THONGS Skimpy undergarments eliminate pantylines

Stretch fabrics and clingy clothes have made the undies a necessity.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
In the halls of fashion infamy, one insidious faux pas ranks among the most egregious. Vilified through the ages by advocates of the smooth derriere, the dreaded ridge where underwear ends and skin begins, has even earned its own alert code: VPL
Visible pantyline.
It's unseemly. Indiscreet. Sloppy. It's the hallmark of a woman who doesn't know better or doesn't care -- either condition being incomprehensible to fashionistas.
Thank goodness for thongs.
A lot of women must be grateful, judging by the exploding number of thong styles and brands. Lingerie racks and bins overflow with them.
Although the thong renaissance began in the mid-'90s, this season's stretch fabrics and clingy clothes have made these skimpiest of undies a necessity.
"I don't know if I've taken to them," said Lisa Gagliardi, 39. Nevertheless, the Raleigh, N.C., resident purchased some thongs this year, bowing to fashion dictates.
"Certain styles of clothing require it just to avoid the pantylines," she says.
Those styles include the low-waisted, fitted pants that every designer seems smitten with. Ranging from curve-hugging to super-narrow to skintight, these pants skim the rear and hips, wreaking VPL havoc.
Gagliardi shopped last week at a Victoria's Secret store, where a row of marble white mannequin rear-ends, each cleaved by a colorful thong, decorated a window display.
Above them was the slogan: "What is sexy? Very sexy v-string." It's the ad campaign for the store's newest take on the thong -- a version with double hip strings that form a sort of V.
Beginning of string
That name harkens back to the G-string, predecessor of the thong, and in fact, pretty much the same garment.
"(Thongs) come from the G-string. That was really a Las Vegas stripper fashion," said Sandra Markus, assistant professor of fashion design at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology.
Frederick's of Hollywood, a pioneer scanty-lingerie chain for women other than strippers, started peddling the strings in the '40s and '50s.
Victoria's Secret pushed them further in the '80s. "They made it part of mass culture," Markus said. "It's moved down in age to where you really see young girls wearing them."
The thong's latest revival began in the mid-'90s with the advent of low-rise blue jeans, then low-rise slacks and skirts.
The style picked up more steam with the widespread use of Lycra and other stretchy microfibers that put a new emphasis on a woman's silhouette.
Sales are still strong. From August 2002 to July 2003, thong sales in the United States reached $610 million, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. That's up from the previous year's $570 million.
Still, not everyone is a fan.
"I hate thongs. I find them the most uncomfortable thing," said Kate Leser, a Raleigh-based personal consultant.
Marketing phenomenon
Leser believes shrewd marketing and the titillation factor helped make thongs a phenomenon. "Like the women in the '70s went braless, the women in the '90s went pantyhoseless," Leser said. "I have friends who wear nothing but thongs."
Donna Thornburg, of Raleigh, says that at 39, she's not willing to don her first thong. "I've never tried them but they look very uncomfortable," she said.
However, Chassity Miller, 21, takes a more measured approach.
"I think they're a necessity for the styles of today. You get used to them after a while," said the Raleigh resident. "And there are so many different kinds out there. They're not all rubber bands."
Kate Byers, 28, has been wearing thongs since college, purely "for functional reasons." When her outfit demands a creaseless rump, she steps into a thong.
"That's the only time I ever wear them." she says.