2

Georges Feydeau, Mais n’te promène donc pas toute nue!, (“You are surely not going out completely naked!”) a one-act comedy, scene II, 1911.

3

Armand Silvestre, Les Dessous à travers les âges, (“Underwear through the ages”) a work from 1914 which was one of thz first studies of women’s underwear of the beginning of the 20th century. This, and all these other works, were written by men.

4

Women’s abdominal muscles are notoriously weak and even intense exercise does not stop them slackening if they are not supported.

5

Honoré de Balzac, Petites misères de la vie conjugale, (“The small miseries of married life”), 1846.

All these terms are explained in the glossary.

6

Cécil de Saint Laurent, Histoire imprévue des dessous féminins, (“An improvised history of women’s underwear”), 1986.

7

1st century Greek doctor and botanist.

8

Pline the old (23–79), Roman, naturalist.

9

Latin poet (43–17).

10

Il vit tout de suite sa silhouette / Son corps rond, sa taille fine: (“He immediately saw her figure/her round body and small waist”).

11

“The corset controversy” chapter 9 of Valérie Steele’s, Fashion and Eroticism, New York, 1985.

12

In the U. S. A., Miss Annie Miller increased the number of organisations which wanted more reasonable dress. In 1904, Arabella Kennedy corseted monkies to show the harmful effect of corsets.

In 1898 the Russian Public Education Minister, Mr Bogoljewov, forbade young girls to come to school in corsets. In 1902 the Roumanian Public Education Minister, Haret, And in 1904, Bulgaria forbade corsets in state schools in the Chimanov leaflet.

13

The origins of the bra are much discussed, see glossary and Corsets et soutiens-gorge, (“Corsets and bras”) by Béatrice Fontanel, Paris, 1992.

14

The quest for a slim body is one of modern woman’s main preoccupations.

15

Rabelais, Gargantua (book I chapter VI.)

16

Molière, Les Précieuses ridicules, (“Precious Ridicule”) a one-act play, scene 5.

17

In 1823, the firm Rogers London made the first metal hooks and eyes in London, but the modern version of this innovation was produced in Paris by Daudé and was put into common use in 1828.

18

Emile Zola, L’Assommoir, chapter I, 1877.

19

Today pyjamas are far from being elegant at home wear.

20

In 1712, the French Oriental Indiana Company lost its privileges and they were teken over in 1719 by the India Company founded by Law.

21

Madapolam is a rough, heavy cotton cloth.

22

Viyella does not shrink. The company overcame a serious crisis in 1911 when laundries became commonplace, proving that the slogan was vulnerable.

23

Hilaire Bernigaud, the Count of Chardonnet (1839–1924), chemist and industrialist.

24

Jump, leap, run, stretch, reach for Spring with underwear that is so short and easy that you can put it on and forget about it… straight away… it is made for you, moves like you and is like you.