Here's an article from 1986 talking about bringing bikinis from Rio to America for resale....?where will the trend go?? https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-01-13-8601040211-story.html

Here's a piece about the history of the thong https://www.crfashionbook.com/fashion/g28354708/thongs-throughout-history/?slide=1

Here's a piece on mens minimal underwear https://www.erogenos.com/blogs/mens-g-string-underwear/g-string-for-men-a-brief-history

sailor250, Years ago, I used to talk to a guy who was always at Edgewater Park in Cleveland. He said that the rangers stopped giving citations for wearing thongs in '88, so the thong must have been worn at that beach for at least a year. The court system probably got sick of handling all the citations, so they just ignored the thongs from 1988 until it was legalized in 1994. (That was the only state park that would allow them on guys, as far as I know.) I started wearing one in '93 after first seeing some girls wearing them at the park nearer to me in 1991. I had no idea that such a thing existed as swimwear, so I got a late start. There were enough guys wearing them that I didn't feel like a fish out of water. And most of the women wearing them at Edgewater were extremely attractive. Great legs, etc. Even a few actual g-strings in the mix. I found it funny that people on vacation were shocked that we could wear thongs at a beach in Cleveland. They would ask if there were any stores that sold thongs because they hadn't packed their thong suits because they didn't think they were allowed.

I have been wearing thong swimsuits to the beach and ocean since 1978. At first not very publicly, but by the early 80's more publicly and with more confidence. At the start I made my own, but then discovered some stores in Fort Lauderdale had them. There were three stores that had men's thongs at a reasonable price. Other than when on manikins they did not have a good way to store them efficiently so at two of the stores the men's thongs were kept in a series of large bins which one was invited to rummage through. Back then the stores had changing booths so you could try them on. Also in the early 80's Dore was making both men's and women's thong suits and selling them at the annual Dania Marine Flea Market. That is where I first met Dore. The men's thongs were generally made from offcuts from the suits she made for women. This meant couples could often find matching thong swimsuits.

I remember reading that article in the Trib when it came out. My wife at the time said she might be interested in something like that but "we need pictures!"

I first saw men's thongs on my college campus. Women did not seem to be into it at this time, but there were a few men who wore them regularly when laying out to get some sun. This was 1976 and there were no comments either way. I later started going to Buck Creek state park in Ohio and again there were a few men's thong, but none on women. Again, they were accepted. I think many people thought they were odd, but Speedos were common at the time, and this was just another step from that look. Around 1970 a girlfriend from high school made me a couple of thongs so I could wear them at their in-ground pool. She and her sister had home made thongs but usually used the pool in the buff, but I was too shy to do so. She had won awards for some bikinis she made, but not for thongs. She made the thongs from left-over materials from the bkinis she made and gave or sold to a other girls in the area. I liked wearing mine and she and her sister encouraged me to wear thong at their pool, but her mom came out one day and told me that while they didn't mind me wearing a little swimsuit like that at their home, she did not reccomend wearing it in public. I did use it as underwear and sometimes would go hiking or to a few small swimming holes and wore it after taking other clothing off. Only my friends and about 10 other people saw me in a thong in two years time. I think they were just glad I was wearing something. It was years before I had enough confidence to wear a thong in a public and would wear Speedo's or skinny dipping with my friends, but not thong. Most teens where i grew up had no issues with shucking off their cut-offs (about the only thing they wore in the summer) and skinny dipping, and people accepted this as normal and never complained. I did order a thong mail order around the same time. By the late 1970's swim thongs were available mail order many places and also in the men's department at Fredrick's of Hollywood. As thongs got more popular on men, major swimwear makers like Speedo, Catalina, and Jantzen sold them too. Around 1973 I went to the apartment of a couple of young ladies who were going with me to a concert later that evening. They had some Playgirl magazines next to the couch and while the one who was home was getting ready in the bedroom, I thumbed through these magazines. She came out dressed for the concert and caught me looking at the magazines. She told me that it was perfectly normal for me to be looking and said a lot of guys liked to "check out the competion". (This was when most of the men in this magazine were normal guys, not men with huge anatomical endowments.) She pulled one of the magazines from the stack and opened it to a picture of a rear view of a man wearing a thong. "I like this look" she said as she showed me the picture. I had on a thong I had used earlier sunning at my parent's house and told the girl I was wearing a thong at the time. She said she wanted to see it, so I took my shirt and shorts off to show her. She really liked seeing me in a thong, and admitted that she had just bought some thong panties but didn't realize they were crotchless until she got home. She took off her tank top that I had been enjoying since she was not wearing a bra and then her jeans. Her underwear was indeed a thong and was crotchless. We were messing around in our thongs when her roomate came home. We put our cloths back on and went to the concert, but the next day she ask me to come over and lay out with her at the apartment pool. "Be sure to wear one of your cute swimsuits" she said, and I knew she was thinking "thong". We laid out and used the pool for several hours. The apartment manager came out but said nothing about our thongs. We wore thongs at this pool for about three years before she moved. She even talked one of the guys I hung out with into wearing thongs as swimwear. This was a big influence on me wearing my thongs more often and in public.

article about the history of G strings https://www.insidehook.com/article/style/7-things-you-never-knew-g-strings

Here's a piece about International Male a movie about the mail order catalog....where a lot of men in the 80's and 90's got their thongs and underwear https://easyreadernews.com/all-man-the-international-male-movie-story-male-order/

A piece about ancient Greek art male nudity....was it real life?? well not really butt they had "civic nudity"!! https://aeon.co/essays/why-are-men-seemingly-always-naked-in-ancient-greek-art

Another History of the Thong - Not badly written. https://www.thezoereport.com/fashion/evolution-of-the-thong

Gucci GG G string is 27 years old! 27 candles?? well my one candle is lit anytime I see one-- on! https://www.bustle.com/style/gucci-g-string-thong-1997

How was G string named? https://www.dailystar.co.uk/real-life/people-only-now-realising-thong-31817733?