«MY FAVORITE THING TO BUY IS UNDERWEAR»

While the average 23-year-old allegedly buys up to 31 pairs a year "of all styles, tightness and colours", and even 40-year-olds manage a dozen pairs in as many months, once you reach 44 (I'm 46) Debenhams reckons you give up the habit for life. Not because by then you have bought 284 pairs (based on the survey's figures) and never need to fork out for Y-fronts or tangas ever again, but because a woman is doing it for you. "Even the most macho men delegate the duty of buying underpants to women as soon as they can," claims Rob Faucherand, the store's head of men's accessories buying. There's obviously some truth in this: a married friend the same age as me admitted that he couldn't remember the last time he bought his own pants. But the survey leaves some questions unanswered. Firstly, what about men who love men? Who buys their smalls? Just as importantly, what about all the single straight blokes out there?

-The Guardian
Nov 12 2009