From Marlon Brando rending his undershirt in Streetcar, to the sexual revolution, to Helmut Newton's lingerie-clad vamps, underwear has come a long way from being coyly referred to as "unmentionables" in American culture. A watershed event was the unveiling of Calvin Klein's giant underwear billboard ads in Times Square in the Eighties - a statement of unflinching exposure that almost single-handedly transformed the public's perception of underwear from 'necessary undergarment' to a brazen gesture of style and freedom.

In this spirit - and in the spirit of many underwear brand images today - we at Freshpair decided to launch National Underwear Day. Founded in August 2003, National Underwear Day is an event that evokes the care-free attitude of Sixties 'happenings', when free spirits took control of public spaces as venues for their art, their message. Our message at Freshpair is the belief that underwear deserves a lot more recognition than it gets. Americans spend more than $13 billion on intimate apparel each year and for that kind of money, we feel it is our duty to tell the world. With National Underwear Day, we've taken underwear out of the dresser drawer and into the streets - by sending twenty male and female models out clad only in our finest undergarments.

In the heat of Manhattan summer, our underwear ambassadors wander through heavily-trafficked locales modeling some of today's hottest brands for unsuspecting - yet pleasantly surprised - shoppers, tourists and die-hard New Yorkers who think they've 'seen it all'...until now. More than just eye candy, our models conducted various surveys on undergarment choices and asked people to sign a petition which urges official recognition of this underwear-honoring day.

On August 9th, National Underwear Day will be taking Manhattan by storm for the fourth year in a row. This year will be our biggest and best event yet, with more sponsors, underwear giveaways, contests, and surprises. National Underwear Day is the day when underwear becomes not just the first thing you put on and the last thing you take off, but the most important thing you wear all day.

So, make sure you're wearing a fresh pair.

on the radio in the way into work they were talking about this and asking for embarrassing underwear stories. This one chick was talking about how she didn't know her skirt had a severe slit in it. This guy kept watching her and not telling her. She went to leave the place she was at and a lady coming in told her. She was wearing a thong! LOL!