Robert Elms, style journalist, author and broadcaster, looks back at that trendsetting launderette moment:
Before the boy in the launderette, nobody wore Boxers. Back in the Eighties, baggy Y-fronts and skimpy briefs, probably in inflammable man made fibres, were the male underwear order of the day.
The model was Nick Kamen, a hip face of the time, and white cotton Sunspel Boxers were the inspired choice of underpants, appearing both timelessly cool, and crisply modern. Almost overnight, men who would once have seen Boxer Shorts as stuffily old-fashioned were clamouring to look like Nick Kamen and buying Boxers in their droves. And ever since, a pair of white cotton Sunspels has been the Boxer choice of those in the know.
70 years on from its arrival on British shores, and 32 years after changing underwear history, we are celebrating John Hill’s feat of underwear engineering, and his gift to the Englishman’s underwear drawer, by releasing a very special Boxer Short in his honour.
This new Boxer Short style is inspired by a pair of button fly boxers found in the Sunspel archive, with mother of pearl buttons and a classic cut. Crafted in a Sea Island cotton poplin, a cotton famed for its incredibly soft feel and silky lustre, this unique offering promises to be the very finest pair you’ll ever wear. The final flourish is the packaging: a pouch cut from the same Sea Island cotton, printed with a special edition Sea Island logo.