Lingerie. Klaus H. Carl
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to the eyes of others and overtly flattering for the woman who dress in this way. There are two kinds of lingerie in my opinion. On the one hand, a woman has the underwear that she desires to show (girdles, suspenders and stockings), and on the other hand the kind of underwear that one wears uniquely for oneself.
Baths and Toilets #7
Anonymous, 18th century
Engraving
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
This latter category should be pleasant for the eye, but also extremely comfortable. Concerning tights, for example, I believe it is very important to make tights which are charming and delicious, so that one could wear them every day and be able, despite everything else, to conserve a seductive power, when one undresses in the presence of a man.
Baths and Toilets no.10
Anonymous, 18th century
Engraving
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
Lingerie is all about being oneself and about one’s attitude. Three terms can be associated with lingerie today: refinement, seduction and comfort. It is necessary to put together these three notions in order to create underwear, excluding vulgarity along the way. To avoid this pitfall, one has to contribute humour and purity.
Woman’s underwear
English, c. 1770–1780 and 1778 respectively
Fine linen shift corset or red silk, damask and side hoop pink striped linen
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The world of lingerie affects everyone. It affects women who wear lingerie, as well as the men who have always believed that they wear it to seduce them. Lingerie deserves to have a greater place in history, as well as in everyday life. Intimate apparel comes in many guises. It can be hidden or exposed, simple or sophisticated, discrete or provocative.
Factory of crinolines: the making of hoops
Bach
Engraving
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
The vast array is traditionally divided into three groups: lingerie, corsetry, and hosiery. Underwear serves a mainly hygienic function. Positioned between the body and its clothing, underwear shields the body from garments made of less comfortable textiles and protects the clothing from body fluids, which is why each epoch produces underwear in various healthful fabrics.
“Le coucher des ouvrières en linge” (The bedtime of the lingerie workers)
c. 1801
Engraving, 15 × 19.2 cm
Maciet collection
Bibliothèque des Arts décoratifs, Paris
Women’s underwear is therefore closely associated with intimacy and feminine hygiene: the first articles of lingerie in contact with the female body were worn in the context of menstruation and evolved into the contemporary sanitary napkin. The word underwear is synonymous with lingerie, the term used to refer to specific undergarments such as petticoats and camisoles, and later bloomers, leggings, underpants, undershirts, and full-length slips.
Corset
c. 1820
White cotton, Inv. 1957.16.17
Leloir Fund, Musée Galliera, Paris
In families of modest means and during wartime, some articles of lingerie were made from worn-out household linens (usually old bed sheets), because underwear and household linens were made from similar materials. Among these fabrics comfort is the common denominator with cotton the most popular choice for its softness, lightness, and hygienic qualities.
“Le Bon Genre № 30” Grisettes’ Bedtime
c. 1830
Private collection, Paris
Other more or less delicate fabrics came to be used for making lingerie: linen, silk, and synthetic fabrics in relatively light weaves such as plain and satin weave, jersey, lawn, muslin, percale, and voile. These fabrics are sometimes found trimmed with decorative and frequently seductive details. For lingerie is not limited to a protective function – it is also a sophisticated costume accessory.
“Eight o’clock in the evening”
Achille Deveria, c. 1830
Les Heures de la Parisienne
Musée Galliera, Paris
Underclothes assume the status of over-clothes when lingerie is partially revealed or fully exposed through flirtatiousness, fashion, or provocation, in which case it flaunts the characteristic frills and flounces of coquetry in the form of lace, embroidery, and ribbons. Lingerie colours vary according to the woman wearing it, changing as a function of her age, status, social role, taste, intended effect, and as fashion dictates.
Ladies underwear
English 1835 and 1834 respectively
Linen shift and cotton drawers
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
But lingerie is only rarely fully displayed due to its association with nudity, as demonstrated by Georges Feydeau’s play, Put Some Clothes On, Clarisse! in which Ventroux chastises his wife for appearing in front of her son in a camisole. “That is completely see-through!“ he tells her. Clarisse replies that she cannot be nude because she is wearing her camisole.
“Trop peu! Trop!” (Too much! Too little!)
Charles Vernier, 1855
Engraving, Charivari
Musée Galliera, Paris
The episode demonstrates that from a woman’s perspective lingerie provides coverage, whereas the male sees the nudity underneath. Because of its contact with skin and its close association with feminine intimacy, lingerie was and remains an object of fantasy among men, discretely fostered by the women who wear it.
“Utilité de la crinoline” (Of the utility of crinoline)
Charles Vernier, 1855
Engraving, Charivari
Musée Galliera, Paris
Glimpsing petticoat flounces in the 18th and 19th centuries had the same impact on the male observer’s imagination as making out the panties or string under a young woman’s jeans today. Lingerie is erotically charged precisely because it is the most private aspect of femininity. The corsetry category belongs more to the realm of disguise.
Underwear of cotton chemise, whalebone corset of blue silk and crinoline spring. Steel hoop