"A Sleeker, Shaplier You!" (Hordern Brothers, Spring-Summer 1955)

 "The bottom half of the female body also went through a sequence of re-imaginings, from the suspender (US garter) belt, to what was euphemistically called girdles. These were all pretty grim, as I remember them in the UK, tight elasticated tubes we called 'roll-ons' worn between waist and thigh, hot and sticky in summer, clammy and cold in winter."

Rosalind Miles "Rebel Women" (2020)

 

The fashions of the 1950s looked glamorous, but what went on underneath was hard work.   Here we have a catalogue page full of bras wired and seamed to "lift and separate" (and point!) the wearer's breasts, and girdles to flatten tummies and whittle waists.  Advertisers liked to stress the comfort of these garments, but even a cursory glance indicates that they were anything but.

Bras and Knickers from "Good Needlework" (June 1931)

 In June 1931, Good Needlework made the patterns for these bras and knickers available to their readers—along with embroidery transfers for people who wanted to add a decorative touch to their lingerie.

While undeniably less bulky than Victorian and Edwardian underwear, these garments are still pretty roomy by modern standards.  You'll notice that the bras now have cups: a new touch since the flat-chested 1920s.  However, they lack the padding, wiring and circular seaming used to "lift and separate" women's breasts in the more bosom'y 1940s and 1950s.

Nylon Petticoats (National Bellas Hess, Winter 1960)

 In keeping with our underwear theme this month, I bring you these frothy, frilly petticoats from the early 1960s.

The very bouffant skirts that were fashionable at this time needed something to hold them out, and what could have worked better than petticoats made of one of the new postwar synthetics?  They would have been light to wear and easy to launder—though alas, probably also prone to generating static.

(This wasn't the first instance of cutting edge technology being put to the service of fashion.  The hooped skirts of the 1850s and 60s, for example, were only made possible by new industrial processes for mass-producing wire.)

"Home made brassiere" - 1940s style (Stitchcraft, May 1942)

 (As wartime shortages started to bite in the shops, women were encouraged to start making things for themselves.  This pattern for a bra is one example.  It could be made from scraps of material—and note that it only uses a small amount of scarce elastic and no metal needed for munitions!)

MATERIALS: Small piece of material, matching cotton, piece of elastic, one button, ribbons for shoulder straps.

 

Draw up a piece of paper into 2-inch squares and sketch the shapes with the outline in the same relation to squares, as shown on small draft.  This will fit a 34-inch bust, to make smaller or larger sizes, draw the squares very slightly smaller or larger than 2 inches.

Cut out in double material allowing ¼ inch turnings, also cut a strip 2 by 28 inches for the bottom edge.  Join edges marked in dotted line with a tiny french seam and press flat.  Turn narrow hem down two short straight front edges and faggot together (see diagram 1) tacking to brown paper with edges ⅛ inch apart.

Tack narrow hems on wrong side round outer edges and hem with shell edging (see diagram 2).  Sew straight strip across bottom edge, first on right side then turnover and slip hem on wrong side.  

 

Stitch a button at one end and insert loop of narrow elastic in the other end.  Attach ribbon shoulder straps to front points and the end of the band.

Camisole ("Home Fashions", July 1914)

 Underwear isn't often shown on the cover of fashion magazines, but that's what Home Fashions did in July 1914 when it offered this free pattern for a camisole to its readers.

A camisole was a sleeveless (though this version is shown with cap sleeves) bodice worn as a protective layer between the corset and the outer garments.  Home Fashions advised its readers that this camisole was "suitable for wearing beneath a blouse or bodice of semi-transparent material" and recommended piece embroidery, spot net or sprig muslin for making it up.

Camisoles came briefly back into fashion as outerwear in the 1970s as part of that decade's fondness for nostalgia.

A Look At Corsets (1920)

"Half the ungainliness of movement and of pose, of which we are hearing so much of now, is to be put down to the ill-advised choice of corsets.  If one sees, as one so often does, a woman sitting with her knees too far apart, the ugly pose is generally brought about by corsets that are cut unduly long, and so prevent free movement of the limbs.  If she sprawls at table instead of sitting upright, it is just as probable that they are cut too low in the back, and so afford her insufficient support.  If she walks from the waist instead of from the hips, the chances are that the figure below the waist is too firmly corseted.  That is what a corset expert told me."

Australian Home Journal, July 1920

 

There's an urban myth that corsets disappeared from women's wardrobes with the start of the 1920s.  While some younger and more daring flappers might have given their corsets the flick, most women were still lacing themselves up in boned "foundation" garments.  The difference was that they were using them to flatten their curves rather than obtain a tiny waist, as you can see in this advertisement from 1920.

Later in the decade it became possible to buy undergarments to flatten breasts as well as abdomens.  With the development of stretch materials the corset gradually morphed into the elastic girdle, then into "control top" pantyhose.  The latest versions of figure controlling undergarments are known as "shapewear", but thankfully they aren't as prevalent as corsets were!

"The Look - and How to Have It" (David Jones, Winter 1971)

 Tops and skirts are as about as traditional as it gets in women's clothing.  Here we have some early seventies versions, along with a double breasted coat as worn by the model on the right.

Since David Jones was (and is) a rather upmarket department store, the garments depicted are all made from pure wool rather than cheaper 1970s synthetics.  I'm disappointed to note, however, that the  herringbone tweed coat on the right only has "mock pockets" rather than the real thing!