There’s always been a special connection between gay men and their underwear and swimwear. But over the past few years, that love affair has gotten much louder and prouder. The number of brands catering directly to the gay market has exploded, as well as the array of choices in colour, cut, fabric and sensibility—are you a Nasty Pig guy or an Andrew Christian guy?
Founded in 2012 in Vancouver, the Garçon brand (originally called Garçon Model—that’s the GM you see in the logo) strikes the perfect balance between playful, comfortable and sexy. Seductive but never vulgar, you can detect the French influence of CEO and co-founder Mehdi Mebarki, who is originally from France—they’ve earned that cedilla accent in Garçon.
In a recent survey, Garçon found that almost 60 percent of customers preferred briefs, followed by almost 40 percent who preferred jockstraps (thongs came in last at just under 25 percent). The swimsuit style ranking came in this order: regular shorts, outside drawstring, bulge pouch, wide Speedo, Speedo shorts, narrow Speedo and Brazilian style (known as a sunga).
Wander+Lust talked to Mebarki about the trends in the industry and what gay men want from their swimsuits, trunks, briefs, jockstraps and thongs. And it’s more than comfort.
There’s so much more choice in swimwear and underwear these days, with options ranging from flashy to skimpy to sleazy to sophisticated. What are some of the trends you’re seeing in what gay men want to wear?
We try to offer both low-key and the more flamboyant. We have the Speedo, something black or just in one colour—that’s very traditional. Then we have ones with crazy patterns that are more colourful. Some people will only order basic colours, while others are more adventurous. It really depends.
There’s a trend right now, where the length on the hip is wider. That’s the Brazilian style. We haven’t done that—it feels almost like cultural appropriation. Because I’m French, I’m stuck on the regular Speedo. We sell a lot of things, but we haven’t experimented yet with the swim thong. This season we came out with some really cool swim shorts, a redesign of the traditional style. With swim shorts, usually they’re not tapered at the legs—a bit too baggy and wide—so we made sure to taper the design and keep it short, because gay guys like their short shorts to show off their assets and their legs. Then we made sure there was extra space in the trunk. We used colours and patterns that would bring out both the traditional and the more adventurous consumers. There’s colour, but it’s not overly out there.
I look at what other companies do and it’s a mix of everything. You have neon colours, loud patterns. I know that Aronik Swim does more classic patterns, so it’s really all over the place. Every gay brand does it their own way.
How do you differentiate yourself in that kind of marketplace? You look at Addicted, out of Spain, and they put versions of their AD logo on everything.
We took the stance, from day one, 12 years ago, that we’d have our GM logo wrap around the waist. That’s part of our signature collection, and it’s the best-selling one. Some people really want that GM logo. But we’ve come out with different designs that are more subtle. While they sell, it’s still the signature design that sells the most. But we don’t want to overbrand everything. I don’t think people want to be an advertising billboard. That’s underwear. Swimwear is harder to brand.
As a designer, where do you find your ideas? Through travel? Are you looking at what guys are wearing at the beach?
My partner and I travel a lot and go to events around the world, which is a great way to see what people like and what’s going on. It’s a matter of soaking up as much as possible. Basically, we look everywhere the sun shines and there is some fun gay nightlife. We like to go to Puerto Vallarta; we’ve been there many times. I used to live in San Francisco, so we’ll visit friends there. Barcelona, France. I’m a bit partisan because I’m French, I’m obsessed with French mode, I’m watching every fashion show in Paris. I look up to those big fashion houses—Balenciaga, Dior, Givenchy. We try to make our looks the most tasteful possible. We’re not trying to be the loudest.
We’ve been on a lot of Atlantis Cruises. I will definitely look around at what people are wearing, the crop tops, the harnesses, the more revealing underwear designs. We look around and take what we feel is the Garçon brand.
You mentioned how dominant the sunga style is in Brazil—I was just there, and it’s actually hard to find a swimsuit that’s not the sunga cut. How much variation is there in tastes around the world? Do the stereotypes still hold?
It’s funny because one of my very good friends is a super hot Brazilian guy, and he can wear anything. The sunga looks wonderful on him. His partner, a white Canadian, was wearing one and the cut looked like a diaper on him. We made fun of him, jokingly. Not all styles are for everybody.
I think for the gay community, the stereotypes have broken down. Though it’s typical that American men, in general, love their shorts—the longer the better. In Europe, we like Speedo-style swimwear. But in the gay community, we like swim briefs more than shorts.
Pit Crew member Bruno Alcantara wore your underwear on Season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race and again in Season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. Did you see an effect from that?
It was very successful. We have a little survey at the end of the purchase process, asking “Where did you hear about us?” A lot of people saw us. I mean, nine of 10 gay people watch Drag Race.
Where do you find your models? What look are you searching for?
We start with the photographer. There are a few photographers that we really like to work with. Once we figure out which photographer is going to be perfect for a specific collection, then we start looking at models together. We aim for a more natural build. Not overly muscular. More of a high-fashion or traditional type of model.
There’s been a boom in nonbinary and gender-bending fashion, mixing and blurring masculine and feminine. Is that something that you play with?
It’s something we are thinking of doing, but we need to do it our way, something thoughtful, unique.
Are you capable of travelling with just a carry-on? How much underwear do you bring? Twenty pairs? More?
For sure more than 20 pairs. We definitely overpack. It’s hard to pack lightly when you have an underwear company. The more styles, the more colours you bring, the better. We usually travel with a bunch of friends, so we pack extras for them. You want your friends to wear your brand, right?
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
