A breechcloth, or breechclout, is a form of Loincloth consisting in a strip of material (usually a narrow rectangle) passed between the thighs and secured before and behind under a belt or string.
European men around 2000 B.C. wore leather breechclouts, as can be seen from the clothing of Ötzi the Ice Man.
During World War II, Allied prisoners of war in Japanese camps often had nothing but a textile breechcloth to wear, affording them only a modicum of modesty and free transpiration, but virtually no protection against the tropical sun, parasites etc.
A breechcloth is in some ways like a loincloth or a fundoshi, designed only to cover the genitals.
