A Brief History of Edible Underwear
For Your Valentine’s Day Delectation
Edible panties are a standard item at most sexy stores, and it’s hard to imagine a world in which they don’t exist. Until 1975, however, underwear were only theoretically edible.
David Sanderson and Lee Brady were a gay couple from Chicago who met in 1967. Together they celebrated the Summer of Love in San Francisco, participated in protests including the Chicago Riots, and supported the Black Panthers. They developed a touring children’s theater company, and then, in 1975, they came up with the idea for edible underwear after hearing the colloquialism “eat my shorts.” A friend named Tokyo Rose introduced them to rice paper candy, and they produced the first pair of Candypants, which immediately sold to a university student. She wrote about it for her school’s paper, the article was picked up by news services, and edible underwear went viral. The inventors made a literal fortune. The legacy of Candypants continues with no end in sight, with edible underwear currently available in g-string, thong, bikini, and pastie styles, made of gummy or candy beads, with more innovations on the horizon.
Above: a 1970s order form, no longer valid, for the original CandyPants
Sanderson and Brady married in Florida in 2015 after nearly five decades together.
This post is dedicated to my beloved Danielle Colby and Jeremy on the occasion of their marriage.
Source:
https://www.windycitytimes.com/lgbt/Gay-former-Chicagoans-reflect-on-Candypants-five-decade-relationship-/54975.html
Color image:
Davidandlee at English Wikipedia
BW Image:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/comments/103tngx/candypants_edible_underwear_ad_1977/