Influences on choice as a youngster

[JohnnyB]

Hello all

I stumbled on to this blog and then the forum only a few days ago, but have spent a lot of time reading through all the posts since... and it's made me think through things about myself that I've just accepted and never considered.

The biggest thing (which I already knew!) is that I wear bikini and thong underwear, the skimpier the better.

But what influenced me to do that?

As I mention elsewhere on the forum, my Dad wore similar things. He 'normalised' it for me: he never wore anything with a side strap wider than 1", and generally just string bikinis. I know he slept naked, and didn't bother getting dressed to use the bathroom in the night, but always wore briefs to come down to breakfast after a shower and before getting ready for work. I'm racking my brains, but I can't recall any changes to the pattern, even if someone was staying.

He was comfortable, inside or outside. When he decorated the house inside, he did it in underwear because the clean-up was easier. Gardening was often done in swim-briefs if the sun was shining, and I even remember him up a ladder painting the window frames clad only in swim-briefs... and nobody ever seemed to bat an eyelid.

My Mum 'normalised' it by buying me my first bikini underwear as an early teen-ager in the 1980s, without me even asking her to, and then not batting an eyelid at whatever I put in the laundry basket as the years went on. As I say elsewhere, I assume she thought it was time that I made the change to 'big boy underpants'.

I was about 20 when I left home (for the first time), and I was still in the pattern established by my Dad of eating breakfast in underwear, then getting dressed for work (as I write this, I question myself 'does that sound odd? All I can say is that it never felt uncomfortable!').

When I moved out I began by sharing a house with a couple of mates, and continued wandering about in my bikini's - it was normal to me. My mates never made a fuss - one of them did the same, although he wore boxer shorts - but the other mate eventually asked both of us to stop doing it when his girlfriend stayed over... but as it was both of us, and only when she was there, I never took it as a criticism of what I wore.

Girlfriends all knew what I wore, and my wife knew exactly what she was letting herself in for long before she married me, and none of them ever put up a fuss.

I remember once going on holiday to France as three couples, and I was laying out on the terrace sunning myself in a thong, and I overheard Ali talking to one of the other women in the kitchen - just a snippet - but it was along the lines of, 'Oh yeah, he'll always be the skimpiest-dressed one out there'. It was said matter-of-factly and with no hint of either disapproval or humour.

On the same holiday, we went to the local municipal pool, and I was the only one of the blokes allowed in, as my Kiniki swim-briefs matched their 'no shorts' policy: my two mates had to buy speedo's from the on-site shop, and, of course, wore them after that whenever we went swimming.

Bikini, thong, and g-string underwear are the only styles I own. If I'm going somewhere that modesty might be an advantage - through airport security, say, or one dire Outward Bounds 'team building' weekend of camping that comes to mind - then I generally wear my tanga briefs with the modest 1" elastic side straps.

I work an office job (pandemics allowing), which involves wearing a shirt and tie nearly every day, and I get a lot of confidence from knowing that under my suit I'm probably the best-dressed bloke in the room!

It's not a subject which I've ever given much thought to, as I said at the start: it's been normal life for me for ever.

I suppose my big question, the one I've been considering most, is: would I have turned out the same without it having been so unremarkable as a youngster?

I think I would probably have still ended up wearing skimpy stuff both then and now, but it would have been a lot harder along the journey, especially if I felt that I had to hide my choices as though ashamed of them.

Both of my parents are long dead, but if they were still here I'd be inclined to pick up the phone now and thank them both!

JohnnyB

[CrossfiThong]

Nice story JohnnyB
And really nice topic.
Well, my influence came from different places but definitely not my dads.
I’m from Mexico, when I was 8 or 10 years old around 2000, back in the late 90s on my country was really common watch the main male character in telenovelas wearing speedos in the beach or pool or some Other scenes there wear dressing up and wearing only a bikini or brief and while we (my mom and sister and I) were watching it they mess with me telling me to wear those skimpy undies, obviously because I was a child I got nervous and embarrassed. But definitely those skimpy undies called my attention.
Also my older cousins (around 5 years older than me) they wear bikinis and change on front of me with no embarrassing.

But my main influence was Jean-Claude Van Damme, he worn tinny bikinis and tight in his movies, that was amazing in my mind, he was really masculine, brave and sexy man, owning his body and his undies on those movie, he is a bad ass.

Well I was 12 or so and I decided ask my mom to get me a big boy underwear, My first was bikinis and after I got tanga brief, I got so nervous because I thought my mates on school could see my type of underwear. Couple times my dad and mom brought me to the store to buy clothes for me and naturally I choose tanga briefs and bikinis, my dad got mad with me, he was asking me what was that? but I didn’t care, I still get them with me.

So one day when I was 16 I when to the supermarket by myself, and I saw my first thong, I bought it but was a really huge secret, I didn’t want anybody knows about it. Until in college I was wearing them more often, and now I’m 30 and I wear them everyday.

[TANGA TANGA]

Hello all

I stumbled on to this blog and then the forum only a few days ago, but have spent a lot of time reading through all the posts since... and it's made me think through things about myself that I've just accepted and never considered.

The biggest thing (which I already knew!) is that I wear bikini and thong underwear, the skimpier the better.

But what influenced me to do that?

As I mention elsewhere on the forum, my Dad wore similar things. He 'normalised' it for me: he never wore anything with a side strap wider than 1", and generally just string bikinis. I know he slept naked, and didn't bother getting dressed to use the bathroom in the night, but always wore briefs to come down to breakfast after a shower and before getting ready for work. I'm racking my brains, but I can't recall any changes to the pattern, even if someone was staying.

He was comfortable, inside or outside. When he decorated the house inside, he did it in underwear because the clean-up was easier. Gardening was often done in swim-briefs if the sun was shining, and I even remember him up a ladder painting the window frames clad only in swim-briefs... and nobody ever seemed to bat an eyelid.

My Mum 'normalised' it by buying me my first bikini underwear as an early teen-ager in the 1980s, without me even asking her to, and then not batting an eyelid at whatever I put in the laundry basket as the years went on. As I say elsewhere, I assume she thought it was time that I made the change to 'big boy underpants'.

I was about 20 when I left home (for the first time), and I was still in the pattern established by my Dad of eating breakfast in underwear, then getting dressed for work (as I write this, I question myself 'does that sound odd? All I can say is that it never felt uncomfortable!').

When I moved out I began by sharing a house with a couple of mates, and continued wandering about in my bikini's - it was normal to me. My mates never made a fuss - one of them did the same, although he wore boxer shorts - but the other mate eventually asked both of us to stop doing it when his girlfriend stayed over... but as it was both of us, and only when she was there, I never took it as a criticism of what I wore.

Girlfriends all knew what I wore, and my wife knew exactly what she was letting herself in for long before she married me, and none of them ever put up a fuss.

I remember once going on holiday to France as three couples, and I was laying out on the terrace sunning myself in a thong, and I overheard Ali talking to one of the other women in the kitchen - just a snippet - but it was along the lines of, 'Oh yeah, he'll always be the skimpiest-dressed one out there'. It was said matter-of-factly and with no hint of either disapproval or humour.

On the same holiday, we went to the local municipal pool, and I was the only one of the blokes allowed in, as my Kiniki swim-briefs matched their 'no shorts' policy: my two mates had to buy speedo's from the on-site shop, and, of course, wore them after that whenever we went swimming.

Bikini, thong, and g-string underwear are the only styles I own. If I'm going somewhere that modesty might be an advantage - through airport security, say, or one dire Outward Bounds 'team building' weekend of camping that comes to mind - then I generally wear my tanga briefs with the modest 1" elastic side straps.

I work an office job (pandemics allowing), which involves wearing a shirt and tie nearly every day, and I get a lot of confidence from knowing that under my suit I'm probably the best-dressed bloke in the room!

It's not a subject which I've ever given much thought to, as I said at the start: it's been normal life for me for ever.

I suppose my big question, the one I've been considering most, is: would I have turned out the same without it having been so unremarkable as a youngster?

I think I would probably have still ended up wearing skimpy stuff both then and now, but it would have been a lot harder along the journey, especially if I felt that I had to hide my choices as though ashamed of them.

Both of my parents are long dead, but if they were still here I'd be inclined to pick up the phone now and thank them both!

JohnnyB

Thanks for sharing those early memories. Your dad sounds like a cool guy who didn't seem to have any hang ups about his body.It makes perfect sense to me to wear as little as possible when gardening on a warm day(I've been known to wear a g-string when gardening or mowing the lawn),or painting window frames(I painted my garden shed while wearing a g-string),and sleeping naked(why undress only to put something else on)? Are you sure we aren't related?lol.

[JohnnyB]

Nice story JohnnyB
And really nice topic.
Well, my influence came from different places but definitely not my dads.
I’m from Mexico, when I was 8 or 10 years old around 2000, back in the late 90s on my country was really common watch the main male character in telenovelas wearing speedos in the beach or pool or some Other scenes there wear dressing up and wearing only a bikini or brief and while we (my mom and sister and I) were watching it they mess with me telling me to wear those skimpy undies, obviously because I was a child I got nervous and embarrassed. But definitely those skimpy undies called my attention.
Also my older cousins (around 5 years older than me) they wear bikinis and change on front of me with no embarrassing.

But my main influence was Jean-Claude Van Damme, he worn tinny bikinis and tight in his movies, that was amazing in my mind, he was really masculine, brave and sexy man, owning his body and his undies on those movie, he is a bad ass.

Well I was 12 or so and I decided ask my mom to get me a big boy underwear, My first was bikinis and after I got tanga brief, I got so nervous because I thought my mates on school could see my type of underwear. Couple times my dad and mom brought me to the store to buy clothes for me and naturally I choose tanga briefs and bikinis, my dad got mad with me, he was asking me what was that? but I didn’t care, I still get them with me.

So one day when I was 16 I when to the supermarket by myself, and I saw my first thong, I bought it but was a really huge secret, I didn’t want anybody knows about it. Until in college I was wearing them more often, and now I’m 30 and I wear them everyday.

Hello CrossFiThong - thanks for your reply. It seems like we had very different experiences growing up! I wonder if your Mum and sisters were teasing you because secretly they liked seeing that type of underwear when it was on the TV? I think more women like it than most men realise!

[JohnnyB]

Thanks for sharing those early memories. Your dad sounds like a cool guy who didn't seem to have any hang ups about his body.It makes perfect sense to me to wear as little as possible when gardening on a warm day(I've been known to wear a g-string when gardening or mowing the lawn),or painting window frames(I painted my garden shed while wearing a g-string),and sleeping naked(why undress only to put something else on)? Are you sure we aren't related?lol.

Hello Tanga Tanga - perhaps we ought to get DNA tests done, just in case one of us needs a kidney in later life?

And yes - the older I get, the more I realise that I had a cool Dad! I just assumed that everyone decorated in their underwear, and I still do it myself - it stops you getting sweaty, and it's so much easier to jump in the shower when you're finished without having to take off (m)any paint-flecked clothes.

I've never been up a ladder painting window frames in swim-brief's though! It's either one habit he didn't pass on, or that I pay someone else to do it for me because I don't like heights!

[David_NC]

JohnnyB - great topic, I've spent the past couple of days thinking about what influenced me. Like CrossfiThong, I remember seeing Jean Claude Van Damme in movies in his bikini underwear thinking how fit he was and how cool his underwear looked. My father always wore plain boxers - still does to this day. My brother wore boxers and eventually switched to boxer briefs. On shopping trips with my mom to JCPenney and KMart I remember seeing the mannequins in skimpy briefs and thinking they were cool, a lot cooler than the boring boxers I was wearing. My brother is older than me and I do recall one weekend that he and some college buddies came to stay at my parents house. One of the guys were changing clothes in my brothers room, I had to walk past to get to my room and I saw him in his bikini underwear as he got dressed; he was always a cool guy and a ladies man so to see him in underwear like that might be my first memory of a real life guy in bikini underwear. In the early 90s about the time I was 13 I finally got the nerve up and asked my mom to buy me some string bikinis from Kmart, she gave me a weird look but said okay whatever (I also got some wild colored boxers); I would wear the boxers on days I had to change out for gym class - I remember most of the guys wore boxers/boxer briefs with only maybe 2 guys wears plain white briefs. It was a thrill the other days of the week I wore my string bikinis. They were awesome and I wore them until they finally got holes and had to be trashed. My dad never made a negative comment about my underwear, but would ask are they comfortable and I would easily say yes sir.
I remember how super excited I was when I got my first Undergear catalog in the mail (how vintage does that sound lol); I picked out a few modest pair of bikinis then later ordered a few thongs. I also received the Prevail Sport catalog, but was never daring enough to order from them - and I kick myself about that now. I never heard of Kiniki until I found this group, I Googled vintage images and I see why so many here liked the brand - they were really nice looking and moderately priced - now though they do seem a bit bland compared to older models.
So circling back, I guess I really influenced myself; yes I saw my brothers college roommate, a movie star or two, and some mannequins - but no family member or friend that influenced me. It is special for those of you that had a family member to share the experience with so to speak, perhaps my son will follow in my footsteps and also wear bikini/thong underwear and if he doesn't that is his life.
JohnnyB, I apologize if this is being intrusive but with your father (and uncle to a degree) influencing both you and your brother, did either of you pass on the interest to your sons?

[JohnnyB]

Hello David_NC - thanks for sharing your story.

We seem to have started wearing bikini underwear at about the same age, although I guess that I'm about 10 years older than you. Back then, in the UK, boxer shorts hadn't really made their mark yet.

When I was getting changed for gym (or P.E. as we called it), most lads were wearing y-fronts - apart from the cool-and-sporty-types who wore bikini briefs (n.b. - I'm not claiming I was either sporty or cool!). Boxers and boxer-briefs are a surprisingly recent arrival (well, anything popularised after I was born is recent in my estimation!).

I wonder if there were any others in your school class who were happily wearing bikini underwear most days and just getting the boxers out for the changing room? There might have been a room full of you, if not for peer pressure!

Like you, I used to look forward to the catalogues arriving through the letter box - though mine were always Kiniki, as they were the only one's I knew of in the pre-internet days. I used to buy a lot from them, because the nearest big city with plenty of choice was a fair distance from where I lived - although when I was there shopping, there was plenty of choice in all the main-stream clothing shops.

There was an underwear stall on our local weekly market, although the quality was never quite the same. The stall carried some skimpy stuff - string bikinis with very narrow sides in nice bright colours - and I regularly bought a pair or two.

I'm glad that your dad never made any negative comments about your choices - and his questions about whether they were comfortable might indicate the early stages of him heading towards the world of skimpy and sane?

It's good that you started out on your journey without any direct influence from home. I'm glad that I did have the influence, but, like you, I think I'd have started whether-or-not. When your son reaches his teens, you could buy him some underwear as part of a birthday or Christmas present along with other things, and see if he starts wearing them... I suspect that if you don't make any fuss about it, he'll either accept it as a 'boring grown-up present' like getting a pair of socks, or as something he enjoys. You never know.

As for me and my brother: neither of us have children. I have nephews-in-law from before, and some Godsons, but I've no idea what they wear, except a couple of nephews follow that crazy fashion of having the top few inches of boxers showing above their jeans - one of the many fashions of youth that make no sense to me!

[JohnnyB]

... very hard to sleep when the sheets are giving you a boner!

Still, at least it would prevent you from rolling out of bed !

[TANGA TANGA]

... very hard to sleep when the sheets are giving you a boner!

Still, at least it would prevent you from rolling out of bed !

Also comes in handy when pitching a tent!

[JustSomeDude71]

What influenced me as a young teen, was my cousin. He was two years older than me (I was 11 and he was 13) and he wore bikini underwear. I had never seen any male wearing bikini briefs before that. Before that day, I just assumed that all men and boys wore Y-front briefs like I did.