Briefs
snug-fitting underpants with leg openings
Briefs (or a brief) are a type of short, form-fitting underwear and swimwear, as opposed to styles where material extends down the thighs. Briefs have various different styles, usually with a waistband attached to fabric that runs along the pelvis to the crotch and buttocks, and are worn by both men and women. Swim briefs are a variation used as swimwear.
History
Men's classic briefs were first sold on January 19, 1935, by Coopers, Inc. (now known as Jockey International), in Chicago, Illinois, at Marshall Field's department store. They dubbed the new undergarment the "Jockey", because it offered a similar degree of support as the jockstrap (one style of which is also called "jock briefs" or "support briefs"). The designer of the style was reportedly inspired by a postcard he had received from a friend visiting the French Riviera depicting a man in a very short, form-fitting bathing suit. Within three months of their introduction, 30,000 pairs were sold. In the United Kingdom, briefs were first sold in 1938. Shortly afterward, shops were selling 3,000 pairs of briefs per week.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Briefs” is snug-fitting underpants with leg openings. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Briefs, snug-fitting and underpants, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6582103. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1935 and 1938.
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This entry incorporates text from “Briefs” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.