In 1974, despite uproar from local residents, Los Angeles decided to ban all nude beaches. During one council meeting, in front of a crowd of 400 people, one man marched up to the chief of police, shed all his clothes, and boomed, “Is this lewd!?” One woman in favour of the ban claimed that there was “nudity all over the beaches,” as reported in the New York Times. “A great number of people were offended and felt they couldn’t go.”
Luckily, Austrian fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, who had moved to LA at 16, came up with a solution to the nudity ban: he invented the thong. A small strip of stretch fabric for both men and women that could be worn as swimwear or underwear, leaving both buttocks fully exposed.
Over the past 50 years, the thong’s popularity amongst women has remained fairly consistent. But with men, it’s had a harder time breaking into the mainstream. While briefs and budgie smugglers dominate the men’s underwear industry, the thong is yet to get its moment in the spotlight. There was a fleeting appearance on the runway with Tom Ford’s infamous Gucci g-string in 1997, but otherwise, it has patiently been waiting on the sidelines for its grand return to high fashion.
Belgian designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin is campaigning for its reintroduction. Today (July 2), the designer has relaunched his swimwear line with a brand new, ultra-hot campaign, photographed by Stuart Winecoff (coincidentally, the director of photography for Troye Sivan’s “Rush” music video).
Tom Ford's Gucci g-string, menswear SS97Photo by Davide Maestri/Penske Media via Getty Images
Never one to shy away from sex appeal, this isn’t de Saint Sernin’s first foray into itty bitty bottoms. In 2019, the designer launched his first underwear campaign, featuring his staple eyelet briefs and jockstraps, too. Then came his debut swimwear line in 2020 and a women’s swim line the following year. After a brief (get it?) hiatus, de Saint Sernin is officially back and ready to hit the pool.
Following the pattern of his previous campaigns, today’s images are photographed at Fire Island, a destination famous for being a gay paradise. Captured at 231 Bay Walk, within the hamlet of Fire Island Pines, sweat-soaked models are pictured tugging at their briefs and making eyes at one another in the sauna. Europe may be recovering from a heatwave right now, but de Saint Sernin has us hot under the collar all over again.
See all the images by clicking through the gallery above.