“Thinking more about microplastics” isn’t likely on your to-do list, but given our current cultural fixation on bio-optimization, it might be soon. A number of studies have suggested that such particles—microscopic bits of car tires, fishing nets, and synthetic clothing, for example—are everywhere: in our oceans, in the clouds, in our food. And if you have testicles, they’re in there, too. Thinking too much about microplastics might justifiably make most people want to take an edible and watch cartoons, but it made Matthew Domescek and Mac Boucher think about underwear. Specifically, how to manufacture a luxurious pair of underwear without using any plastic.

Two years and many factory visits later, Domescek (a Thom Browne alum and luxury-brand consultant) and Boucher (a creative director and producer who often collaborates with his sister, the musician Grimes) launched their label, EDN, last September. Starting with a lineup of briefs and boxers made in Portugal from organic cotton, the label has since expanded its offerings to include tees and, as of December, a women’s line. Men’s briefs and boxers run $38 each, with short- and long-sleeve tees going for $55 and $65, respectively.

“Mac and I both really believe that, in the same way we’ve divested from lead paint and asbestos as a society, we need to divest from plastics as the next invisible detractor to our health,” says Domescek. “I felt that we could make plastic-free products at a really high level and sell them at a really fair price for what they are.”

There is a growing marketplace for these sorts of wellness-conscious undergarments, with other startup brands—some of whom also happen to stylize their brand names in all caps, such as NADS and KENT—that offer products under similar claims. These products are especially appealing to a rising stock of men who are invested in “leveling up” their physical wellbeing, particularly in regards to their fertility. EDN (which is pronounced “Eden,” like the garden) is perhaps the most luxury-minded of these new companies, thanks in part to its founders’ fashion- and creative-world bonafides. The brand markets its “health-enabling” products using earthy, naturalistic imagery that typically features svelte men outdoors, stretched into art-historical poses in their skivvies.

At a glance, EDN’s boxers, briefs, and tees may look like other high-end basics, but—much like the petrochemical confetti accumulating in your balls—it’s what you don’t see that matters. In pursuit of its goal to create a line of plastic-free clothing, EDN’s founders had to not just design what they believe to be a superlatively comfy line of underwear, but also find factories that could make it to their exacting specs, develop their own fabrics, and figure out a bunch of other stuff like how to ship their wares without using plastic bags. Before they did any of that, however, EDN’s founders went deep into the complex chemical processes used in the manufacture of modern clothing to better understand what they wanted to avoid. “It comes down to us at the end of the day, so we spent a lot of the first year becoming experts in the science,” says Domescek.

Courtesy of EDN

Courtesy of EDN