Jockey launched the Y-Front in the U.S. in 1935 and five years later the product landed on our shores, and it's been a favourite for Kiwi men ever since. In this final episode of RNZ podcast My Heels Are Killing Me, Sonia Sly finds out about our 'brief' history and the story behind the iconic Y-Front.

Long johns, undies, boxers, briefs, gruds, budgie smugglers, drawers, shorts, underpants, jocks...

Men's underwear has seen a transformation over the years and one iconic brand that Kiwi men have loved through the generations, is Jockey. The brand launched in the U.S. in 1935, and five years later, it landed on our shores.

In this final episode of RNZ podcast My Heels Are Killing Me, Sonia Sly finds out why Kiwi men can't get enough of Jockey underwear and the story behind the famous Y-Front.

"New Zealand was one of the first places in the world that was allowed the Jockey license," says Te Papa Curator, Stephanie Gibson.

Lane Walker Rudkin in Christchurch - the manufacturer of sportswear brand Canterbury was one of the first four manufacturers outside the U.S to receive a license to make the famous Jockey Y-fronts, which proved revolutionary.

"Jockey helped outfit New Zealand soldiers for their overseas service during the war," she says.

Offering maximum comfort and support the product quickly gained popularity as an inexpensive item, and men could own multiple pairs.

Before the comfy cotton underpants were introduced, Kiwi men wore cumbersome long johns, with awkward buttons, slits at the knees and leather waist bands - covering the body with layers helped to protect clothing from human sweat.

In the 19th and early 20th century, people washed their underwear more frequently than their outerwear. These undergarments were commonly made from knitted wool or knitted cotton and natural fibres were said to be good for airflow and cleanliness.

"People wanted to be clean and they really believed in the hygienic properties of underwear," Gibson says.

Another reason behind the enduring popularity of the Y-front was a change in lifestyle and increasing participation in sport. Cycling and boxing were popular, so a shorter style of underwear was more functional and convenient.

In fact, the design of the Y-front was based on the men's jock strap worn for cycling.

"It's about how that binding is done around the sensitive area so that everything is held in place, but it's comfortable," says Gibson.

And that tried and true design has not changed today, according to Melbourne-based William Radford who looks after the marketing for the Jockey brand. …

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"On the red carpet Kim Kardashian wore a slip that I designed and it was designed to be worn in the bedroom," says Kiwi lingerie designer Chloe Julian who has worked for international labels Agent Provocateur, Stella McCartney and Rihanna's new label, Savage X Fenty.

At a music festival on a hot summer's day, a group of women laugh and chat among themselves.

They're in full festival mode with their breasts and arms covered in gold glitter body paint and not much else. Some wear nothing but denim cut-off shorts and lacy bras. Nobody blinks an eye.

In this episode of My Heels are Killing Me Sonia Sly finds out about the business of underwear and why there are no longer any rules.

Today, the rules of decency have shifted dramatically, giving women greater freedom. And in an age where body positive messages prevail, women's bodies and their underwear no longer have to remain hidden.

"In history there have always been moments where women's underwear starts to peek out over outerwear," says Te Papa's Contemporary Life & Culture curator, Stephanie Gibson.

"I think women sometimes have a hard task with their wardrobes because in the 19th century everything was hidden under their outer garments, so you wore the most hilarious amount of layers," she says.

Those layers might have included six petticoats, a crinoline, a bustle and a corset - all hidden beneath a dress that would cover much of the body, which sits in stark contrast to women's wardrobes today.

Celebrity culture, lifestyle and sports have all played a major role in shaping how women see themselves and how they dress.

This has changed the role and function of underwear, which is now more about helping women show off their bodies than hide them.

"We're all quite relaxed now about being in shared changing spaces and we're showing a lot more of ourselves," says Gibson who feels women want to participate in fashion without feeling their bodies have to match it.

NZ lingerie designer Chloe Julian says she often makes lingerie so it can be worn as either underwear or outerwear.

“[On the red carpet] Kim Kardashian wore a slip that I designed and it was designed to be worn in the bedroom,” she says.

Julian's designs have graced the covers of international fashion magazines and have been worn by celebrities.

The Kiwi studied fashion at Massey University, and is now back in the country after living in London and working for the likes of Agent Provocateur and Stella McCartney.

Last year, she designed the launch collection for singer Rihanna's new lingerie label, Savage X Fenty - a brand that was a year in the making…

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From a pair of hand-knitted baby booties to a fully-blown business two-decades on selling not one, but two lifestyle brands, seems a far cry from Peri Drysdale's days as a nurse. In this episode of RNZ podcast My Heels are Killing Me Sonia Sly heads to Christchurch behind the scenes of Untouched World.

From a pair of hand-knitted baby booties to a fully-blown business two-decades on selling not one, but two lifestyle brands, seems a far cry from Peri Drysdale's days as a nurse. But Drysdale has always had an entrepreneurial head on her shoulders.

Last year, Dysdale was inducted into the Company of Women's Hall of Fame for her work founding sustainable brands Untouched World, Snowy Peak and Merino Mink, as well as the Untouched World Charitable Trust.

Not that she's a stranger to receiving awards and recognition for her work. She has a wall of achievements inside her Christchurch headquarters, which is home to a spacious Untouched World retail store with an adjoining cafe. Out the back through a series of doorways and corridors are meeting rooms, offices, a showroom, and the factory floor where all the action takes place.

"When we first moved in here in 1992 we only had four machines and 100 staff here. That just shows you how far the technology has come in increasing productivity," says Drysdale of the Japanese knitting machines that now do a bulk of the work and run right throughout the night.

"In 1995 we bought the very first machine off the production line of a new generation of a computerized knitting machines,"she says.

That machine ran on binary code, yellow computer tape. It was in the early stages of development and this one wasn't fully functioning. In fact, the situation was proving to be be more than a headache.

Drysdale borrowed money to buy the machine and secured their family home against a large six figure sum. Fortunately, her husband was able to step in and get it running.

"Once we got it going it was amazing because we could do things that no one else could do for quite a long time," she says.

Today on the factory floor in warehouse-sized space there are surprisingly few staff.

On one side of the room garments are being checked, packed and shipped off. In another area, garments are being carefully stitched by hand. Across the other side of the room, merino jumpers are ready to be washed and dried to produce a super soft, luxurious hand-feel.

Looking back, Drysdale says she couldn't imagine she would be where she is today, although there were a number of factors that led her on this career path.

Drysdale grew up in a farming area which she describes as pristine, surrounded by crystal clear water…

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In this episode of My Heels are Killing Me, Belinda Watt Head of Fashion at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, shoe designer Kathryn Wilson and Murray Bevan - the founder of fashion PR agency Showroom 22 discuss the different ways to produce sustainable; diversifying, and the importance of collaborating and remaining agile.

What does it mean to be agile in today's marketplace and what challenges do international giants like H&M and Zara present for New Zealand fashion brands?

New Zealand is part of a global society. That comes with better access to goods and services, but it also means local brands and businesses face greater competition.

International brands are more accessible than ever before. Exposure to the latest offerings through instagram and social media creates a frenzy for newness at the high and low end of the market.

Murray Bevan, founder of New Zealand's foremost fashion PR agency Showroom 22 says our consumer patterns have become more diverse in recent years.

"People like to shop local, as well as aspire to buy global," he says.

And even at the luxury end the demand is high.

“[The General Manager of Louis Vuitton] on Auckland’s Queen Street has customers that come in every week demanding something new. [But] for other designers [here] that’s very difficult to do unless [they] drip feed product in,” he says.

The PR agency founder says when Topshop arrived on our shores, some in the industry were sent into panic mode, worried that it would threaten our local industry. Others saw it as an opportunity to take more risks and do something completely different.

Bevan believes there will always be room for a range of price-points, and he says the arrival of fast- fashion chains in New Zealand hasn't damped our appetite for locally made and owned brands.

"It's just appetite, and it's money - we call it a share of wardrobe. Wardrobe is becoming bigger in people's share of what they dedicate their time and money to in their life," he says.

Today, Showroom 22 works with international labels, but the PR agency has built the core of its business by helping local brands to grow, and anyone involved in business will know that it isn't possible to become successful all on your own.

Bevan has been working with shoe designer Kathryn Wilson for 14 years. Their collaboration began when they were both in the early stages of their businesses.

The importance of relationships and collaboration

"You're not in this industry if you're out to make a quick buck," says Wilson, who had a long term game plan for her business right from the outset…

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It might be hard to imagine life without the internet and the ease that technology has brought to our lives. In this episode of My Heels are Killing Me, Sonia Sly talks to three fashion designers about a changing world where business have to be agile in a volatile market.

It might be hard to imagine life without the internet and the ease that technology has brought to our lives. But being connected has its pros and cons and New Zealand businesses are not immune to the pressures of being part of a global market - especially in the fashion industry where digital technology and social media now plays a major role in success or failure.

In this episode of My Heels are Killing Me, Sonia Sly talks to three fashion designers about a changing world where businesses need to be agile in a volatile marketplace.

Before the Rise of Digital

“It was really easy [when] I started in the 90s and it was the heyday of Made in New Zealand. There were very little international imports unless it was something that was coming in from a European designer, and you didn’t have fast fashion. There was a wealth of incredible machinists that were still around with the women that had done tailoring apprenticeships...rent was cheap. And there were very strong wholesale accounts where people paid on time.

"[Today] we are completely exposed to [the volatility of the global market]. We live in the bottom of the world. We’ve experienced huge changes in terms of bricks and mortars and our tariffs coming off with Made in China clothing coming into this country, which obliterated our shoe manufacturing and most of our clothing manufacturing. So there were massive adjustments that had to be made with the change in wholesale versus buying online."

"The key for us is to keep it very lean and to to be more specialised...to offer more of a service to our customers. [In the past] we stocked David Jones with, thirteen stores, 33 wholesale accounts, but ten years ago we downsized the business and now it’s just me."

Branding through Social Media

Kelly Coe is the founder of womenswear brand Augustine, which operates four stores in New Zealand and runs seven labels under its umbrella. Kelly came from a marketing background and since launching in 2007 she has successfully used social media to sell and promote her brand.

"Social media for us has been huge... we grew our brand on Facebook and our customers grew with us."…

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In this final episode of My Heels Are Killing Me for Season 4, Karen Walker talks to Sonia Sly in front of a live audience at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery about nurturing new talent, the Commonwealth Fashion Exchange and why she needs a sixth sense.

As soon as designer Karen Walker appears at the entrance to a room at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, I'm wiring her up with a microphone. Admittedly, it's an intimate way to greet someone. She's fine with it, of course and has arrived exactly on time.

The previous night had been a late one. She had been judging and watching almost 50 designers from around the world present their collections on stage as part of iD Dunedin Fashion Week, and I'm aware she must be exhausted.

This live interview at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery is the second time I've had the chance to sit with Karen. The first was for this episode where we talked about the business of fashion, motherhood and the pressures of dealing with reviews at New York Fashion week - something the brand no longer takes part in due to the way digital technology has changed consumer habits.

Waiting for Karen is a packed auditorium. Karen is a pro in front of an audience, as I'm about to discover. They laugh readily at her jokes, collectively and audibly inhaling when she mentions something they find surprising.

We start with intentionally silly quick-fire questions to get the ball rolling. I ask her which one of her senses she would choose to give up, if doing so would save the world. It gets the audience laughing as she cheekily reveals she'd not be able to lose any of them because they're all so vital, but in fact, she would need an extra one!

Then we get down to business, traversing the politics of the industry and getting an insight into the realities of her empire.

"We're a company that's all about ideas and storytelling," she says in response to a question about maintaining focus and remaining creative.

Karen says mass production has never been the motivation of the brand. Instead, she says, it's all about a focus on creating things that people can connect with, and surviving financially while doing that.

"It's nice to be able to make a buck at the end of that, and speaking of sustainability, you need to be able to sustain a business too," she says.

Karen has a full-fledged design studio up in Auckland. Something she discovered herself is considered quite a rarity in this day and age.

The brand has a its own sampling facility which includes at least 8 highly skilled machinists who can whip up samples at the drop of a hat. There's also a dedicated cutter and two sample room directors, on top of a design team…

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In this installment of My Heels Are Killing Me, Sonia Sly heads to Te Papa to find out about historical and contemporary views on the Aloha shirt.

In this installment of My Heels Are Killing Me,Sonia Sly heads to Te Papa to find out about historical and contemporary views on the Aloha shirt.

Clothing can send a powerful message about who we are and where we feel we belong in the world, acting as a cultural signifier and a means to express our identity. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Hawaiians have been proudly wearing the Aloha shirt as a way to connect to their culture.

Heading down to the bowels of Te Papa, through a stream of what seem like endless hallways I'm taken to a room to meet Claire Regnault, one of Te Papa's curators, and Sonya Withers, an intern who traveled to Hawaii last year as part of a research trip on the Aloha shirt.

Donning rubber gloves, Sonya and Claire slip covers off a range of shirts. There are a variety of styles from long sleeves to short and even a hooded Hawaiian shirt.

In total the team collected 16 items with the addition of a onesie.

"The Aloha shirt sums up the spirit of Hawaii," says Claire.

Through the Aloha shirt, Hawaiians have been able to express their values and cultural ties and Te Papa were interested in how that culture has been represented and also misrepresented.

The Aloha shirt has a rich and complex history, according to Claire who says people aren't sure of the exact history of the garment, which has a number of stories attached to it.

"Some say the design elements came from the Palaka shirt which was worn as a work shirt on the plantations," she says.

The Palaka shirt has origins that pre-date the Aloha shirt. The very first Aloha shirt was said to have been created by a Japanese immigrant, Chōtarō Miyamoto who began producing the shirts in Japanese silk fabrics.

But Te Papa's area of interest lies primarily in the Aloha shirt as an expression of Hawaiian culture.

The team met with 10 Hawaiian designers, including Manaola and Sig Zane.

Each designer has a different take on the aloha shirt. Some have based their prints on particular species of protected native plant species, while other designers have looked to inspiration from family history, hula traditions or other aspects of Hawaiian culture.

Importantly, the designs have specific meanings and stories attached to them.

"They are just so rich and you can spend a lot of time looking at them and learning so much," says Regnault…

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Surviving in the retail industry is tough, and today, it's a battle for stores to keep their cash registers ticking over.

Surviving in the retail industry is tough, and today it's a battle for stores to keep their cash registers ticking over.

Last year saw the closure of almost 2000 fashion-led retail stores in the US with big names including J Crew, Guess, JC Penney, American Apparel, and Macy's closing down many of their owner-operated stores.

It doesn't bode well for the future of brick-and-mortar retail and New Zealand hasn't been immune to the shifting mood.

Topshop closed its doors in September last year, with its Wellington store only just surpassing the one-year mark in the city's busy business district.

Kiwi designer Andrea Moore shut up shop went into liquidation after a solid 20 years in the business.

While industry insiders remain tight-lipped about the brand's demise, it's hard to ignore.

And footwear label Minnie Cooper - a brand known for is classic-style, quality handcrafted leather shoes - also closed its last store early this year.

The rapid rise of e-commerce is partly to blame for the changes in shopping habits.

But fingers also point to Millennials who opt for experiences and travel over material purchases.

Online shopping is here to stay and it has made life easier for consumers who can now purchase products from anywhere in the world.

But the downside for retailers is an increasingly competitive space where brick-and-mortar stores need to be more innovative and conscious of strategies to keep customers walking through their doors with purchases in hand.

So what do people actually want, and are physical stores still relevant?

Simon Pound, is the co-founder and managing director for womenswear label, Ingrid Starnes, and says their brick and mortar stores go hand-in-hand with the e-commerce side of the business.

Each season the store receives a makeover and the same change is reflected online, Pound tells me from the brand's Ponsonby store.

"It's more for us to keep things fresh and to match the season's clothes."

Pound wouldn't comment on the closure of fashion retailers in New Zealand but says Ingrid Starnes is a very different business with unique offerings.

The label has a custom service and its own line of perfume and luxury toiletries.

The Ingrid Starnes Ponsonby store has been an important base for customers who want to experience the brand through a full collection and shop fit-out, Pound says, and helps to fill in the Ingrid Starnes story…

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The fashion industry is a hungry beast and beyond its glossy facade are people who work tirelessly behind the scenes. But what is it like to be in the thick of it as an editor for a top international publication in one of the major fashion capitals in the world? Olivia Fleming Senior Features Editor for Bazaar.com shares the reality

The fashion industry is a hungry beast and beyond its glossy facade are people who work tirelessly behind the scenes. But what is it like to be in the thick of it as an editor for a top international publication in one of the major fashion capitals in the world?

Kiwi Olivia Fleming is doing just that. She's the Senior Features Editor for Bazaar.com and has been based in New York for the better part of ten years.

Sonia Sly spoke to Olivia for an episode of My Heels Are Killing Me to find out about working in NYC and her label Olivia Kane Jewellery.

“[Living in New York] is a dream many young people have [and] when I graduated [from] college I didn’t want to follow the pack,” she says of her other friends who were doing their OE’s to the UK.

"The women that I work with are amazing I constantly pinch myself," says Fleming talking about the role she's been in for the past two years.

As part of her job, Olivia is a regular attendee at New York Fashion Week. But recently, there has been a shift in mood at the shows with big-name designers choosing not to put their collections on the runway.

Fleming says the excitement and spectacle of Fashion Week has faded.

"It's becoming less and less relevant as the internet has enabled people to access images straight away, no-one really cares anymore it's really expensive... there's this air of, why do we do this?" she says.

As an editor for a top publication, Fleming has the opportunity to go one step further - touching the clothes and looking with an even closer eye during press appointments. There she can talk to the designers and experience the collections more intimately.

The senior editor works with a team of 12 in what she calls 'a supportive environment surrounded by talented and smart people'.

But that hasn't always been the case.

Fleming's fashion career started at New Zealand's Fashion Quarterly, run by Bauer Media (formerly ACP), where she was based in the publication's New York office.

That is, until the recession hit in 2008. The office folded and Fleming made a move to Australia where she worked for a women's magazine.

But although she loved the job she was waiting for the right opportunity to return to New York, which she did in 2011…

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The beauty and fashion industries have long dictated what's deemed acceptable or desirable. And now that we're in an age of inclusiveness where does that leave women and the question of ageing?

How do you feel about getting older? This is a question that might arise when you look in the mirror and see a line or two around your eyes for the very first time. The only question is, why do so many of us worry about ageing when it's a fact of life, and it's eventually going to happen to all of us anyway?

The beauty and fashion industries have long dictated what's deemed acceptable or desirable. Beauty products are marketed at women and the need for a more youthful appearance, and it's rare to see older women in fashion campaigns wearing the same clothes you might see on a model who is half, or even a third her age. The same goes for the runway.

So are older women invisible? And if so, who decides the terms of their visibility?

Kiwi model, Mercy Brewer from Unique Model Management is in her fifties and still models today, whether it be strutting her stuff at New Zealand Fashion Week, or featuring in campaigns. Brewer doesn't feel that older women have been shunned from society necessarily, but acknowledges they don't make an appearance as often as they should.

"Certainly they become invisible in cinema and magazines," she says.

Brewer was recently shot for Lonely Lingerie, a covetable New Zealand brand renowned for using 'real' women in their campaigns. It is a strategy that has proven to work, making them ever-accessible in a genre that has traditionally featured only slender, young women with perfect bodies.

The model says she was flattered to be asked to appear in the campaign. But adds that her 27-year old daughter now feels anxious about the popularity of an 'older female trend' especially at a time when older women like like Lynn Slater aka Accidental Icon are accruing thousands of followers on Instagram and redefining fashion and illustrating that being stylish and enjoying fashion isn't purely for young people.

Brewer says modelling today feels no different to when she was walking on the international runway in the mid-eighties as a younger woman.

"If anything there's less pressure. I'm booked for what I am, so I'm not worried about I'm starting to get wrinkles," she says.

Brewer knows first-hand that the fashion industry and modelling is about presenting a world of fantasy. Behind the scenes there is team of people who transform often ordinary girls into extraordinary beings.

"People aren't buying that dream anymore," she says…

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