Fashioning Women's Underwear

Of kind of corsets worn underneath clothing for the body, there are simple ones for undergarments, and ornamented ones worn inside the home for relaxation. The latter type of corset also occasionally had sleeves attached.

Soft type of corsets as shown revived at the beginning of 19th century. In the late 1820s, when the waistline of dresses was lowered and the waist became smaller again, corsets once again became essential for women until the beginning of 20th century.

Sleeve pads were used to produce the puff sleeves that characterized in 1830's. They were made of thin cotton fabric and tailored three-dimensionally with abundant gathers. The feathers inside are light and expand the padding.

With the appearance of the cage crinoline, which was easy to put on and take off, the skirt continued to expand, and reached its maximum size in the mid 1860s. The cage crinoline grew out of proportion, and it was troublesome just to walk or pass through a door. During this period, the crinoline phenomenon was often used as an element of satire in magazines.

In the period from the 1870s to the 1880s, there were many variations on the now fully developed bustle. A variety of bustle constructions appeared, including cushions filled with horsehair, stiffly starched cloth, and frames of whalebone, bamboo and rattan.

The metal spoon busk at front center and the satin-based textile identify this corset as a type popular in the 1880s. Spoon shaped busks were used from the mid-1870s to the end of the 1880s in the belief that they would put less pressure on internal organs as a result of the broader curved section spreading the load over the abdomen.

The female body was squeezed most tightly into corsets in the early days of the twentieth century. The corset here is supported by a long steel busk at the front and the sold boning around the body. The body had to be forced to fit the artificial S-curve of the dress, which emphasized the bust and hips, while making the waistline as small as possible.

Bust bodice with the front boned in a lattice arrangement. The bust is pushed excessively forward, merging left and right into a single "monobosom" shape.

Birth of bras

Corsets, which had tightly constrained women's bodies and at the same time supported their bosoms, emphasizing the feminine curves of breasts, were discarded after World War I. That is why new underwear, the brassiere, was needed.

At the dawn of the 20th century, new fashions for the active woman that were straight and light were largely adopted. This also caused upheaval in the construction of women's underclothes. To wear under the new, light dresses, delicate, slim silk chemises appeared in the market, taking the place of chemises worn directly on the skin that were the standard for so long.

Skin deep

This is the "monokini," a topless bathing suit that shocked the world. This showed the new realization that the skin itself could become a beautiful garment. Rudi Gernreich was a designer strongly conscious of bodies in developing his works since the 1960s. It was his unique think-outside-the-box approach.

After his debut at Paris in 1976, Jean-Paul Gaultier quickly noticed the street fashion phenomenon of using underwear as outerwear. From the early 1980s he transformed various items of underwear including corsets and brassieres into active outerwear. The use of underwear as outerwear by Gaultier triggered a big boom from the 1990s, becoming a universal approach.

The white knit material of this dress seems to cling to the body lines. The black leather brassiere underneath is expected to be visible through the dress. In the late 1990s, even luxury and edgy brands such as Gucci and Prada successively introduced camisoles and slips that were more refined, enabling them to be used as tops and dresses. The conventional understanding that underwear should be invisible was gradually changing.

A simple and modern slip reminiscent of lingerie in the 1930s, from the line of lingerie released by Prada in 1998. Underwear, which had been publicly invisible, became close to outerwear in the late 1990s, and the difference between the categories almost disappeared. This slip can be used as outerwear as well.