One of the sillier moments of the 1960s...
The year 1965 was a watershed year: the U.S. really got mucked up in Viet Nam, the first great urban riot occurred in Los Angeles, and huge strides were made in space. On the fashion front, the British invasion of fashion had started, womens' clothes had Mondrian prints and even men's fashion suffered the indignity of Madras plaid jackets and Nehru suits. Andy Warhol was all the rage with something called "Pop Art" - huge graphics of tomato soup cans and the like.
On the lingerie front, the first ads for pantyhose were seen, foretelling the demise of girdles, but for the moment the girdle was ubiquitous. Youth and color were the watchwords. Marketing extended down to sixth-graders, and they actually wore them, as did their mothers and older sisters.
Into this fray entered the Treo Company, a leading, but not dominant, girdle manufacturer. Just in time for the back-to-school season in August, Treo took a very ordinary panty girdle and panty brief, printed them with huge graphics and introduced "Pop Pants."
If ever a girdle was meant to be seen, this was it. Four designs were introduced: "Hamburgers 'n' Soda;" "The Big Zip," on which a strategically placed zipper was printed on the front of the girdle; "Crying Eyes," two large eyes across the front with a tear rolling down one of the legs; and, for Treo, most unfortunately, "Stars and Stripes," in which a Red, White, and Blue bunting design suggesting the American Flag was printed all over the girdle.
The first three designs caused no stir, but with "Stars and Stripes" Treo ran into a buzzsaw in the form of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The D.A.R. was incensed at this treatment of the flag and the Chairwomen of the Flag Committee of the D.A.R. let Treo know their anger in no uncertain terms and demanded immediate withdrawal of the product. One veterans' organization also chimed in demanding withdrawal for the "sake of our fighting men in Viet Nam." (One wonders what our fighting men in Viet Nam would do with a flag-bedecked panty girdle.)
One week after its introduction, Treo capitulated and announced it would withdraw "Stars and Stripes" from the stores. A company spokesman said they would cut them up or ship them overseas (to Viet Nam?) or something. The D.A.R. issued a pious statement thanking Treo for "responsible civic action."
In the end (pun intended), it was the D.A.R. which came out second best. Treo only lost the 3000 girdles it claimed had been made and got a ton of publicity for the rest of the line.
The D.A.R. had not enjoyed good publicity in Washington since 1939 when they denied the black soprano Marian Anderson the use of Constitution Hall, then the main concert hall in town, which the D.A.R. owned. The largely Democratic press took every opportunity to spoof the Daughters and this was no exception. Their ancestors may have been revolutionaries, but the Daughters in 1965 were decidedly Tory in outlook.
The press had a field day. Political humorists called upon the D.A.R. to "show their colors" and "rally 'round the flag". George Dixon, an Art Buchwald sort of political humorist, wrote an extended piece the following Sunday in which he feigned ignorance of the issue and upon learning of it asked a female colleague: "What is your opinion, as a "100% American, of the Pop Pants?"
"Well" replied the woman "there are two sides [to this issue]."
"What are they?"
"Front and back".
"You send me into stitches." [It gets worse]
Dixon continued that if "Start and Stripes" had been introduced in the McCarthy era [15 or so year earlier] McCarthy's henchmen would have insisted that all women wear them to prove they were not Communists.
Dixon then speculated on how the "Stars and Stripes" idea got started: "Madison Avenue"..."unquestionably someone said 'let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it'".
Source: NY Times Ag 26,65; Wash Post Ag 27,65, Ag 30,65 and numerous ads ca. 18-27 Ag, 65.
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