他指的是德怀特·D·艾森豪威尔(Dwight D. Eisenhower)当总统的那个时期。“现在，如果你不展示自己的内裤，别人会认为你不够酷。”

Mr. Hilfiger was marking one of those shifts in the culture that lurch along with a tectonic jolt. For generations, American men who were raised wearing generic boxers or Jockeys purchased in three-packs expended little thought or time or post-tax income on the foundation garments worn beneath their outerwear. The whole point of skivvies seemed to be encapsulated in the name given to the category under which they were sold: intimates.

希尔费格谈到的是社会文化中突然发生的重大变化之一。无数代美国男人都是穿着没有牌子的三条装平角裤或乔基三角裤(Jockey)长大的，他们几乎没有在里面穿的基础内衣上花过什么心思、时间或税后收入。以前，男士内衣这个概念似乎是包含在贴身内衣这个更大的销售门类下面的。

That was before Justin Bieber, of course, before sexting and saggers and artfully lighted, half-clad Snapchat selfies. It was before baldly erotic videos of Rafael Nadal popped up on smartphones or monitors in advertisements depicting one of the world’s top tennis players doing a locker-room striptease in Mr. Hilfiger’s new line of sexy boxer briefs — images that even five years ago may have been flagged as NSFW.

当然，那是在贾斯汀·比伯(Justin Bieber)之前，是在发送性感短信和穿低腰裤露出内裤之前，是巧妙打光的半裸自拍照出现在Snapchat上之前。那是在拉斐尔·纳达尔(Rafael Nadal)非常魅惑的更衣室脱衣挑逗视频突然出现在智能手机或电脑显示器上之前。那个视频是这位顶级网球运动员为希尔费格新的性感平角紧身内裤系列拍摄的广告。这样的视频就算在五年前还会被列为“少儿不宜”。

It was also before a trend (most likely inaugurated by Calvin Klein in the prehistory of Marky Mark) that gained considerable momentum over the last dozen years, that of offering so-called premium underwear for men. “Underwear is where jeans were 20 years ago,” Mr. Hilfiger said. “It’s the new denim.”

那也是在给男人们提供所谓的优质内裤这股潮流（它很可能是马克·沃尔伯格[Marky Mark]早期为卡尔文·克莱恩[Calvin Klein]拍摄的广告引领起来的）兴起之前。近十多年，这股潮流势头大涨。希尔费格说：“如今的内裤就像20年前的牛仔裤。它是新的牛仔裤。”

Proof of that assertion can be found on The Underwear Expert, a startlingly comprehensive website dedicated to researching, testing, reviewing and even curating for sale underpants culled from the nearly 600 labels now crowding the field.

你可以在The Underwear Expert网站找到这一论断的证据。这家网站专门研究、测试、评价甚至策划销售内裤，内容十分全面。那些内裤是从目前挤满市场的近600个品牌中挑选出来的。

“The options out there are what make men’s underwear a really interesting category,” said Michael Kleinmann, the site’s founder. “It’s not just three packs from Walmart or something out of the back of a catalog anymore.”

该网站的创始人迈克尔·克莱因曼(Michael Kleinmann)说：“现在市场上的男士内裤品牌非常多，它变成了一个非常有趣的门类。它不再只是沃尔玛(Walmart)的三条装内裤，也不再只是从属于某个门类。”

Jostling for a position in the retailing “white space” of an apparel category little altered for decades are niche labels like Sunspel, Handvaerk, Hanro, Tani, Zimmerli, Naked, Under and Les Lunes.

几十年来，这个服装门类几乎没有什么变化。现在，很多专门的内裤品牌在争夺这个零售“空白地带”，比如Sunspel，Handvaerk，Hanro，Tani，Zimmerli，Naked，Under，以及Les Lunes。

Priced in a broad range from $24.99 (the figure at which men’s underpants are considered “premium”) to the $470 the French luxury-goods house Hermès charges for a pair of woven boxers are briefs whose virtues are sometimes described in terms better suited to the aerospace than the apparel industry.

男士内裤的定价范围很广，从24.99美元（这个价位的男士内裤被认为是“优质的”）到470美元。后者是法国奢侈品公司爱马仕(Hermès)给一条编织平角内裤的定价。形容这些内裤优点的用语更像是来自航空航天业，而非服装业。

Relative newcomers like Mack Weldon and the Eighth now offer well-constructed though low-key products pitched online to a prosperous imaginary Everyman. Indie labels like Bear Skn, started in 2014 with $56,000 in seed money raised on Kickstarter, offers premium underwear in sizes as large as 4XL because, as Jody Koenig, a founder of the label, explained, “There was nothing out there for bigger guys to make them feel sexy or hot.”

Mack Weldon和Eighth等比较新的品牌现在供应裁剪精致而低调的产品，在网上的营销定位是想象中的富裕的普通人。Bear Skn是2014年通过在Kickstarter筹集的5.6万美元创立的独立品牌，它提供最大为4XL的优质内裤，因为就像它的创始人乔迪·凯尼格(Jody Koenig)说的：“市场上没有给大体格男人准备的性感内裤”。

Some, like Marco Morante, the designer of Marco Marco, a label whose gender-various fashion shows were a surprise hit of the recent Los Angeles Fashion Week, happened into the category almost accidentally after viewers of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” where Mr. Morante was doing costume design, started clamoring for the briefs he designed for the show’s pneumatic Pit Crew hunks.

Marco Marco的设计师马尔科·莫兰特(Marco Morante)是偶然进入这个门类的。在担任《鲁保罗变装皇后秀》(RuPaul’s Drag Race)的服装设计师期间，他为健壮性感的修理工设计的内裤得到观众赞扬，从而进入这个领域。前不久，该品牌的多性别时装秀成为洛杉矶时装周(Los Angeles Fashion Week)上的黑马。

“We’ve kind of done everything we can do in women’s fashion,” Mr. Morante said. “Men’s is a blank slate because we’re working with concepts that are 50 years old or more.”

莫兰特说：“在女装方面，我们几乎什么都试过了。而男装是个白板，我们采用的仍是50年前的概念。”

Technological advances have resulted in briefs that now seem less designed than engineered to aerate, separate, wick, deodorize and adjust body temperature or battle microbes with antibacterial silver filament added to their weaves.

现在的内裤更多的不在于样式设计，而在于技术创新，比如透气、干爽、吸汗、除臭、调节体温，或者通过在织物中加入抗菌银丝而达到抗菌效果。

That men now increasingly purchase underwear for themselves, rather than relying as in the past on women to make their unglamorous utilitarian purchases, “kind of shows were we are as a country,” Mr. Kleinmann said.

克莱因曼说，现在越来越多的男人自己挑选内裤，而不是像过去那样，由女人来购买那些单调实用的内裤，“间接地反映出我们国家的现状。”

At the very least, it demonstrates changes in the way men shop. “Guys are shopping differently now, much more like women,” said Marshal Cohen, chief retailing analyst at the NPD Group, a market research company in New York. “The women’s market is not growing in the intimates business,” he added. Women, on the other hand, now account for the majority of electronics purchases.

这至少反映出男人购物习惯的变化。纽约市场调查公司恩帛源集团(NPD Group)的首席零售分析师马歇尔·科恩(Marshal Cohen)说：“男人们现在的购物方式更像女人。而女装市场的内衣部分没有增长。”从另一方面讲，女人现在是网购的主体。

“In the past, 75 percent of underwear purchases were women buying for men,” Mr. Cohen said. “Now, that’s more like 25 percent. In the past, the most significant decision a guy had to make was prints or solids, boxers or briefs.” The proliferation of new labels, he said, had spurred a solid sales uptick in a market that reached $2.7 billion in 2014.

科恩说：“过去，75%的男士内裤是女人买给男人的；现在，这个比例大约是25%。过去，男人们只需要决定要印花还是纯色，要平角裤还是三角裤。”他说，大量新品牌的出现刺激了销售的不断增长，2014年男士内裤的总销售额达27亿美元。

“Guys are now very comfortable being part of the fashion equation,” Mr. Cohen said. “Every part of what we wear has now become a part of image-building. That includes shoes, your socks, your pants and your underwear.”

科恩说：“现在，男人们非常愿意成为时尚界的一部分。现在我们的所有服饰都成为形象塑造的一部分，包括鞋子、袜子、裤子和内裤。”

When the rapper and entrepreneur Curtis Jackson III, perhaps better known as 50 Cent, was casting about for ways to augment a portfolio that included investments in vodka, energy drinks and an equity stake in Vitaminwater, he set his sights on premium underwear.

说唱歌手、企业家柯蒂斯·杰克逊三世（Curtis Jackson III，他的艺名50美分[50 Cent]更为人所知）在考虑扩大投资（他已经投资了伏特加和能量饮料，并拥有Vitaminwater的股权）时，把目光投向了优质内裤。

Teaming up with Frigo, a premium underwear brand developed by Mathias Ingvarsson, the Swedish entrepreneur who helped transform Tempur-Pedic from a no-name mattress brand into a global powerhouse, Mr. Jackson last December helped close an $80 million licensing deal for a brand apparently pitched at the so-called urban market. (Fellow investors include Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks and the music producer Timothy Mosley, known as Timbaland.)

去年12月，杰克逊和优质内裤品牌Frigo签订了8000万美元的授权协议（其他投资人包括纽约尼克斯队[New York Knicks]的卡尔梅洛·安东尼[Carmelo Anthony]和音乐制作人蒂莫西·莫斯利[Timothy Mosley，艺名Timbaland]）。Frigo显然是针对所谓的城市市场，它是瑞典企业家马赛厄斯·英瓦松(Mathias Ingvarsson)开发的。英瓦松曾帮助把泰普尔(Tempur-Pedic)从一个不知名的床垫品牌变成一个全球知名企业。

“It’s about men being more conscious of themselves and feeling like they deserve more,” said Mr. Jackson, who added that, until not long ago, his underwear of choice was basic white Jockeys. “My grandmother always said, ‘If you wear white underwear, your underwear will tell you when to change it.’”

杰克逊说：“现在男人们更在意自己，感觉自己应该得到更多。”他补充说，不久之前，他的内裤都还是白色基本款乔基裤，“我奶奶总是说，‘如果你穿白色内裤，它会告诉你什么时候该换了’”。

The marketing of Frigo tends to favor innovation over style as a way to lure consumers to a product that costs up to $100 a pair. Like the patented AussieBum Wonderjock, or the SAXX Vibe “articulated contour pouch,” or 2UNDR’s “Joey Pouch,” or the “keyhole comfort pouch” made by the label MyPakage, Frigo briefs also feature a patented interior pouch designed to lift and display a man’s anatomical endowment to maximum benefit. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Frigo pouch was devised by an inventor who once won a contest to design a Tempur-Pedic pillow.

Frigo的市场营销是通过强调技术创新（而非时尚）来吸引顾客购买售价高达100美元一条的内裤。就像澳洲雄风(AussieBum)拥有专利技术的Wonderjock，或SAXX牌内裤Vibe版“展现轮廓的小袋”，或2UNDR的“幼兽袋”，或MyPakage的“锁孔舒适袋”，Frigo的三角裤也有专利内袋，设计目的是提升并令男子性征得以最佳展现。设计Frigo内袋的发明家曾赢得了一场设计泰普尔枕头的竞赛，这也许不是巧合。

Packaged masculinity is nothing new, according to Edwina Ehrman, a curator of textiles and fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where “Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear” is slated to open in the spring. “Think about the codpiece,” said Ms. Ehrman, referring to the genital-enhancing pouches favored by European gentlemen of the Renaissance, some of which resemble the pommel of saddle or else a bike seat. “It was absolutely kind of out there, this really extraordinary display of masculine power and virility, decorated with bows and ribbons and flourishes.”

伦敦维多利亚与艾伯特博物馆(Victoria and Albert Museum)即将在明年春季举办“脱下衣服：内裤简史”展(Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear)。该博物馆的纺织品和时装策展人埃德温娜·埃尔曼(Edwina Ehrman)说，装饰男子性征不是什么新鲜事，“你想想下体盖片”——她指的是文艺复兴时期受到欧洲绅士青睐的提升阳具的小袋，有的形似马鞍前鞍桥，有的形似自行车座——“展示男性力量和特质的方式以前肯定有，比如装饰蝴蝶结、丝带和花饰”。

Even the anatomical disclosures so routinely worked into the sexting era have historical antecedents, she said. “At the end of the 18th century, there were these incredibly skin-tight buckskin breeches that men wore that show absolutely every curve,” Ms. Ehrman said.

埃尔曼说，甚至连发送性感短信年代经常出现的性征暴露也有历史渊源，“在18世纪末，男人们喜欢穿那种不可思议的紧身鹿皮马裤，所有的线条都暴露无遗”。

What has changed, she said, is how the boom in premium underwear parallels another phenomenon rooted squarely in 21st-century solipsism. “Every aspect of how you present yourself is now important,” she said, to the merchandising of one’s individual brand.

她说，与那时不同的是，优质内裤的兴旺与另一个完全植根于21世纪唯我论的现象齐头并进。她说，“如今你外在形象的各个方面”对个人品牌塑造“都很重要”。

Seated in their garment district showroom last week, the designers Parke Lutter and Ronen Jehezkel awaited the arrival of a group of young hopefuls auditioning for an event to celebrate the debut of a collection of high-end Parke & Ronen underwear.

上周，设计师帕克·卢特尔(Parke Lutter)和罗嫩·杰赫科尔(Ronen Jehezkel)坐在服装区他们的展厅里，准备从一批年轻有志者中挑选合适的模特，参加帕克&罗嫩(Parke & Ronen )一个高端内裤系列的发布活动。

The designers, who, starting in 1997, carved out a solid niche in a once fusty and now booming category, men’s swimwear, overcame their initial hesitance to enter a field dominated by designers like Mr. Hilfiger when customers expressed their desire for underwear, Mr. Lutter said, “that fit well, was made from good materials, was clean and athletic but sexy.”

从1997年，这两位设计师在曾经死气沉沉而今十分兴旺的男装市场中开拓了一个重要的细分市场：男士泳衣。当顾客们表达出对内裤的需求时，他们克服最初的犹豫，进入这个由希尔费格等设计师主导的领域。卢特尔说：顾客们想要“裁剪合体、面料优良、简洁动感且性感”的内裤。

What persuaded them was the resounding chorus of friends who referred to the duo’s frankly sexy runway presentations as “the Victoria’s Secret show for men,” along with the recognition that their client base — as represented by the young models slouching outside the showroom — had undergone a generational shift.

朋友们对这个二人组合非常性感的内衣秀大加赞赏，称它是“维多利亚的秘密(Victoria’s Secret)内衣秀的男士版”，这更是让他们下定了决心。另外一个原因是，他们发现，客户群已经经历了代次变迁，目前的客户代表是展厅外的那些懒洋洋的年轻模特们。

More than two decades after the term “metrosexual” was coined as a catchall for a new breed of consumer, men have eased into their role as the object of other people’s gaze. “Social media really put the skin out there,” said Seth Wilkerson, a 24-year-old model who was at the Parke and Ronen audition, and the designers readily seconded the opinion.

20多年前，“都市型男”(metrosexual)这个词被造出来，形容新一代顾客。如今，男人们已经慢慢习惯成为他人注视的对象。24岁的模特塞思·威尔克森(Seth Wilkerson)来参加帕克和罗嫩的模特挑选。他说：“社交媒体真的让人们开始公开暴露自己的身体。”两位设计师十分赞同他的观点。

“Look, you could put the sexy pictures on the web and do it in your three-pack BVDs,” Mr. Jehezkel said. “But let’s face it, you’re not going to get as many likes.”

杰赫科尔说：“你知道，你可以把自己穿着三条装内裤的性感照片放在网上。不过，说实话，那样你得到的赞就少多了。”