History of Women's Underwear: When Undergarments Became Intimate Wear

Have you ever wondered when, how, and why people started wearing underclothing? Are you curious about what underwear was like and how it has evolved over the centuries? If your answer is yes and yes, this article will enlighten you.

 

The history of underwear is quite interesting. It all began from wearing nothing underneath clothing to putting on beautiful frilly lingerie and now barely-there strips of under(things). Indeed, underwear has come a long way.

The Earliest Women Undergarments

The earliest recorded pieces were simple nightie-like garments called shifts, not unlike what we call a chemise. Shifts were worn by women of the Middle Ages, a period of European history spanning from around 500 AD to the 1400s. This chemise was worn underneath the outer garments, and that was it. Women of that era did not wear anything else below their daily attire.

In ancient Rome and Egypt, women tied loincloths which served as underwear. To hold the bosom firmly in place, they wound wide bands of linen fabric around their chests. This equivalent of the modern brassiere is called a strophium, tied with half-knots with the ends tucked in on the sides. 

When Underwear Became Intimate Clothing

Around the 1500s to the 1600s, many women wore an item of underwear called a farthingale. It was a bell-shaped hooped petticoat with circular pads of fabric worn under the skirt to extend and shape. It was popular among well-to-do women and played a crucial role in creating the fashionable silhouette of the 1530s to 1580s.

The farthingale frame was constructed essentially from whalebone. The cheaper version was called a bum roll and was a padded roll of textile worn around the waist. By the 1600s, wealthy women began to wear silk stockings.

Image source on Flickr by zalikopanjikidze

It was not until the early 18th-century that underwear became a recognized and necessary item of female clothing. By this time, the shift had transited into a more feminine chemise. And by the turn of the 1800s, women began to wear drawers. These are generally known as female pantaloons.

Pantaloons were long undergarments that ran from the waist to the ankle. The drawers were made from light material and finished with frilly edges and a split between the legs. In the early 19th-century, underwear was cumbersome, especially with the almost endless layers of female dresses. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why undergarments came with a split-crotch. It was easier to deal with toilette issues. But by the close of the 1800s, the closed ones gained popularity.

20th Century Undergarments and Intimate Wear

Bloomers were the most popular underwear from the early 1900s and remained popular until the 30s. They were baggy underpants fastened below (or above the knee) and known as knickers or "directoire knickers". Styled after the long pantaloons of the 1800s, they continued to be worn by older women until the mid-1950s. Bloomers were made attractive with bands, ribbon tapes, and lace. 

Soon, other items of underwear and finer-structured lingerie emerged. At first, it was the modern hosiery - nylon stockings and then the brassiere (Mary Phelps Jacob designed the first concept of a bra using two silk handkerchiefs and a pink ribbon). By the forties and fifties, women began to wear briefs.

Variations of underwear have evolved almost three-quarters of a century later. However, thong-like intimate wear continues to be highly popular in the 21st-century.

A Brief Summary of Female Underclothing

100 AD - Roman women wore a subligaculum which appears like crude shorts-like wear or came as simple loincloths wrapped around the lower body. Women wore a band of leather or cloth around their chest called a strophium. 

Female athletes wearing a combination of a subligaculum and a strophium (breast-cloth)

13th-Century – Women wore nightie-like garments called shifts (or chemise) under their clothing. That was about it. They did not usually wear underpants.

16th-Century - Some women wore drawers. According to historical facts, Eleanor of Toledo owned a pair of drawers in the mid-1500s. Although women wearing drawers was frowned upon by some, decades after, many were custom-made for Maria de Medici (1573–1642), the new Queen of France, but that is all we know about wearing drawers at this time.

17th-Century - Many wealthy women wore silk stockings and farthingales. A farthingale is an undergarment created to give a woman a silhouette that extremely enlarged her body from the waist down. However, it is said to originate from Spain in the 15th-century. Farthingales were used by the elite, primarily by court women displaying their wealth and status in society.

19th-Century - Women begin to wear white knickers. By the 1860s, some wore coloured knickers and petticoats but white remained popular. The underprivileged had to make their knickers from flour sacks and old clothes, and during the 2nd World War, women sometimes made their knickers from parachute silk.

20th-Century - The early years (the first decade) saw the first pair of knickers. They ran from the high-waist to around the mid-calf but by the 1920s they gradually became shorter, first rising from the calf to the knees, and then up to the mid-thighs. In the 1940s, the more fashionable women began to wear full feminine pants. Not unlike briefs, they came in a variety of styles and colours. Soon a variety of patterns followed. Thirty years after, thong underwear came to be. 

Further Reading:
Clothing Styles We Will Hate to See Come Back
How to Clean Vintage Lingerie: Wash and Care Tips