The Loincloth Essay

441 Words2 Pages
Loincloths are the basis of all fashion. A bold statement, I know, but it’s true. Loincloths have been worn since the beginning of humanity. It is the most basic form of dress. It is worn to cover the necessities, genitals. Most societies, even today, disapprove of genital nakedness. A loincloth can be any type of material, bark, leather, linen, wool, anything. Despite the simpleness of function, the loincloth takes many forms. One form of a loincloth consists of a strip of material that is set in front secured by a belt, only covering the genital region. Another form is a long length of material that passes through the thighs and wound around the waist in one of many fashions, again, to cover the genital area. A third style is just a single, long strip of bark or woven cloth that is only supported by the genitals themselves. This was mostly found in Southeast Asia where it is known as a chawat, sirat, or malo. A fourth style is still used in Africa, known as the xai. It is a piece of skin roughly ‘t-shaped’ with long ties at the corners of the arms. The free end is pulled back and tucked under the ties. The ancient Egyptians, both men and woman, wore loincloths as an undergarment. Under their schentis, men wore them as a support. They were usually fine linen shaped in a triangle with ties at two corners. The men of Indo-European culture, like the Greeks, Romans, or Scandinavians, wore loincloths in the ‘bikini’, or ‘perizoma’ way, with a bottom to cover the buttocks and a triangle to cover the genitals all connected by strings that were wrapped around the waste and tied on both sides. Today, loincloths are still worn. As the years pass, we notice our underwear and bathing suits getting smaller and smaller. The most basic reason is for a kind of ‘sex-appeal’, but if analyzed, it is obvious that we are going backwards in time. As time passed, loincloths grew
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