Searches for ‘comfy’ and ‘high-waisted’ underwear are up as we spend Valentine’s Day at home
Bridget Jones’s Diary introduced us to many things about mid-90s British culture. Smug marrieds. The Hay diet. A “ladette” mindset in which women don’t have sex, they “shag”. Yet 25 years after it was first published – and in a neat, Valentine’s Day twist – it’s the “giant mummy pants” that have endured.
A recent reissue of the novel features about 60 pairs, drawn in gold, on its cover. The original featured a woman staring sadly out of a window. It’s a playful redesign, but 25 years on, one that reduces this fairytale of middle-class post-feminism to her underwear. Because what the alphabet is to the English language, Bridget Jones is to large knickers.
