It’s been 25 years since Wonderbra released its 1994 Hello Boys campaign, the sight of Eva Herzigová gazing down at her own breasts causing an apparent spike in road traffic accidents up and down the country. Now, a quarter of a century on, designer and i-D favourite Charles Jeffrey is releasing his own traffic stopping moment — a debut underwear collaboration, with Swedish underkeck merchants Björn Borg.
A limited edition collection of men’s printed underwear, the capsule features three exclusive prints developed from Charles’s signature mark-making (he’d mark-make all over your bloody beer mat, if you took your drink off it for long enough). With a campaign shot by photographer Dexter Lander (and styled by Charles himself), the result is a colourful, eccentric mash-up of Culture Club, David Bowie and The Mighty Boosh. We had a brief (ahem) chat with the shy and retiring designer below.
Hello Charles! How often do you change your underpants?
Oh gosh, erm, once a day? Maybe twice if I’ve gone for a run or gym…. or I guess if I’ve soiled myself. It is quite important to change them if that happens.
Have you ever just turned them inside out? Tell the truth.
Well, yeah… I mean, yeah. I was once a student with a lazy disposition and no money to buy washing powder.
You’ve named the three prints that feature on them, “Scream, Squiggle and Squirm”. Which of these did you last do in your underwear?
I did all three recently on a flight back from India — the turbulence was horrendous. I got the notion into my head that we were going to crash, so my body did the trio. Definitely had to change them after that…
In the press release you also say that you were inspired by the “visual cues of eccentric Britishness that you love the most: Culture Club, The Mighty Boosh , a bit of David Bowie”… What underwear do you imagine David Bowie wore?
He didn’t wear underwear actually. I know for a fact he had no glands down there so no need for that extra layer of cloth. He also spoke 15 languages, one of which was communicated by vibrating his thighs together. This creates an incredible, inaudible high-pitched sound that only women in their late 30s from Margate can hear.
Who would you like to see wearing your collection?
I would love to see the flight attendant wearing them who was on my flight back from India. He was honestly the most attractive air steward I have ever seen. He looked like an angel.
Björn Borg is a brand obviously very associated with tennis… Out of interest, how good is the underwear at protecting your balls?
Most of the underwear actually has the slogan ‘canon me’ written in invisible stitch around the groin area. This is to show that you can be fired out of a canon while wearing them… like in The Simpsons episode when Homer travels with the circus and gets really famous. The pants are that special!
Can I have some or do I have to ask your PR?
Definitely NOT, I heard what you were saying about me at the pub the other night babes…
You can buy Charles’ kecks from Selfridges here.