Thinking back, I can't quite recall the specifics...
Always had an interest in history, and I suppose it must've started with some of the prehistory for kids books we had in primary school. Never really had any westerns, or old sword & sandal comics, didn't even get around to watching Disney's Tarzan. From there, suppose it was helped a lot by being part of one of the online generations. I happened to come across stuff about making loincloths, different styles of them around the world, got around to doing the whole cutting up underwear to try and make one. Also remember finding and watching an animated version of The Jungle Book, can't remember the full name, but it was a Japanese-Canadian production I think.
Nonetheless, didn't really start taking an interest until I was 16 or 17. Was getting very much into writing, and thanks to the game UnReal World, I wound up creating a setting based in the Middle Stone Age. Same one I still work on and write about today. From there, lots of delving into archaeology and anthropology, making characters for the setting and, inevitably, putting them in loincloths. I also wouldn't be above saying I have a thing for them, struck at the right time since I was a little slower figuring myself out with regards to sexuality.
In my case, it was seeing barbarians, tribesmen, early humans, and such in books, movies, TV shows, comics, art, etc. /Conan the Barbarian/, /The Beastmaster/, /Tarzan/, and /The Indian in the Cupboard/ were all big influences among those.
At some point I simulated loincloth flaps by tying two shirts around my waist in front and back. And by my teens I'd made a breechcloth out of worn-out pajama pants; I cut the legs next to the seams and crudely sewed them together end-to-end to make a long-enough cloth, then tied the stringlike seams themselves around my waist as the belt. And dressed thusly, I sometimes played a with a few Lego buildings, imagining being a captive tribesman out of his element (a la /Tarzan in New York/ etc), escaping down the side of a wrecked building after an earthquake had partly knocked it over.
In my 20s, I started buying fabric from a fabric store and to make rather neater loincloths. Some were woven fabric, torn along the weave to make straight edges. But most were/are knit fabric, either cotton lycra or T-shirt material, cut along their subtle ribbing to make neat straight edges. I've gone for walks in my loincloths sometimes (as people from the old Yahoo group can attest), though it's been some years. But mostly they're just what I wear around the house, sometimes with tall socks or old pajama pant leggings when it's not warm enough for bare legs.
