Stretchy Fabric

This thong is made of two new-born materials that became mass produced in the mid 20th century - nylon and spandex. Nylon gradually came in use during the 1930s to compete with Japanese cheap fabrics. It was first used in military parachutes, which had demanding requirements of elasticity. Spandex, on the other hand, flourished from the 1950s onward.

The most important feature of these new materials was their elasticity and durability. For the thong, both features were key: it was designed to show more skin while liberating the body, allowing it free movement. The only downside of the artificially dense fabrics was their relatively low breathability, which could not compete with natural materials.

Another advantage of nylon and spandex was their production cost. Compared with natural production processes such as harvesting from silkworm cocoons or cotton plants in a particular season, synthetic polymers are made from petroleum. This allows for stable quality in standardized mass production processes, which in turn made these fabrics more affordable and thus more popular (fig. 2). Both materials were produced by the famous American chemical company DuPont, whose textiles industry was very profitable.

During the 1980s, thongs were even worn on stage by pop stars such as Cher (video 1) and Madonna, popularizing them even further. In the 1990s, the thong began to gain wide popularity in the United States as underwear (and, to a lesser extent, as swimwear), especially for women. In the early-2000s, thongs made up 31% of women's underwear market.