近500美元一條 奢侈品牌瞄準了男士內褲

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.

曾經，人們羞於談論它，對它的唯一要求就是乾淨——因爲你不知道自己什麼時候會被公交車撞倒。

“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，時裝設計師湯米·希爾費格(Tommy Hilfiger)說：“我們年輕時，永遠不會給別人看你的內褲。”他指的是德懷特·D·艾森豪威爾(Dwight D. Eisenhower)當總統的那個時期。“現在，如果你不展示自己的內褲，別人會認爲你不夠酷。”

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.

希爾費格談到的是社會文化中突然發生的重大變化之一。無數代美國男人都是穿着沒有牌子的三條裝平角褲或喬基三角褲(Jockey)長大的，他們幾乎沒有在裏面穿的基礎內衣上花過什麼心思、時間或稅後收入。以前，男士內衣這個概念似乎是包含在貼身內衣這個更大的銷售門類下面的。

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.

當然，那是在賈斯汀·比伯(Justin Bieber)之前，是在發送性感短信和穿低腰褲露出內褲之前，是巧妙打光的半裸自拍照出現在Snapchat上之前。那是在拉斐爾·納達爾(Rafael Nadal)非常魅惑的更衣室脫衣挑逗視頻突然出現在智能手機或電腦顯示器上之前。那個視頻是這位頂級網球運動員爲希爾費格新的性感平角緊身內褲系列拍攝的廣告。這樣的視頻就算在五年前還會被列爲“少兒不宜”。

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.”

那也是在給男人們提供所謂的優質內褲這股潮流（它很可能是馬克·沃爾伯格[Marky Mark]早期爲卡爾文·克萊恩[Calvin Klein]拍攝的廣告引領起來的）興起之前。近十多年，這股潮流勢頭大漲。希爾費格說：“如今的內褲就像20年前的牛仔褲。它是新的牛仔褲。”

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網站找到這一論斷的證據。這家網站專門研究、測試、評價甚至策劃銷售內褲，內容十分全面。那些內褲是從目前擠滿市場的近600個品牌中挑選出來的。

“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.”

該網站的創始人邁克爾·克萊因曼(Michael Kleinmann)說：“現在市場上的男士內褲品牌非常多，它變成了一個非常有趣的門類。它不再只是沃爾瑪(Walmart)的三條裝內褲，也不再只是從屬於某個門類。”

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.

幾十年來，這個服裝門類幾乎沒有什麼變化。現在，很多專門的內褲品牌在爭奪這個零售“空白地帶”，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.

男士內褲的定價範圍很廣，從24.99美元（這個價位的男士內褲被認爲是“優質的”）到470美元。後者是法國奢侈品公司愛馬仕(Hermès)給一條編織平角內褲的定價。形容這些內褲優點的用語更像是來自航空航天業，而非服裝業。

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等比較新的品牌現在供應裁剪精緻而低調的產品，在網上的營銷定位是想象中的富裕的普通人。Bear Skn是2014年通過在Kickstarter籌集的5.6萬美元創立的獨立品牌，它提供最大爲4XL的優質內褲，因爲就像它的創始人喬迪·凱尼格(Jody Koenig)說的：“市場上沒有給大體格男人準備的性感內褲”。

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的設計師馬爾科·莫蘭特(Marco Morante)是偶然進入這個門類的。在擔任《魯保羅變裝皇后秀》(RuPaul’s Drag Race)的服裝設計師期間，他爲健壯性感的修理工設計的內褲得到觀衆讚揚，從而進入這個領域。前不久，該品牌的多性別時裝秀成爲洛杉磯時裝週(Los Angeles Fashion Week)上的黑馬。

“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.”

莫蘭特說：“在女裝方面，我們幾乎什麼都試過了。而男裝是個白板，我們採用的仍是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.

現在的內褲更多的不在於樣式設計，而在於技術創新，比如透氣、乾爽、吸汗、除臭、調節體溫，或者通過在織物中加入抗菌銀絲而達到抗菌效果。

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.

克萊因曼說，現在越來越多的男人自己挑選內褲，而不是像過去那樣，由女人來購買那些單調實用的內褲，“間接地反映出我們國家的現狀。”

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.

這至少反映出男人購物習慣的變化。紐約市場調查公司恩帛源集團(NPD Group)的首席零售分析師馬歇爾·科恩(Marshal Cohen)說：“男人們現在的購物方式更像女人。而女裝市場的內衣部分沒有增長。”從另一方面講，女人現在是網購的主體。

“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.

科恩說：“過去，75%的男士內褲是女人買給男人的；現在，這個比例大約是25%。過去，男人們只需要決定要印花還是純色，要平角褲還是三角褲。”他說，大量新品牌的出現刺激了銷售的不斷增長，2014年男士內褲的總銷售額達27億美元。

“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.”

科恩說：“現在，男人們非常願意成爲時尚界的一部分。現在我們的所有服飾都成爲形象塑造的一部分，包括鞋子、襪子、褲子和內褲。”

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.

說唱歌手、企業家柯蒂斯·傑克遜三世（Curtis Jackson III，他的藝名50美分[50 Cent]更爲人所知）在考慮擴大投資（他已經投資了伏特加和能量飲料，並擁有Vitaminwater的股權）時，把目光投向了優質內褲。

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，傑克遜和優質內褲品牌Frigo簽訂了8000萬美元的授權協議（其他投資人包括紐約尼克斯隊[New York Knicks]的卡爾梅洛·安東尼[Carmelo Anthony]和音樂製作人蒂莫西·莫斯利[Timothy Mosley，藝名Timbaland]）。Frigo顯然是針對所謂的城市市場，它是瑞典企業家馬賽厄斯·英瓦松(Mathias Ingvarsson)開發的。英瓦松曾幫助把泰普爾(Tempur-Pedic)從一個不知名的牀墊品牌變成一個全球知名企業。

“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.’”

傑克遜說：“現在男人們更在意自己，感覺自己應該得到更多。”他補充說，不久之前，他的內褲都還是白色基本款喬基褲，“我奶奶總是說，‘如果你穿白色內褲，它會告訴你什麼時候該換了’”。

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的市場營銷是通過強調技術創新（而非時尚）來吸引顧客購買售價高達100美元一條的內褲。就像澳洲雄風(AussieBum)擁有專利技術的Wonderjock，或SAXX牌內褲Vibe版“展現輪廓的小袋”，或2UNDR的“幼獸袋”，或MyPakage的“鎖孔舒適袋”，Frigo的三角褲也有專利內袋，設計目的是提升並令男子性徵得以最佳展現。設計Frigo內袋的發明家曾贏得了一場設計泰普爾枕頭的競賽，這也許不是巧合。

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.”

倫敦維多利亞與艾伯特博物館(Victoria and Albert Museum)即將在明年春季舉辦“脫下衣服：內褲簡史”展(Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear)。該博物館的紡織品和時裝策展人埃德溫娜·埃爾曼(Edwina Ehrman)說，裝飾男子性徵不是什麼新鮮事，“你想想下體蓋片”——她指的是文藝復興時期受到歐洲紳士青睞的提升陽具的小袋，有的形似馬鞍前鞍橋，有的形似自行車座——“展示男性力量和特質的方式以前肯定有，比如裝飾蝴蝶結、絲帶和花飾”。

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.

埃爾曼說，甚至連發送性感短信年代經常出現的性徵暴露也有歷史淵源，“在18世紀末，男人們喜歡穿那種不可思議的緊身鹿皮馬褲，所有的線條都暴露無遺”。

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.

她說，與那時不同的是，優質內褲的興旺與另一個完全植根於21世紀唯我論的現象齊頭並進。她說，“如今你外在形象的各個方面”對個人品牌塑造“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.

上週，設計師帕克·盧特爾(Parke Lutter)和羅嫩·傑赫科爾(Ronen Jehezkel)坐在服裝區他們的展廳裏，準備從一批年輕有志者中挑選合適的模特，參加帕克&羅嫩(Parke & Ronen )一個高端內褲系列的發佈活動。

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.”

從1997年，這兩位設計師在曾經死氣沉沉而今十分興旺的男裝市場中開拓了一個重要的細分市場：男士泳衣。當顧客們表達出對內褲的需求時，他們克服最初的猶豫，進入這個由希爾費格等設計師主導的領域。盧特爾說：顧客們想要“裁剪合體、面料優良、簡潔動感且性感”的內褲。

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.

朋友們對這個二人組合非常性感的內衣秀大加讚賞，稱它是“維多利亞的祕密(Victoria’s Secret)內衣秀的男士版”，這更是讓他們下定了決心。另外一個原因是，他們發現，客戶羣已經經歷了代次變遷，目前的客戶代表是展廳外的那些懶洋洋的年輕模特們。

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)這個詞被造出來，形容新一代顧客。如今，男人們已經慢慢習慣成爲他人注視的對象。24歲的模特塞思·威爾克森(Seth Wilkerson)來參加帕克和羅嫩的模特挑選。他說：“社交媒體真的讓人們開始公開暴露自己的身體。”兩位設計師十分贊同他的觀點。

“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.”

傑赫科爾說：“你知道，你可以把自己穿着三條裝內褲的性感照片放在網上。不過，說實話，那樣你得到的贊就少多了。”