It would seem that ‘Rafa’ is promoting various bits of clothing, here are a few vids which show off is attributes:
It was 90 degrees in the sun, the spectators were wilting in the heat, and there on the court, Rafael Nadal was slicing and lobbing balls back over the net — in a full tailored suit.
The United States Open tennis championships begin next week. But for Mr. Nadal and many of the blue-chip athletes whose lucrative side business is endorsing and representing brands, the week leading up to the Open is one part practice, one part celebrity commitments.
“I’m working very hard and working well, I think,” he said of his Open preparations. But before then, there’s business to attend to.
Mr. Nadal, 29, has just been announced as a global ambassador for Tommy Hilfiger, the maker of that new, stretchier suit, and will be the face of its tailored clothing and TH Bold fragrance and the body wearing its underwear collection.
So it was that, before Arthur Ashe Stadium, Mr. Nadal found himself playing on Tuesday on a red, white and blue Tommy Hilfiger court in the middle of Bryant Park, in a game of strip tennis (lose a point, lose an article of clothing) against a bevy of Hilfiger models.
Constance Jablonski takes off an article of clothing after “losing” a point against Rafael Nadal. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
Had he ever done anything like this before? “I never did,” he said with a laugh after the match, at which he had sacrificed a few accessories (a tie, a pocket square) and his shirt, but stayed generally besuited. “It was special, and we had some fun, I think.”
Stripping down is becoming old hat for Mr. Nadal, who had previously appeared in various states of undress in ads for Emporio Armani. Coinciding with the Bryant Park match, the new Hilfiger campaign (featuring Mr. Nadal, sinuous and muscle-bound in his boxer briefs) began appearing everywhere — on bus shelters, billboards and the back page of sections of this newspaper.
An accompanying video shows Mr. Nadal striding into a locker room, taking off his jeans and then his underwear, with a flirtatious wag of the head.
“You saw the video of him taking the underwear off in the locker room?” Mr. Hilfiger asked. “That was fun.”
Rafael Nadal keeps his suit on as Akin Akman and Chanel Iman undress, point by point. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
Mr. Hilfiger is aiming, unapologetically, for sex appeal. His underwear business had been big in the 1990s, selling boxers to “college kids, skaters, all the young people in the ’90s,” Mr. Hilfiger said. “Then it sort of quieted down. We started selling white underwear briefs. White underwear briefs are usually sold to middle-aged guys. And they weren’t sexy anymore.”
Mr. Nadal became not only the model, but a focus group of one. “I talked to him at length about what kind of underwear would you wear,” Mr. Hilfiger said.
Mr. Nadal professed to be unconcerned about being a sex symbol on such public display.
“I feel lucky to have the chance to be the ambassador of such a great brand as Tommy Hilfiger,” he said. “I don’t think much, I don’t pay much attention if I’m the backdrop of the newspaper.”
For the rest of the world, attention is likely to be paid.
“We’re doing reverse sexism here,” said Jane Lynch, the “Glee” actress and comedian who is gay and served as the match’s umpire. “This is great. Especially the part about Rafa in his underwear. Because that could turn a girl straight, if you know what I mean.”
Y-fronts celebrate 80th birthday
The Y-front is set to celebrate its 80-year history which has seen it go from a hurriedly-removed window display in a Chicago department store to underwear staple for men the world over.
Arthur Kneibler’s Jockey briefs first went on sale on January 19, 1935 at the Marshall Field & Co department store, placed on show in the window during one of the worst blizzards of the winter.
The store’s managers promptly demanded the display be removed, thinking it ridiculous to flaunt such a skimpy design in the middle of winter – but not before customers had snapped up 600 pairs.
Some 30,000 pairs were sold in the next three months alone.
Mr Kneibler, the vice president of marketing at a company called Coopers, was inspired by a picture of a man in a sleek, supportive swimsuit, going on to encourage his design team to create a new kind of underwear called “the brief”.
The only successor to the long john had been the boxer short, a cotton version of trunks worn by boxers.
They did not sell well with customers due to their lack of support, but the “jock strap”, mostly worn by the jockeys or messengers who rode penny farthings, did.
Mr Kneibler named his new creation the Jockey brief, and Coopers is now known as Jockey International.
They went on sale in Britain in 1938, at Simpsons in Piccadilly, where they sold at a rate of 3,000 a week.
In 1948 every male athlete in the British Olympic team was given a free pair of Y-fronts.
To date, it has been banned for being too skimpy, survived the recession to outsell its more glamorous cousin the boxer short and has become a Christmas staple across the world for men of all ages.
According to Debenhams, sales of Y-fronts increased by 35% in 2009 and outsold boxer shorts in March of that year for the first time since the early 1990s – the last time Britain was in recession.
Three years earlier, a pair of 37-year-old Y-fronts were sold in the UK on eBay for £127.
A second pair sold for £90 to a buyer in Hong Kong.
Jockey marketing manager Ruth Stevens said: ” Although competition from the boxer is fierce, time and time again the Y-front has been used in ultra-masculine ads and films, such as From Russia With Love when they appeared on the ultimate man’s man James Bond in 1963, all the way up to 2012 where Zac Efron spent much of his time in them in the film The Paperboy.
“This positioning of the Y-front as masculine yet practical ensures its popularity remains high.
“Underwear trends seem to be coming full circle as we head back towards the classics. Y-fronts are cool.”
Nick Jonas and Ellen DeGeneres
Tired of taking his shirt off, Nick Jonas takes his pants off for Ellen DeGeneres instead
Singer drives talk show host’s audience wild
The singer, doing a publicity blitz for his new self-titled album, appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week and pulled down his pants for her screaming audience.
DeGeneres set the mood when she began to show the audience photos of a shirtless Jonas from a shoot he did for Flaunt magazine.
When the talk show host remarked that Jonas had put on a lot of muscle weight for his role on the TV series Kingdom and that she wanted to ask him to take his shirt off, Jonas drew the line.
‘I’m done taking my shirt off,’ he said.
The audience expressed their disappointment.
Then, the payoff.
‘However I did get some really great underwear from you and now I’ll take my pants off.’
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