Getting cheeky with mankinis

Ajit Khosla goes red in the face and fidgets with his hair. The reason for his discomfort is a just arrived parcel pushed under his bed. "This is crazy... Who would've ever thought?" chuckles the 27-year-old stockbroker. The Santacruz resident, whose marriage is only a fortnight away, pulls out the box, flips it open and laughs again. The bachelor party gift from his buddies (many of whom he's known since school) has 18 mankinis from UK brand Clothes To Pose in metallic bold colours.

The skimpy, one-sided half thongs made popular by BAFTA-winner "scripted reality TV" soap opera The Only Way Is Essex (popularly shortened to TOWIE) is now not only available in India, but actually flying off shelves at retailer-wholesaler Naseer Ali's outlet in Andheri market. "We don't want unwanted attention. I'm just selling lingerie. It's best not to get too noticed," he says somewhat nervously.

All the rage
The itsy-bitsy spandex mankinis, the first consignment of which arrived in Diwali last year, can get you noticed alright. "We thought we'll sell the odd piece to the curious customer and return the others from the 24 which came first," says the lingerie-shop owner. "When we showed it to a male customer who had come to buy another kind of mankini thong with straps over both shoulders, he was so excited he picked up three of these instead. After that we began getting customers by word-of-mouth publicity."

While Ali says more youth are interested in this product, he can't contain his shock at how some middle-aged men come with spouses to buy them. Ali introduced us to one such couple who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. "Our only son's away in boarding school and things between us had reached a plateau. A marriage/sex therapist said we should try fun things and its helped," admitted the wife.

Her 52-year-old visibly uncomfortable marketing executive husband added, "I just do this for her in the privacy of our bedroom… She once suggested I wear it at a resort swimming pool in Matheran and even carried it in our bag. I work out regularly and I'm quite fit for my age but I just couldn't bring myself to wear this in public. You never know if the pictures end up with a colleague or worse our 13-year-old son."

As the trend catches on, Ali retails at least 5-6 pieces of the Rs.1,750 half-thongs (the box says £11.98 per piece) every week, more than another south Mumbai vendor near the JJ School of Art. "I've begun sending some to retailers in Bangalore and Delhi too. Recently I got queries from Indore in MP and Puri in Odisha for these mankinis and have increased my own order size manifold."

This week was particularly good thanks to Khosla's friend, Raj Lalwani who bought 18. "Ajit's always been very shy and self-conscious," Lalwani, a banking executive said. "In fact, our group keeps picking on him for turning up in chinos and shirts even on shorts-and-tees occasions. It'll make for great fun at his last outing as a bachelor. Considering he's the first in our group to get hitched, itna toh banta hee hai."

Tidying up
With the mankini comes the need to look good. All the friends have fixed up manscaping appointments at a Juhu parlour. "A little fuzz on my face is fine but everything else, especially down there, has to go if you have to wear these kind of revealing mankinis," says Lalwani who is now getting cold feet about the procedure. "Given the kind of the ichchadhari bhaloo you are, you need it more than all of us," rubs in Khosla.

Manu Jhingron, 36, who runs a Juhu parlour is obviously happy with the business. "Many youth come to get rid of hair from the nether regions these days." According to him, the increasing sight of the male body as an object of desire in Bollywood has fanned this trend. "First Salman, Akshay or John… now, whether its Ranveer or Ranbir, Varun or Arjun, everybody's shedding clothes and wants that well-moisturised, made-up skin with no trace of hair. Thanks to the mankini, this look is now travelling south. I hope it ushers in a fitness trend too. After all it's about showcasing your gluteus maximus."

Manu feels a man's body can be equally attractive and looked at as an object of desire. "The half thong takes away opacity in more ways than one. This way girls/guys checking out the men know they'll get what they see. Actually straight people should thank the gay community for ushering in this equality of aesthetics."
Model Nolan Lewis agrees that the bold male lingerie is no longer the preserve of the gay community. "Everybody wants to shock these days," he laughs. He admits being wary of sporting a half thong on an Indian beach. "Even for a shoot, I'd want to know who my audience is and who it's going out to."

Others like 2014's Mr GayWorld India Sushant Divgikar wonders what the hullabaloo is all about. This owner of nearly two dozen mankinis in all kinds of shapes, sizes and fabric (he owns fur ones too) says, "India better be ready. Half thongs are just the beginning. There's a lot more risqué stuff already here with lots more already on the horizon."