The Story of Panties, Briefs and Thongs There is some dispute as to when women first started to wear underpants and this is perhaps due to the social context of the most intimate garment of all because of their direct contact with man's ultimate prize. Some underwear historians refer to what we would now consider underpants being worn during the renaissance out of a sense of propriety. "In addition to helping [women] keep clean and protecting them from the cold, they prevent their thighs being seen if they fall off a horse. These drawers also protect them against adventurous young men, because if they slip their hands under their skirts they can't touch their skin at all."
Although drawers protected women's secret parts, they also heightened sexual awareness and interest by drawing attention to those parts. As a result drawers were considered exceptionally immodest and the garment became the uniform of the prostitute throughout Europe. This meant that this essentially practical and modest garment could not be worn by either the fashionable or by advocates of dress reform.
The wearing of drawers was also considered unhealthy for women, who were urged only to wear petticoats beneath their dresses to allow the air to circulate freely. Strange then that men had worn underpants since the sixteenth century! It was 1820 before society women came to wear underpants or pantaloons as they were known.
Ironically, it was a series of severe winters in Europe in the 1840s that helped to force a cultural change. The Great British Knickers, long Turkish style trousers cut baggy and gathered at the ankles, were introduced in 1837.
In 1841 The Handbook of the Toilet was describing the fashion for drawers in France as "of incalculable advantage to women, preventing many of the disorders and indispositions to which British females are subject. The drawers may be of flannel, calico or cotton, and should reach as far down the leg as possible without their being seen."
Next, an American, Mrs Amelia Jenks Bloomer, asked a friend and fellow campaigner for healthier dressing, Mrs Elizabeth Millers, to design what came to be known as 'bloomers' for her. Bloomers had completely separate legs of a metre in length from the top of the waistband to the ankle. Most were modestly embroidered and trimmed around the bottom of the legs and hand-sewn.
As the years passed bloomers became wider than ever; sometimes they were made of silk with flounces and baby ribbon and worn beneath petticoats or as 'frillies' beneath a dress coat. Because they were difficult to wash an inner lining was worn inside them. This was changed daily or sometimes weekly whilst the 'panties' as they were now being called were changed every three weeks or so.
Fashion changed and skirts narrowed and the wide panties became impossible to wear. This resulted in skirt panties or culottes being worn under the fashionable bell shaped skirts that were tight on the hips but wide enough at the hem to give a glimpse of white and lace on windy days. It became a thrill for men to catch site of a flash of white culottes or the top of a woman's boot. (Boots were considered underclothes at that time).
At the start of the 1900s most panties were open in style and up to about 70cm at the knee. These wide versions were known as 'free traders' and were standard garments for the wealthy, as were 'combinations', a connecting chemise and panties.
But skirts continued to get narrower, so much so that a woman's thighs were practically squeezed together. She could only walk by moving her legs from the knee down and her skirts hid everything including her boots. As a result the traditional open crotch gradually disappeared in luxury underwear although it continued to be the standard for many women.
Around this time women started to copy men's clothing designs; the knickerbockers suit became common for cycling and was worn with cotton liners. Whilst the knickerbockers became usual wear for sporting women they had a stigma because this 'rationals' style of dress was espoused by those seeking the emancipation of women. Many women just longed for real frills that symbolized true femininity.
By 1912 the Army and Navy department store in London, which catered for the families of officers and gentlemen, was advertising 'golf panties' of white cotton or linen, drawers with a buttoned flap at the back and wide frilled legs and woollen drawers that were longer and close fitting.
Fleecy lined short panties debuted also in 1912 as did wide, frilly-legged French panties. Close-fitting panties that closed with elastic or bands at the waist and knee, known as directoire knickers, were also worn. These had a detachable lining in white stockinette and a button flap at the back.
By the outbreak of war in 1914 women needed more freedom of movement if they were to be able to serve in uniform, for example as nurses with the Volunteer Aid Department who tended the wounded in France and elsewhere. As a result knicker length was shortened to 53cm and legs were widened to 96.5cm. Another result of the war was that troops who had served in India brought home transparent silk-gauze garments, known as see-mores, for their women.
After the First World War knickerbockers gained a button in between and became increasingly short to match skirt length. Also woven panties became popular; these were often coloured and came with pretty designs. By the mid twenties, the chemise and panties were often combined as were knickers with shaped bras.
Cami-knickers featured flaps that buttoned together between the thighs, allowing women to feel naked and free whilst retaining modesty. But the dance crazes of the twenties and increasingly short hemlines called for close-fitting panties to ensure respectability.
Perhaps strangely these tight-fitting panties were made from itchy wool or thick denim! The materials were so difficult to wash that each pair would be worn for a few weeks at a time! Nonetheless they were part of the normal underwear wardrobe.
A different approach to women's underwear was taken by the legendary Florenz Ziegfeld, whose chorus girls appearing in his theatrically extravagant 'Follies' wore loosely cut cami-knickers of silk. These were designed, according to Ziegfeld, to gently caress the inside of the girls' thigh so that they would be in a heightened state of sexual awareness, which in turn would be projected to the audience.
By the nineteen thirties, sturdy little cotton briefs were finally adopted by women of all backgrounds, at the time these were considered sexier than black lace panties. Old fashioned combinations, worn over a bra and panties, were not suitable for sport or leisure wear and slowly disappeared.
When World War II started, the main underwear items for most women were, a bra, briefs and a garter (or suspender) belt. During the war, because of shortages of material, many women started to make their own underwear using patterns and home sewing kits.
By the early 1940s, panties were small and cut away at the front or sides to allow more movement. Those cut on the bias in wool jersey gave the best fit and were the panties of choice for the land army of French women. They were regarded as less enticing than the alternative of lace panties.
Not surprisingly, the pin-up girls decorating servicemen's bunks wore very little.
By contrast women in the British Armed Services wore traditional directoire style knickers which were considered necessary under the regulation knee length skirts. These knickers, made of coarse and uncomfortable fabric, were given evocative names, such as; passion killers, wrist catchers, boy bafflers and ETBs (elastic tops and bottoms).
Relief was at hand and in 1947 Christian Dior launched his famous New Look. His curvaceous models wore waspies, long full skirts and frothy underwear. When this look translated into High Street fashion, under the yards of material that made up the skirts women wore panties and briefs of nylon following its invention in the late 1930s.
Whilst French knickers were still being designed, many of the young women brought up in the tough war years chose briefs for their easy care drip-dry underwear.
Briefs became even briefer and the more adventurous woman wore a G-string; a single thin string which was worn as an elastic strip around the waist and between the legs. Originally the basis of a stripper's wardrobe the G-string was brought into the mainstream by speciality shops and mail-order such as Frederick's of Holllywood.
Black lace, sometimes called Chantilly lace after the French town where much of it was made, became the essential ingredient for seductive lingerie.
In the 1960s Mary Quant designed liberating, functional and funky underwear to wear with her mini-skirts. By now women demanded panties that were simple and functional, made with synthetic materials that could be easily washed, needed no ironing and fitted any shape.
Lycra was the answer as it helped shape and support the figure. Stretch panties were popular as they flattened the stomach.
The Hollywood stars continued to influence fashion including lingerie; there was less censorship and films became more prepared to show what their stars were wearing under their clothes. Fashion magazines showed slim, honed bodies that required little or no underwear.
For the less adventurous there was a renaissance in luxurious and sensuous lingerie in a range of silks and lace and typified by the work of Janet Reger and also Barbara Hulanciki at Biba.
Bright coloured bikini pants were very fashionable with the young but some women preferred traditional panties in white or pastel shades. Frilly knickers and French knickers were popular in the 1970s but did not last out the decade.
As the fitness craze of the 1970s took hold, women honed their bodies through sport and exercise and lingerie took on a very functional style. Then in 1984 Calvin Klein took the idea of unisex jeans and t-shirts onwards into unisex knickers. Calvin Klein's famous jockey shorts for women were best sellers for years to come.
There was, of course, a reaction to this functionality and in the 1980s women were looking for fun, form and frivolity as well as function. Hence we saw joke panties with eyes on them, slogans, risqué remarks and decals. Panties were no longer 'unmentionables', they were 'intimate apparel', more suited to seduction than to shopping.
In the 1990s the thong took over the teenage lingerie market and became the must-wear and be-seen-to-wear item of clothing. As hipsters hit the high street your thong was to be seen, not just by your lover, but by passing strangers.
Sexually provocative, yes; and famously used by Monica Lewinsky to flirt with the President of The United States of America. The Starr report found that "she raised her jacket in the back and showed him the straps of her thong underwear." The President understood her particular use of the language of underwear and responded!
The daring lingerie of the new century provides for the sexually liberated woman with the opportunity to be anything she likes; including athlete, domestic goddess, business executive and courtesan.
Sources and References:
Extracts taken from "The Best in Lingerie Design" by Joy McKenzie, published by BT Batsford 1997
Extracts taken from "A Century of Style: Lingerie" by Karen W. Bressler, Karoline Newman, Gillian Proctor, published by the Apple Press 1998
Extracts taken from "Lingerie A Lexicon of Style" by Caroline Cox, published by Scriptum Editions 2000
Extracts taken from "Making Lingerie and Nightwear" by Nicholas Bullen, published by Mills and Boon 1979
