AUTHOR: Cyril Bladier TITLE: The Advance Of Ladies Underwear As An Indicator Of Social Acceptance DATE: 7:27:00 AM ----- BODY:

By Kyle Framsburger

If one is to take a look at the ladies underwear women have endured since the 1800s in America, one will recognize that the changes one sees are directly in proportion to the changes in social expectation and status of women in general. Women in early America had very little social standing in the form of legal rights, and their struggles to attain suffrage and fairness are reflective of an overbearing patriarchal way of thinking that dominated US history and some believe still does.


Beginning with the fashion in vogue for women in 1800, there are several things to point out. First the women truly look beautiful in elegant dresses made famous through the magic of Hollywood. What is generally left out of the films is the severity of the uncomfortable undergarments tying the women into the shape the dresses accentuate. A women wore a device replete with whale bones and strong laces that were tightened around their body to attain the impossibly symmetric shape expected at the time.

Another problem with the lovely dresses of that time was the desire by fashion aficionados to have the skirt portion of the dress bellow out in a full bell shape. Since fabric alone could not hold this preferred image and women certainly are not built that way, a creation known as the crinoline was developed to make it possible. This contraption was actually made of metal in the shape of an dome to hold the bottom portion of the dress out, and to help hold up the weight of this layered clothing.

Eventually the tight fit of the restrictive undergarments was recognized as an overall unhealthy thing, but it remained well into the next century. The beginning of the end was the invention of fibers that had a stretching ability that could be made into lengths. While this would not eliminate the corset, it allowed for the device to be transformed into a true piece of clothing. It was still restrictive, but more along the lines of skin tight body wear, not ropes and knots.

The corset was gradually replaced with a new undergarment, the brassier, which did not actually emphasize the bust, but instead served to flatten it. As the century wore on, World War II saw the invention of nylons and the appearance of boxer shorts. After the war women sought more luxury and femininity, and unfortunately the waist of a wasp returned as the style. Marketers began to see young women as a target consumer market and for the first time undergarments specifically for this age group appeared.

In the wild and crazy decade of the 60s, the US in general experienced a tumultuous period of social change. Civil rights, rages against an unpopular war, and the notion that women should be afforded the same rights in the workplace as men highlight the news. World War II had thrust women into the workplace, but the return of the men pushed them back into the shadows. As a symbol of their dedication to freedom and emancipation from male dominance, many women burned bras, while men burned their draft cards, it was a time of turmoil.

A fabulous invention by a man named Joseph Shivers in 1958 changed fabric in general, and the undergarments women wore forever. The addition of this chemical to the fibers used to make clothing allowed the end material a measure of flexibility and elasticity unseen until that time. Clothing could be comfortable, and one of the more famous uses of the material was in the development of comfortable brassieres for women.

The evolution of undergarments for girls and women evolved rapidly, and knickers and baggy styles were replaced by smaller and smaller styles until the bikini brief became the most popularly accepted. The 1970s saw as its major change to female undergarment the invention of the push-up bra. Ladies underwear had come 180 degrees from restrictive designs made to force women to a societal mandated shape, to one of comfort and femininity that allowed for the freedom of individual choice.
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