Looking in
Fig. 1 A thong of the kind found inside the packaging
The thong in this package, today kept in a museum collection, remains in its original packaging, allowing only a peek at what’s inside. In the 1970s, when this thong was sold, it was still somewhat controversial, although the thong already had a long history by then.
The thong, also called tanga, is a garment generally used as a swimsuit, later commonly used as underwear. The word thong is from Old English þwong, which means a flexible leather cord similar to its primary shape. From the front, the thong typically resembles a bikini bottom, but at the back the material is reduced to a minimum. Thongs come in various styles, such as the G-string, C-string and V-string etc. One of the earliest public appearances of the thong in the United States was at the 1939 New York World's Fair, which catered to the city's nude dancers who used it to cover themselves in response to the city’s laws on public nudity.