CONTEST RULES.

This document describes the free contest, with no purchase required. Monthly verdicts remain honorary. The annual Grand Prix makes one physical exception: a frame.

The idea

You photograph a worn textile item. The public scores it out of 20. The more damaged the item, the higher the score.

A 20 means there is barely any fabric left.

Participation is restricted to people aged 18 and over. If translations differ, the French version is the reference, subject to the participant’s applicable mandatory rights.

The two categories

• Men’s underwear, including boxers and similar men’s underwear.
• Socks.

One worldwide judging queue alternates both categories. The worldwide leaderboard includes every entry. Each country with at least five participants also has its own monthly leaderboard.

The schedule

Paris time. From closing until the next 1st at 12:01 AM, contest submissions and ratings are closed; they do not carry over automatically. The demo remains available. A country leaderboard requires at least five distinct participants; each entry must also meet its rating threshold. No eligible entry means no champion. A verdict may be delayed for moderation review without delaying the next session.

How to enter

Up to five entries per month, in the category of your choice. Free of charge. Photograph the item on its own against a plain, light background. Automated analysis, when available, is followed by human review before publication. Publication is not instant. A rejected photo is not, by itself, an account sanction.

How the score is calculated

Each juror gives a final score from 0 to 20 in 0.5 increments.

The retained score is a trimmed mean: the highest and lowest 10% of scores are removed. This reduces the effect of extreme scores, but does not guarantee protection against manipulation. Coordinated ratings remain prohibited and may be cancelled after review.

Ratings from a verified account become official after ten ratings in the general queue, including at least seven made outside a direct link. Earlier ratings then count. Weight remains capped at 1.2 for the most consistent jurors.

Without an account, a rating counts at half weight, limited to the first five anonymous ratings per entry and restricted by device and network address. If the juror creates an account within seven days, those ratings move to full weight.

An entry becomes eligible after ten retained ratings while the site has fewer than two hundred approved entries, twenty up to five hundred, then thirty. The applicable threshold is shown on every entry.

Monthly calculation: with at least ten counted ratings, 10% of the number of ratings is removed at each end, rounded down to a whole number. Below ten ratings, none is removed. The remaining ratings are averaged using their weights, then rounded to one decimal place. Equal scores are resolved by the number of counted ratings, then the earlier submission date, then entry ID in ascending order.

What the champion wins

Nothing that ships. Everything that lasts.

• The title, attached to your account forever and shown under every entry
• The gold frame around your entry in the feed, visible to everyone
• Entry into the museum, where the result remains available; only the winning photo is kept for up to three years after its latest title, unless removal is requested sooner
• The naming right for the next month

For the monthly verdict, no physical prize is awarded. Distinctions are honorary, have no market value and cannot be transferred or converted.

The December 31 Grand Prix

The year’s eligible monthly champions enter a separate judging queue for each title. In 2026 and subsequent years, only months that actually produced a champion are represented: twelve participants are not guaranteed. The annual threshold is thirty ratings from selected jurors. If no entry reaches that threshold, no annual title is awarded. Judging opens ten minutes after the December monthly verdict and closes on December 31 at 8 PM Paris time. If the monthly verdict itself falls on December 31, closing moves to January 1 at 8 PM. This exception gives the jury twenty-four hours. The title remains attached to the previous year.

Ratings keep the 0 to 20 scale in 0.5 increments and the trimmed mean. The one hundred jurors with the most retained ratings during the year form the jury. Ratings are counted up to the opening of the Grand Prix; account ID breaks jury selection ties. Two annual champions are named across both categories: World, honorary, and France, with the frame described below. Each title brings together its own monthly champions.

The year’s only parcel

Once a year, Torn Underwear ships something. A frame. What you put in it is your problem.

The annual France champion receives a frame suited to the winning entry. They receive two if they won the monthly France title in different months of the year with underwear and with a sock. There are not two separate monthly category leaderboards. The approximate retail value is EUR 40 including tax per frame, up to EUR 80 including tax.

The France leaderboard prize is shipped only within metropolitan France, at the publisher’s expense, within sixty days after a valid address is received. It is personal, non-transferable, non-exchangeable and cannot be converted to cash.

Only the champion is asked for an address, after the result. They have thirty days to provide it through their account. Without a valid address in that period, the prize is forfeited and no replacement winner is named. The annual title remains. The address is deleted after shipping.

What is prohibited

Multiple accounts, automated voting, coordinated voting intended to manipulate a ranking, and submitting an item that does not belong to you.

Breaches result in cancellation of the relevant ratings and, depending on seriousness, suspension or deletion of the account.

One rule, and only one

The item is photographed alone. No person, no body part, no foot in frame. We judge the item, not the person.