It is well recorded that the womanly figure varies a greatly. History shows that it has always been like this!
Historically, what's been fashionable for the shape of the womanly body has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous! However, the fascinating womanly body has always been subject to what is covering it and history shows us that it's been covered in many different ways. Also, different parts of the feminine form have been intensified, obscured, shrunk, supplemented by the style of the current fashionable embellishments.
We've witnessed some almost inconceivable extremes, from contraptions that needed a small army to coerce the hapless fashion victim into, to the flimsiest, most whimsical mere flutter of a garment. Let's take a trip back in time at how sexy lingerie has developed and how it got to where it is today.
Firstly, let's get some terminology straightened out. Thanks to the world's most amorous language, we now almost always refer to womanly 'underwear' as 'lingerie' - unless we're being derogatory in which case, depending on where you happen to live, you can fill in the blanks!
When we (at least us males) envisage lingerie, we think of a flimsy material covering the womanly body in a way that gives us a hint of the pleasure that await underneath. But the 'first' lingerie, probably from one of the Ancient Greek islands, was far different. These captivating Greek women used a boned corset fitted tightly around the midriff, not for support or even for a 'slimming' effect, but to attract their men by showing their jutting breasts in a most unsubtle way. Perhaps not what we would call lingerie today but with much the same desired effect.
As time rolled on, the womanly form took on new 'perfect' shapes dependant on the fashion. As each 'perfect' form emerged, embellishments were introduced and created to enrich and accentuate that desired shape. The culture of the society dictated whether the bosoms, the bottom or both would be highlighted and hallowed. You could argue that nothing much has altered!
During the Middle Ages it was thought that the natural form and shape of a woman should be constrained and that the bosoms should be firm and small. This situation was probably okay for those built normally that way but perhaps not so good for those of a more ample construction. Many styles of corset were worn with the single purpose of constraining the bosoms and/or the bottom. I've heard it said that, in order to draw attention to that part of the anatomy that shouldn't draw attention, some women wore small bells around their neck to remind the men folk of the pleasure that still lay tantalizingly beneath.
The 'modern' corset is thought to have been introduced by Catherine de Mdicis, wife of King Henri II of France. She enforced a ban on chunky waists at court attendance during the 1550s and had a questionable effect on women for the next 350 years.
The Renaissance saw another change in the preferred womanly shape. Women now required cone shaped bosoms, flat stomachs and slim waists. In order to achieve this look, they also needed to employ assistants or family members to dress them because the cinching up of their corsets was done from behind and required much effort.
Due to this unnatural method of realizing 'perfection', Doctors and other notaries elucidated that these corsets squeezed women's bodies so tightly that their internal organs were being injured and their ribs were being permanently misshapen. Around that time it was common for women to pass out or fall into a swoon. This was usually put down to their delicate nature but, in fact, it was because they simply found it almost impossible to breathe! There are many stories of women dying because of deadly punctures to vital organs due to this practice.
In the early 18th century the whalebone corset still kept women severely restricted but the artistry that reflected the times was incorporated into clothing and the corsets were decorated with fascinating lace, ribbons and embroidery. A part of this lightening up was the fact that it became fashionable for the bosoms to be pushed upwards to the point of almost popping out.
Towards the end of the 18th century the corset was being worn by aristocrats, the burgeoning middle class and even by nuns in convents. It was often proudly worn by its wearer because it was a visible outer garment at that time. In itself it was an object of beauty and ornamentation and its display was part of social code.
However, as people became more educated and aware, they started to question and critique many things including art, politics and, you guessed it, fashion. Backed up by professional people like doctors, public opinion became such that boned corsets were actually outlawed in many areas.
By the early 19th century, a much softer approach to the womanly shape became popular. The fashion still needed the support that the old corset had given so it returned with more elaborate methods of construction. Boning was still used in small sections which allowed for better and more comfortable movement.
The fashion at the time was for a more separated look for bosoms and a corsetiere by the name of M Leroy (who designed the wedding corset for Marie Luise of Austria when she married Napoleon Bonaparte in 1810) introduced a model which he called a 'divorce', allegedly because of the 'separation' involved. The most significant aspect of this perhaps, was the fact that women were able to dress and undress themselves due to more elaborate lacing construction.
During the 1840s the extremely exaggerated shape for women caused whalebone to return with huge hoops and crinolines that were covered with all kinds of fabric and fineries. Unfortunately for women, it became the fashion to have waists small enough for a man to put his hands around and the need for even harder waist-cinching became the womanly nightmare of the day.
It wasn't long before hoops and crinolines were replaced by the soft 'S' silhouette. This style still used the corset but added a bustle to the back creating an exaggerated posterior. Once again it was the women who had to suffer for fashion, needing to stand most of the time due to the cumbersome bustle on their posteriors. Obviously men found this appealing because it gave them more opportunities to stare at the sexy women with their large bustles.
As more innovation came to fashion design, greater varieties of corsets were created. During the morning, a lady could wear a lightly-boned corset for visiting family, an elastic corset for riding sidesaddle, a boneless corset for an excursion to the beach and a jersey corset for riding her bike. The corsetry industry was in its heyday!
Towards the end of the 19th century the corset supported not only the bosoms but also the newly invented stocking. Stockings were held up by garters and suspenders which were then attached to the corset. These contraptions, although a triumph of design, probably added yet another frustrating dimension to the fashion-conscious womanly of the day.
By the beginning of the 20th century, corsets were being laced down as far as the knee. But many people didn't like that style, and fashion designers were leaning towards an uncorseted, more free-flowing style. Sexy lingerie was about to take a whole new twist. With the advent of the industrial revolution, and the introduction of the sewing machine, Germany and France opened the first corset manufacturing facilities.
In 1910 New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob created a new type of brassiere. Dissatisfied with the corset strengthened with whalebone which she was meant to wear under a new evening gown, Mary worked with her maid to sew two silk handkerchiefs together with some pink ribbon and cord. It was much softer and shorter than a corset and it allowed the bosoms to be shaped in their natural condition.
Mary Phelps Jacob was the first to patent an item of underwear named 'Brassiere', the name derived from the old French word for 'upper arm'. Not long after, she sold the brassiere patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for $1,500 (over $25,600 presently).
In 1917 the United States War Industries Board asked women to stop purchasing corsets to free up metal for war production. This step released some 28,000 tons of metal, sufficient to build two battleships.
Allegedly the success of the brassiere is due predominantly to World War I. World War I altered gender roles for all time, putting many women to work in manufacturing facilities and wearing uniforms for the first time. Women needed practical, comfortable undergarments. Warner went on to amass well over fifteen million dollars from the brassiere patent over the next 3 decades.
The other thing to take into consideration in the demise of the corset was that World War I had taken its toll on the number of men. This meant more competition for finding a man so women needed to look their sexiest!
With the Roaring Twenties and its sophisticated parties, fashion was turned upside down, the boyish look was in. The crusade for flat chests and stomachs along with straight hips and buttocks led to the introduction of the liberty bodice, the chemise, and bloomers which were loose-fitting and light. For the first time pastel-colored underwear appeared to replace plain old-fashioned white. To enhance the boyish look the first brassieres were introduced to flatten the bosoms. What happened to the corset? The posterior part that held up the stockings was made shorter and became the suspender belt.
The full-figured look came back in the 1930s. The feminine look once again became the fashion. Women were encouraged to look well-proportioned with a full-figure while remaining fairly slim in the hips. Now women had a full set of underwear to help with the image: breast-enhancing brassieres, elastic suspender belts, not forgetting the girdle, which kept all the curves in their designated place.
The 1930s also saw one of the biggest advancements in the underwear industry when the Dunlop Rubber company invented Lastex, an elastic, two-way stretch textile made from the fine thread of a chemically modified rubber called Latex. This could be interwoven with fabric which allowed the industry to make underwear in several sizes to appropriately fit a woman's figure.
The onset of World War II and its shortages meant that Germany was unable to import the fabrics they had used previously and their industry failed. Forever inventive, people started making home-knitted underwear out of anything to hand. Not the sexiest of underwear but at least they kept themselves warm.
When hostilities came to an end underwear consisted of basic brassieres and suspender belts. This was acceptable to most women but the teenage girl, just coming out of the oppression of the war years, became a target market. These teenagers could barely wait to grow up and wearing lingerie was a huge step towards achieving that objective. The German underwear industry created lingerie sets that appealed to these young girls and the industry took off.
In the USA, the underwear industry was trying to create something new and leading edge. Women were bombarded with all kinds of undergarments and top clothing to help them look sexy. The film producer Howard Hughes created a new brassiere, a special wire-reinforced device for Jane Russell. This caused the censors raise their hands in horror about miss Russell's bosoms being blatantly exposed all because of Hughes' terrifically inventive brassiere improvements.
The 1960s was a bad era for the underwear industry thanks to the rise of women's emancipation movements. Feminists burned their brassieres and many lingerie manufacturers were forced to cease trading. However Lycra had just been invented and women began to wear tight-fitting leggings. The iconic fashion item of that era however, was arguably the sexy little mini-skirt and the demand for bikini briefs. Famously, for a fleeting moment in time, topless swimsuits and topless dresses were the rage. But, unfortunately for most men and fortunately for the fashion industry, they were just a 'flash-in-the-pan'!
The 1980s saw the wire-reinforced brassiere become the number one best seller. While these are still in demand presently, the best seller at the moment is the push-up bra. Statistically the average woman from the USA owns six brassieres, one of which is a strapless bra and one is a color other than white.
The modern womanly shape varies and is not as susceptible to fashion trends as in past times. However, the fascinating sex will always looks fabulous in sexy, slinky lingerie!
So, there we are. From the push-up corsets of ancient Greece to the push-up brassiere of today. Sexy lingerie? Nothing ever really changes! |
