The G-string, which was often sequined and rhinestoned, was “a cultural marker of glamourous erotic entertainment,” says Jo Weldon, a burlesque historian and author of The Burlesque Handbook. “Non-professionals wore them for costumes or naughty private play, but generally not as underwear until Frederick's of Hollywood began to make a more wearable version of them available as underwear through their catalogs and stores.”
McKnight says that thongs remained a garment for salacious stage performances and images until the thong bikini of the late 1960s, when it entered modern style as beachwear. Then in the 1970s, Gorin-Paracka says, “The Austrian designer Rudi Gernreich popularized the thong for both men and women with his 1974 thong.” One of the thongs is now part of the Costume Institute at the Met Museum's permanent collection.
“Gernreich celebrated the body and broke down gender distinctions in clothing with his unisex designs, creating a unisex thong swimsuit that same year.” Gernreich was interested in erogenous zones, including the monokini (then a topless bathing suit that was famously worn by model Peggy Moffitt), and the pubikini, which Gorin-Paracka says, “was little more than a full panty with a low scoop front, which came with a green pencil and highlighter meant for the wearer to both expose and dye their pubic hair.”
Millet considers the 1970s the years that truly birthed the G-string, but its more practical, invisible side was adopted in the 1980s. More women were working for corporate companies in the 1980s, and as they cultivated their physical appearance and fitness became more popular, fashion required invisible underwear rather than VPL, or visible panty lines, explains Millet.
“Starting in the 1980s, there was a growing Western obsession with physical fitness and transforming the body into something worth putting on display,” says Gorin-Paracka. Thongs and G-strings worn as swimwear and underwear put a woman’s assets on display for all the world to see. It was during the 1980s that the underwear became available via lingerie catalogs and retail stores, says Millet, eventually becoming as available as any style of panty after the 1990s. Plus, famed designers Halston and Stephen Burrows debuted clothing for women that was cut close to the body, including jersey dresses, tight skirts, and pantsuits. The item became functional, giving women the opportunity to show off their bodies sans lines and creases.
By the 1990s and early 2000s, the thong became an erotic item being worn more visibly. Serving as a clothing piece that allowed women to assert their power, sensuality, and sexuality, it was no longer just an undergarment. “Celebrity fashion is often provocative,” according to McKnight. “And young, female celebrities over the past 30 years have held this standard by being fully clothed, with a hint of the ‘whale tail’ peeking out of the back of their pants, or the elastic bands fully exposed above their waistlines, a signifier of their sexuality that might not otherwise be expressed if not for a peek, an unconscious nod to the G-string’s beginnings on the burlesque stage.”
