History of Women's Lingerie: All About Panties, Bras and Stockings

During the last hundred years or so women have gained freedoms both politically and physically in ways that created a need for change in the way they dressed. In the era of the first Model T automobile, women went from being barefoot and pregnant to working and rallying the country together amidst war and economical depression. Their robust movements had a diverse effect on the types of clothing a woman wore and what previously worked for house cleaning and raising children no longer applied.

It was 1922 when the word lingerie first appeared in public. By the end of WWI young women wore cloche hats, bobbed their hair and began wearing shorter skirts to shimmy the night away dancing. The quest for flat chests, straight hips and buttocks, became the inspiration for the liberty bodice and the chemise. As a means of spicing up the view caused by flapping mini dresses, the first pastel panties were designed. Bras of the day were made to make breasts appear flat and boyish, the corset was no longer needed and this led to the question of how to keep the stockings from falling down mid-dance. The fashion industry was hard at work in attempts to create lingerie for women who previously were keeping as much skin under wraps as possible.

The term lingerie derives from the French word 'lin' which means linen. During the beginning of the 20^th century it was still being called underwear and was worn mainly for hygienic purposes. Frederick's of Hollywood began turning out prettier undergarments that slowly began to be associated with sex, thus any fashionable garments worn under clothing and were pretty were deemed as lingerie and has become engrained in today's terminology. Lingerie covers a wide variety of under garments but for the sake of this article I'm going to cover the history of three of the basics of lingerie; bras, panties and stockings.

Panties