Why Underpants Must Stay Under in the State of Virginia

It is a trend that has baffled parents, delighted teenagers everywhere and created a raging business for Calvin Klein.

And it has got up the nose of Algie T Howell, a lawmaker from the US state, who has launched a crusade to have it banned.

Mr Howell's ire is directed against publicly-visible boxers, briefs and thongs. His targets are those who follow the hip hop trend of wearing low-rise or baggy trousers which put such garments on display.

Earlier this week, Virginian politicians signed on to Mr Howell's campaign, passing a bill that would levy a $50 (around £27) fine on anyone who "exposes his below-waist undergarments in an offensive manner".

Mr Howell, 67, told local reporters that his campaign was inspired by a visit to his barber shop where customers complained bitterly about the fashion sense of a younger generation which favours low-slung trousers.

"That's why they're called undergarments," he told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. "They're supposed to be worn under something else."

Virginia's lawmakers apparently agreed, adopting Mr Howell's bill by a margin of 60-34, in what they described as a blow against the "coarsening" of American culture. The bill still has to clear the state senate to become law.

Mr Howell's sartorial crusade was not shared, however, by civil libertarians or by some of his fellow Democrats.

Delegate Lionell Spruill appealed to his fellow politicians to cast their minds back to their own fashion faux pas - shell suits, Afros, and platform shoes.

"Please, let these kids express themselves," he urged.

One campaigner, Kent Willis of the American Civil Liberties Union, went on to claim: "Banning low-riding pants with exposed underwear is likely to have a disproportionate effect on racial minorities."

Mr Howell, who is African-American, rejects such charges. "It's not an attack on baggy pants. It's not about Janet Jackson," he said. "To vote for this bill would be to do something good not only for Virginia, but for this entire country."