Keep in mind that "fashion" is a business and it is influenced largely by business people masqurading as experts or fashionistas as they call themselves. The bottom line is that fashion is out to sell you something!  Have you ever heard one of these people say "Keep wearing what you wore last year it's still in fashion"

In that regard since there are only so many original ideas for clothing and in general people's willingness to wear substantially more or less clothing than others around them there are boundries to what they can do to make something to sell you.

So these principles mean there are cycles in fashion that repeat themselves about every 30 years so that those younger people buying won't associated the latest trend with something they remember or still own.

The other day I saw an old movie on TV from about 1966 where the women were scantily dressed by those standards.  They wore tailored tank and halter tops and low slung, tight white pants, white thong sandals in the tropical setting.  The hairstyles and accessories as well as the clothes would fit in well at an affluent resort today. 

With one exception I was quick to notice!

The women's pants, though very fitted over the ass and thighs, were maybe slightly fuller through the crotch in back....or were they?  You guessed it!   That look was from the big shorts style underwear they had, a look now that allows the pants to tightly fit in the crack and crotch because of thong underwear.

Regarding swimwear the same cycles will prevail.  For women the one piece of the 50's went to the bikini in the 70's the string bikini in the 80's with a few thongs, then the boyshorts of the 90s (harking back to the transition of one piece to bikinis in the 60's with now more modern tighter materials) then now to the low slung bikinis and string bikinis of the 2000's.  Guess what's next on the cycle?  Yes thongs are next!

Take into account the familiarity of the fit and comfort (or false reputation of discomfort) now in place from widespread thong underwear sales, the trend toward comfort levels in less clothes and I think that the thong will become fashionable in the next 5 years for women.

The mens fashion trends are different because they are much slower to react to women's trends and men buy less clothes.  Then factor in a new issue in fashion sales:  Body size/shape of the average person!

For mens fashions this will be a big issue as not most, but MOST ALL American men are overweight or obese and swimwear fashion has no where to go but circus tents.

With that said the mens trends have gone away from long trunks to tight lycra shorts to bikinis now.  Look at the ads in women's magazines and in mens fashion magazines and you'll see speedo size suits regularly and it doesn't look like the women in the pictures are making fun of the "banana hammock on that guy"

Remember too that fashion trends and sales thrive on communication of the trends, just enough information to indicate to those who see themselves on the cutting edge---whether they be Vogue magazine editors or just well dressed big spending consumers.  So newspaper or on line articles about thong or minimal swimwear would really light the fire under the fashion swing toward thongs.

Can you imagine the response to an article like this in the New York Times, GQ or even the Miami Herald:

Tiny Men's Swimwear is Getting Big

You've maybe seen them in movies or on a tropical beach, the guy in a thong bathing suit.  Well the internet has been fueling a trend in this tiny swimwear for him, and suits smaller than some women would wear on the beach.  A South Florida seamstress working out of her home has become the world's best known swimwear maker of these tiny suits.............................................................  In Europe there are several on line makers....................

Men have been getting in shape lately and women have noticed this trend.............................  Men are grooming their entire bodies, shaving and waxing body hair................................The metrosexual man.................

Where do men wear these?  Well South Beach long known for women sunbathing topless and wearing thongs has more than its share of men fans..........................  Thong fan Bob Smith, a financial analyst from Manhattan comes to Key West each year...............................   Long thought of as only for gay men, thongs ....................

Holly Thomas a graduate student at UCLA recently sunbathing on Venice Beach said; "I think it's great men are getting to show off their shape........."