The History Of Underwear

The other day I was struck by my love of underwear.  Its amazing, isn't it?!  

We know that historically underwear has not always been so kind to women... but that is what made me curious about the history.  Six inch heals might be the modern day equivalent to whale bone corsets and I don't believe humans will ever cease their willingness to suffer for beauty.  However, my question still remains: when did underwear go from being cumbersome to fun?  How did undies evolve from a tool of oppression and repression to an expression... of sexiness? 

Ancient underwear was always something similar to a loin cloth.  Then in the middle ages, European nations started getting creative in their undergarment fashion.  Both men and women wore chemises - or little tank tops - on their torsos under their respective garments in both England and France as early as the 14th century.  For women the chemise was worn under the larger garment called a petticoat.  The petticoat was sometimes elaborately designed or quilted and often designed to be seen. It usually served as an undergarment was simply a layering piece one wore under a gown.  Today people still wear petticoats!  They are usually adorned with some modern flair, like fun colors or ruffles. 

Chastity belts were thought to be for knights who were worried about their wives' faithfulness while they were away on quests.  However, this looks to be a device only of myth and legend as their is no historical documentation or chastity belts to be found.  *Phew*

When reeds or willow rods were added to provide structure to the petticoat this turned into a garment called the farthingale which was most popular in 15-16th centuries. First in Spain and later France,  the name can mean both "green wood" (as in the rods used to support it) or "executioner."  The style of dress the farthingale supported is depicted with a v-shaped torso and a big hoop skirt.  This is the same fashion that birthed the most notorious of all underwears - the corset!  In this era the corset was straight to flatten the bust.

The corset actually wasn't a painful/harmful device until later - the 17th century in England or the Victorian Era.  This is when it took on the curved shape that intruded on nature's intended waist line. 

"Lacing," or the use of corsets and "stays" to force a certain shape and posture on the female frame, didn't go out of fashion until their was a formal activist movement against it!  In the 1880's, after the corset's popularity throughout the last century, the Dress Refiorm Movement organized to educate the public against the organ and bone damage caused by it.  A "Heath Corset" was invented but soon fashion had moved on to a simpler, looser, more comfortable way of dress.

Skirts became shorter and soon women were wearing pantalettes or pantaloones of linnen or lace for their warmth and modesty.  When skirts became bell shaped (think Cinderella's evil step-sisters in the Disney Classic) women wore pads on their behinds called bustles. 

Suddenly underwear looked much friendlier and sexier at the turn of the century.  Companies we know today such as Hanes were at the fore-front of giving liberated peoples what they wanted!  The support of the Industrial Revolution gave them the textile manufacturing necessary to mass-produce undies made of fabric that breathed and allowed its wearers to breath!  The first underwear advertisments started appearing after 1910 in American magazines.  In 1913 brassieres were invented by accident when socialite Mary Phelps Jacob tried to conceal the whale bone poking out of her corset through her shear dress by tying two hankercheifs together with ribbon.  She began making them for friends but the design was patented and being marketed by Jacob by 1914. 

"Bloomers" were named after their main supporter: Amelia Janks Bloomer.  The new hot girl to this turn-of-the-century-era was one who enjoyed tennis and biking (called a "Gibson Girl") and so she needed to support of pant-like undies to do this safely without showing off her rump.  Now that women were playing sports, corsets were dropped for good in favor of the brassiere.

The 1920's contained a sexual revolution!  In it underwear manufacturers began experimenting with new designs and advertisers used promises of less buttons and easier accessibility as selling points.  As hemlines rose considerably the popularity of stockings grew, the length of bloomers shortened, and a new kind of undie - the "step-in" was born.  Flappers with their visible garder belts are the revolutionaries we can thank for modern lingerie!  In 1928 Maidenform, a female owned undergarment company, started manufacturing bras with what we now know as our modern cup-size system.  In the 1930's a girdle was also a popular undergarment that was a soft corset with a bra on top.  A "waspie" or a Ribbon Corset was another variation.  It looked like a belt used to cinch in the waste, but was made of softer material and lacked a chest-piece. 

She looks sexy in her "step-in," no?

It wasn't until the 1950-60's that underwear took on its whitey-tidy identity.  It began to be marketed as a garment in its own right in the 1950's and by the mid-1960's they had loud patterns and could be found in the hip-hugger and bikini varieties.  The 1950's was also when breasts began to be a focus of undergarments instead of the waist.  This was epitomized by Christian Dior as the originator of the pointed bra called the "New Look."  Fredrick's of Hollywood is the originator of the ever-so-popular Wonderbra and Push up bras.  Pantyhose were developed from English design to be worn with miniskirts during the swinging 1960's as well. 

By the 1970's-80's sex appeal was the only thing selling undies!  Madonna and Cyndie Lauper showed off their adorned underwear frequently as pop-culture icons for attention.  Exotic dancers had been wearing G-strings for decades but South American swimsuits started adorning this cut of bottom (think Brazillian waxing!) and by the 1990's women were wearing them under their jeans in America.  Thong underwear is still the most popular cut today.

The history of underwear is actually pretty inspiring!  Female designers and business owners shaped the the history of the modern market.  Free thinking women such as activists, athletes, and flappers paved the way for me to be typing this to you today in some yoga pants :)  Doesn't that fill you with pride?

Viva Brazil!

Stay sexy,

- The Sexpert