Undergarment

Women's panties or knickers

Men's boxer shorts

Undergarments are clothes worn under other clothes, often next to the skin. They keep outer garments from being soiled by perspiration, shape the body and provide support for parts of it, and in cold climates help the wearer to keep warm. Undergarments can be used to preserve the wearer's modesty, as well as for erotic effect. Special types of undergarments have religious significance. Some items of clothing are designed as underwear, while others such as T-shirts and certain types of shorts are appropriate both as undergarments and as outer clothing. If made of suitable material, some undergarments can serve as nightwear or swimsuits.

Undergarments commonly worn by women today include brassieres and panties (also known as knickers), while men wear briefs, boxer shorts or boxer briefs. Items worn by both sexes include T-shirts, sleeveless shirts, bikini underwear, thongs and G-strings. In countries where the weather is cold, long underwear provides warmth.

Terminology

There are a number of alternative terms for undergarments. Underclothes, underclothing and underwear are formal terms, while undergarments may be more casually referred to in Australia as Reg Grundys (rhyming slang for undies) or Reginalds, and in the UK as smalls (from the earlier smallclothes).

Women's undergarments are collectively known as lingerie. They may also be called intimate clothing or simply intimates.

An undershirt is a general word for a piece of underwear covering the torso, while underpants (in the UK, often simply known as pants), drawers, or shorts enclose the genital region. Terms for specific forms of undergarments are listed in the table below.

Function

Undergarments are worn for a variety of reasons. They keep outer garments from being soiled by perspiration. Women's brassieres provide support for their breasts, and men's briefs serve the same function for the male genitalia; a corset is worn to mould the torso into a certain shape. For additional support and protection when playing sports, men often wear more tightly fitting underwear, including jockstraps and trunks. Women may wear sports bras which provide greater support, thus increasing comfort and reducing the chance of damage to the ligaments of the chest during high-impact exercises such as jogging.

In cold climates, undergarments are an additional layer of clothing that help the wearer to keep warm. Undergarments can be used to preserve the wearer's modesty – for instance, some women wear camisoles and slips (petticoats) under clothes that are sheer. Conversely, undergarments can also be worn for erotic effect. It is possible to purchase underwear made specifically for sexual titillation, such as edible underwear and crotchless panties.

Some items of clothing are designed as underwear, while others such as T-shirts and certain types of shorts are suitable both as undergarments and as outer clothing. The suitability of underwear as outer clothing is, apart from the indoor or outdoor climate, largely dependent on societal norms, fashion and the requirements of the law. If made of suitable material, some undergarments can serve as nightwear or swimsuits.

Religious functions

Two-piece-style Mormon temple garments

Undergarments can also have religious significance:

• Judaism. Male Orthodox Jews wear a four-cornered prayer shawl called a tallit katan, which has tzitzit (fringes) attached to the corners, draped over their shoulders. To conform with societal dress codes, a tallit katan is often worn beneath one's shirt, but above an undershirt as it should not come into contact with the skin.^[1]
• Mormonism. Most members of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) wear special temple garments after they have been endowed in a temple to help them remember the teachings of the temple.^[2]
• Sikhism. One of the panj kakaar (five articles of faith) that Sikh men wear is a type of underpants called the kaccha, which are similar to boxer shorts.

Types and styles

Common contemporary types and styles of undergarments are listed in the table below.

Fashions and trends

Designers and retailers

A number of major designer labels are renowned for their underwear collections, including Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana. Likewise, specialist underwear brands such as 2(x)ist, C-IN2, Ginch Gonch, Lord and Obviously are constantly emerging.

Specialist retailers of underwear include high street stores La Senza (Canada), Agent Provocateur (UK), Victoria's Secret (USA), and GapBody, the lingerie division of the Gap established in 1998 (USA). In 2008 Abercrombie & Fitch opened a new chain of stores, Gilly Hicks, to compete with other underwear retailers.

Exposed undergarments

See also: Sagging (fashion)

Underwear is sometimes partly exposed for fashion reasons or to titillate. A woman may, for instance, allow the top of her brassiere to peek out from under her collar, or wear a see-through blouse over it. Some men wear T-shirts underneath partly- or fully-unbuttoned shirts.

A common style among young men is to allow their trousers to sag below their waists, thus revealing the waistband or a greater portion of their boxer shorts. A woman wearing low-rise trousers which expose the upper rear portion of her thong underwear is said to display a "whale tail".

Not wearing undergarments

Main article: Going commando

Not wearing undergarments under one's outer clothing is known in American slang as freeballing for men or freebuffing for women; in addition, the term going commando is used for both sexes.^[4] People choose to forgo underwear for reasons of comfort, to enable their outer garments (particularly those which are form-fitting) to look more flattering, or because they find it sexually arousing. The practice is not without its risks, particularly for women, some of whom have been the victims of upskirt photographers.

Certain types of clothes, such as cycling shorts and kilts, are designed to be worn or are traditionally worn without underwear.

History

Ancient history

A mosaic from the Piazza Armerina in Sicily showing a woman wearing a strophium (breastcloth) and a subligaculum

The loincloth is the simplest form of underwear; it was probably the first undergarment worn by human beings. In warmer climates the loincloth was often the only clothing worn (effectively making it an outer garment rather than an undergarment), as was doubtless its origin, but in colder regions the loincloth often formed the basis of a person's clothing and was covered by other garments. In most ancient civilizations, this was the only undergarment available.

A loincloth may take three major forms. The first, and simplest, is simply a long strip of material which is passed between the legs and then around the waist. Archaeologists have found the remains of such loincloths made of leather dating back 7,000 years.^[5] The ancient Hawaiian malo was of this form, as are several styles of the Japanese fundoshi. Another form is usually called a cache-sexe: a triangle of cloth is provided with strings or loops, which are used to fasten the triangle between the legs and over the genitals. Egyptian king Tutankhamun (1341 BC – 1323 BC) was found buried with numerous linen loincloths of this style.^[5] An alternate form is more skirt-like: a cloth is wrapped around the hips several times and then fastened with a girdle.

Men are said to have worn loincloths in ancient Greece and Rome, though it is unclear whether Greek women wore undergarments. There is some speculation that only slaves wore loincloths and that citizens did not wear undergarments beneath their chitons. Mosaics of the Roman period indicate that women (primarily in an athletic context, whilst wearing nothing else) sometimes wore strophiae (breastcloths) or brassieres made of soft leather, along with subligaculae which were either in the form of shorts or loincloths. Subligaculae were also worn by men.^[5]

The fabric used for loincloths may have been wool, linen or a linsey-woolsey blend. Only the upper classes could have afforded imported silk.

The loincloth continues to be worn by people around the world – it is the traditional form of undergarment in many Asian societies, for example. In various, mainly tropical, cultures, the traditional male dress may still consist of only a single garment below the waist or even none at all, with underwear as optional, including the Far-Eastern dhoti and lungi, or the Scottish kilt.

Medieval braies

Middle Ages and Renaissance

In the Middle Ages, western men's underwear became looser fitting. The loincloth was replaced by loose, trouser-like clothing called braies, which the wearer stepped into and then laced or tied around the waist and legs at about mid-calf. Wealthier men often wore chausses as well, which only covered the legs.^[5]

A 1532–1533 portrait by Titian of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, in a codpiece

By the time of the Renaissance, braies had become shorter to accommodate longer styles of chausses. Chausses were also giving way to form-fitting hose,^[5] which covered the legs and feet. Fifteenth-century hose were often particolored, with each leg in a different-coloured fabric or even more than one colour on a leg. However, many types of braies, chausses and hose were not intended to be covered up by other clothing, so they were not actually underwear in the strict sense.

Braies were usually fitted with a front flap that was buttoned or tied closed. This codpiece allowed men to urinate without having to remove the braies completely.^[5] Codpieces were also worn with hose when very short doublets – vest-like garments tied together in the front and worn under other clothing – were in fashion, as early forms of hose were open at the crotch. Henry VIII of England began padding his codpiece, which caused a spiralling trend of larger and larger codpieces that only ended by the end of the 16th century. It has been speculated that the King may have had the venereal disease syphilis, and his large codpiece may have included a bandage soaked in medication to relieve its symptoms.^[5] Henry VIII also wanted a healthy son and may have thought that projecting himself in this way would portray fertility. Codpieces were sometimes used as a pocket for holding small items.^[5]

A lady wearing an informal linen jacket over her rose-pink pair of bodies, smock, and elaborate petticoat, c. 1600

Over the upper part of their bodies, both medieval men and women usually wore a close-fitting shirt-like garment called a chemise in France, or a smock or shift in England. The forerunner of the modern-day shirt, men tucked long chemises into their braies and wore their outer clothing on top. Women wore them underneath their gowns or robes, sometimes with petticoats over the chemise. Elaborately quilted petticoats might be displayed by a cut-away dress, in which case they served a skirt rather than an undergarment. During the 16th century, the farthingale was popular. This was a petticoat stiffened with reed or willow rods so that it stood out from a woman's body like a cone extending from the waist.

Corsets also began to be worn about this time. At first they were called pairs of bodies, which refers to a stiffened decorative bodice worn on top of another bodice stiffened with buckram, reeds, canes, whalebone or other materials. These were not the small-waisted, curved corsets familiar from the Victorian era, but straight-lined corsets that flattened the bust.

There is a myth that Crusaders, worried about the fidelity of their wives, forced them to wear chastity belts. There is no reference, image, or surviving belt to support this story. Most historians of this period are of the view that a chastity belt was worn to prevent sexual assault and that the woman kept the key.

Men's braies and hose were eventually replaced by simple cotton, silk or linen drawers, which were usually knee-length trousers with a button flap in the front.^[5]

Enlightenment and Industrial Age

Tight Lacing, or Fashion Before Ease, an early-1770s satirical drawing by John Collet

The invention of the spinning jenny machines and the cotton gin in the second half of the 18th century made cotton fabrics widely available. This allowed factories to mass-produce underwear, and for the first time, people began buying undergarments in stores rather than making them at home.

Women's stays of the 18th century were laced behind and drew the shoulders back to form a high, round bosom and erect posture. Coloured stays were popular. With the relaxed country styles of the end of the century, stays became shorter and were unboned or only lightly boned, and were now called corsets. Undue binding of a corset sometimes led to a woman needing to retire to the fainting room. As tight waists became fashionable in the 1820s, the corset was again boned and laced to form the figure. By the 1860s, a tiny ("wasp") waist came to be seen as a symbol of beauty, and the corsets were stiffened with whalebone or steel to accomplish this. By the 1880s, the dress reform movement was campaigning against the pain and damage to internal organs and bones caused by tight lacing. Inez Gaches-Sarraute invented the "health corset", with a straight-fronted bust made to help support the wearer's muscles.

The corset was usually worn over a thin shirt-like shift of cotton or muslin.^[6] In the latter half of the 19th century, as skirt styles became shorter, long drawers called pantalettes or pantaloons often accompanied the shift to keep the legs out of sight.

"Health corsets" in 1883

As skirts became fuller from the 1830s, women wore a profusion of petticoats to achieve a fashionable bell shape. By the 1850s, stiffened crinolines and later hoop skirts allowed ever wider skirts to be worn. The bustle, a frame or pad worn over the buttocks to enhance their shape, had been used off and on by women for two centuries, but reached the height of its popularity in the later 1880s, and went out of fashion for good in the 1890s. Women dressed in crinolines generally wore drawers under them for modesty and warmth.

Another common undergarment of the late-19th century for men, women and children was the union suit. Invented in Utica, New York, and patented in 1868, this was a one-piece front-buttoning garment usually made of knitted material with sleeves extending to the wrists and legs down to the ankles. It had a buttoned flap (known colloquially as the "access hatch", "drop seat" or "fireman's flap") in the back to ease visits to the toilet. The union suit was the precursor of long johns, a two-piece garment consisting of a long-sleeved top and long pants possibly named after American boxer John L. Sullivan who wore a similar garment in the ring.^[5]

The jockstrap was invented in 1874 by C.F. Bennett of a Chicago sporting goods company, Sharp & Smith, to provide comfort and support for bicycle jockeys riding the cobblestone streets of Boston, Massachusetts.^[5] In 1897 Bennett's newly-formed Bike Web Company patented and began mass-producing the Bike Jockey Strap.^[7]

1900s to 1920s

Ladies' underwear advertisement, 1913

By the early 20th century, the mass-produced undergarment industry was booming, and competition forced producers to come up with all sorts of innovative and gimmicky designs to compete. The Hanes company emerged from this boom and quickly established itself as a top manufacturer of union suits, which were common until the 1930s.^[5] Textile technology continued to improve, and the time to make a single union suit dropped from days to minutes.

Meanwhile, designers of women's undergarments relaxed the corset. The invention of new, flexible but supportive materials allowed whalebone and steel bones to be removed. The emancipation or liberty bodice offered an alternative to constricting corsets, and in Australia and the UK the liberty bodice became a standard item for girls as well as women.

Men's underwear was also on the rise. Benjamin Joseph Clark, a migrant to Louisiana from New Jersey, opened a venture capitalist firm named Bossier in Bossier Parish. One product manufactured by his firm was tightly-fitting boxers that resembled modern underwear. Though the company was bankrupt by the early 1900s, it had some impact on men's underwear design.

The increase in the number of underwear manufacturers necessitated the birth of undergarment advertising. The first underwear print advertisement in the US ran in the Saturday Evening Post in 1911 and featured oil paintings by J.C. Leyendecker of the "Kenosha Klosed Krotch". Early underwear advertisements placed emphasis on durability and comfort; fashion was never a selling point.

By the end of the 1910s, Chalmers Knitting Company split the union suit into upper and lower sections, effectively inventing the modern undershirt and drawers. Women wore lacier versions of this basic duo known as the camisole and drawers.

In 1912, the US had its first professional underwear designer. Lindsay "Layneau" Boudreaux, a French immigrant, established the short-lived panty company Layneau. Though her company closed within one year, it had a significant impact on many levels. Boudreaux showed the world that an American woman could establish and run a company, and she also caused a revolution in the underwear industry. Boudreaux is possibly the reason why upscale underwear and panty stores exist today.

In 1913, a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob changed women's fashion forever when she created the first brassiere by tying two handkerchiefs together with ribbon. Jacob's original intention was to cover the whalebone sticking out of her corset, which was visible through her sheer dress. Jacob began making brassieres for her family and friends, and news of the garment soon spread by word of mouth. By 1914, Jacob had a patent for her design and was marketing it throughout the US. Although women had worn brassiere-like garments in years past, Jacob's was the first to be successfully marketed and widely adopted.

By the end of the decade, trouser-like "bloomers", which were popularized by Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818-1894) but invented by Elizabeth Smith Miller, gained popularity with the so-called Gibson Girls who enjoyed pursuits such as cycling and tennis. This new female athleticism helped push the corset out of style. The other major factor in the corset's demise was the fact that metal was globally in short supply during the First World War. Steel-laced corsets were dropped in favour of the brassiere.

A corset over "step ins" and camisole, 1922

Meanwhile, World War I soldiers were issued button-front shorts as underwear. The buttons attached to a separate piece of cloth, or "yoke", sewn to the front of the garment, and tightness of fit was adjusted by means of ties on the sides. This design proved so popular that it began to supplant the union suit in popularity by the end of the war. Rayon garments also became widely available in the post-war period.

In the 1920s, manufacturers shifted emphasis from durability to comfort. Union suit advertisements raved about patented new designs that reduced the number of buttons and increased accessibility. Most of these experimental designs had to do with new ways to hold closed the crotch flap common on most union suits and drawers. A new woven cotton fabric called nainsook gained popularity in the 1920s for its durability. Retailers also began selling preshrunk undergarments.

Women's bloomers became much shorter and stockings covered the legs instead. The shorter bloomers became looser and less supportive as the boyish flapper look came into fashion. By the end of the decade, they came to be known as "step-ins", very much like modern panties but with wider legs. They were worn for the increased flexibility they afforded.

As dancing became a favourite pastime of young flappers, the garter belt was invented to keep stockings from falling. The increased sexual awareness of the flapper also made underwear sexier than ever before. It was the flappers who ushered in the era of lingerie.

A Russian immigrant named Ida Rosenthal further developed the brassiere in this decade when she introduced modern cup sizes in 1928 for her company, Maidenform.

1930s and 1940s

A man wearing a pair of boxer shorts

Modern men's underwear was largely an invention of the 1930s. On 19 January 1935, Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs in Chicago. Designed by an "apparel engineer" named Arthur Kneibler, briefs dispensed with leg sections and had a Y-shaped overlapping fly.^[5] The company dubbed the design the "Jockey" since it offered a degree of support that had previously only been available from the jockstrap. Jockey briefs proved so popular that over 30,000 pairs were sold within three months of their introduction. Coopers, having renamed the company Jockey, sent its "Mascul-line" plane to make special deliveries of "masculine support" briefs to retailers across the US. In 1938, when Jockeys were introduced in the UK, they sold at the rate of 3,000 a week.^[5]

In this decade, companies also began selling buttonless drawers fitted with an elastic waistband. These were the first true boxer shorts, which were named for their resemblance to the shorts worn by professional fighters. Scovil Manufacturing introduced the snap fastener at this time, which became a popular addition to various kinds of undergarments.

Women of the 1930s brought the corset back, now called the "girdle". The garment lacked the whalebone and metal supports and usually came with a brassiere (now usually called a "bra") and attached garters.

During World War II, elastic waistbands and metal snaps gave way once again to button fasteners due to rubber and metal shortages. Undergarments were harder to find as well, since soldiers abroad had priority to obtain them. By the end of the war, Jockey and Hanes remained the industry leaders in the US, but Cluett, Peabody and Company made a name for itself when it introduced a preshrinking process called "Sanforization", invented by Sanford Cluett in 1933, which came to be licensed by most major manufacturers.

Meanwhile, some women adopted the corset once again, now called the "waspie" for the wasp-shaped waistline it gave the wearer. Many women began wearing the strapless bra as well, which gained popularity for its ability to push the breasts up and enhance cleavage.

1950s and 1960s

In the 1950s, underwear manufacturers began marketing printed and coloured undergarments. What had once been a simple, white piece of clothing not to be shown in public suddenly became a fashion statement. Manufacturers also experimented with rayon and newer fabrics like Dacron, nylon and Spandex.^[5] By 1960, men's underwear was regularly printed in loud patterns, or with messages or images such as cartoon characters.

Women's undergarments began to emphasize the breasts instead of the waist. The decade saw the introduction of the bullet bra pointed bust, inspired by Christian Dior's " New Look", which featured pointed cups. The original Wonderbra and push-up bra by Frederick's of Hollywood finally hit it big. Women's panties became more colourful and decorative, and by the mid-1960s were available in two abbreviated styles called the hip-hugger and the bikini (named after the Pacific Ocean island of that name), frequently in sheer nylon fabric.

Pantyhose, also called tights in British English, which combined panties and hose into one garment, made their first appearance in 1959, invented by Glen Raven Mills of North Carolina. The company later introduced seamless pantyhose in 1965, spurred by the popularity of the miniskirt. By the end of the decade, the girdle had fallen out of favour as women chose sexier and lighter alternatives.^[8]

A woman in a camisole, garters and stockings

1970s to the present day

Underwear as fashion matured in the 1970s and 1980s, and underwear advertisers forgot about comfort and durability, at least in advertising. Sex appeal became the main selling point, in swimwear as well, bringing to fruition a trend that had been building since at least the flapper era.

The tank top, an undershirt named after the type of swimwear dating from the 1920s known as a tank suit or maillot, became popular warm-weather casual outerwear in the US in the 1980s. Performers such as Madonna and Cyndi Lauper were also often seen wearing their undergarments on top of other clothes.

Although worn for decades by exotic dancers, in the 1980s the G-string first gained popularity in South America, particularly in Brazil. Originally a style of swimsuit, the back of the garment is so narrow that it disappears between the buttocks. By the 1990s the design had made its way to most of the Western world, and thong underwear became popular. Today, the thong is one of the fastest-selling styles of underwear among women, and is also worn by men.

While health and practicality had previously been emphasized, in the 1970s retailers of men's underpants began focusing on fashion and sex appeal. Designers such as Calvin Klein began featuring near-naked models in their advertisements. The increased wealth of the gay community helped to promote a diversity of undergarment choices. In his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975),^[9] Andy Warhol wrote:

I told B I needed some socks too and at least 30 pairs of Jockey shorts. He suggested I switch to Italian-style briefs, the ones with the T-shaped crotch that tends to build you up. I told him I'd tried them once, in Rome, the day I was walking through a Liz Taylor movie – and I didn't like them because they made me too self-aware. It gave me the feeling girls must have when they wear uplift bras.^[5]

Male models posing in briefs – photographed on 17 January 2008.

Warhol liked his Jockey briefs so much that he used a pair as a canvas for one of his dollar-sign paintings.^[5]

In the UK in the 1970s, tight jeans gave briefs a temporary edge over boxer shorts, but a decade later boxers were given a boost by Nick Kamen's performance in Levi's "Launderette" TV commercial for its 501 jeans, during which he stripped down to a pair of white boxer shorts in a public laundromat.^[5]

The 1990s saw the introduction of boxer briefs, which take the longer shape of boxers but maintain the tightness of briefs. Hip hop stars popularized "sagging", in which loosely fitting jeans or shorts were allowed to droop below the waist, exposing the waistband or a greater portion of boxer shorts worn underneath. The chiselled muscularity of Mark Wahlberg (then known as Marky Mark) in a series of 1990s underwear advertisements for Calvin Klein led to his success as a white hip hop star and a Hollywood actor.^[5]

In January 2008 it was reported that, according to market research firm Mintel, the men's underwear market in the UK was worth £674 million, and volume sales of men's underpants rose by 24% between 2000 and 2005. British manufacturers and retailers claim that most British men prefer "trunks", or short boxer briefs. The director of menswear of major British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S), which sells 40 million pairs of men's underpants a year, was quoted as saying that while boxer shorts were still the most popular at M&S, demand was easing off in favour of hipster trunks similar in design to the swimming trunks worn by actor Daniel Craig in the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006).^[5]

See also

Notes

How to handwash the New Britain Standard Hygienic Underwear, circa 1915

References

• Rushton, Susie (2008-01-22). "A brief history of pants: Why men's smalls have always been a subject of concern", The Independent (Extra), pp. 2–5. 

Further reading

• Cunnington, C[ecil] Willett; Phillis Cunnington (1992). The History of Underclothes. New York, N.Y.: Dover Publications. ISBN 0486271242 (pbk.).  First published in London by Michael Joseph in 1951.
• Hawthorne, Rosemary; Lucy Pettifer & Claire Taylor (ill.) (1993). Stockings & Suspenders: A Quick Flash. London: Souvenir. ISBN 0285631438. 
• Martin, Richard [Harrison]; Harold Koda; photographs by Neil Selkirk (1993). Infra-apparel. New York, N.Y.: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0810964309. ISBN 0870996762 (pbk.). 

External links

• Resource showing Jock Straps and Protective Cups in use, includes historic and patent information.
• The National Underwear Day, August 7, 2007
• History of Underwear, from Freshpair.com
• History of Men's Underwear, from Internationaljock.com
• Esquire Magazine, 1974: A Short History of the Jockstrap
• The Council of Textile & Fashion Industries of Australia
• History of Underwear on mum.org
• A thorough history of 20th century underwear
• The origin of underwear
• Historical Lingerie pictures from the New York Public Library Picture Collection

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