The Victorians: Lingerie Innovators

The 1800s marked the end of the Napoleonic wars and the return of the boned corset. The high-waisted neoclassical dress with no stays was regarded as being part of the discord and promiscuity of the revolutionary era and, consequently, corseted fashion again surged in popularity. From the end of French Revolution to WWI, the aristocratic body became transformed into the feminine ideal that applied to all classes. While the Victorians are often seen as modest and prudish, they were the great innovators of underwear--and, not surprisingly, today's most famous lingerie line, Victoria’s Secret1, adopted the era’s name (Workman 1996).

For example, in 1829, the first steel-front busk fastening was created allowing women to put on or take off the corset without assistance. In 1830, the elastic corset was introduced offering more comfort. In the 1850s, the crinoline returned--though if a woman tripped and fell, the crinoline would embarrassingly spread out like 3-D fan, exposing her to all in her company (Steele 2001). Victorian England also introduced laced trimmings and embroidery, the frilled pantaloon, as well as the first silk underwear. The invention of steam molding and dye also allowed lingerie to be colored and ideally shaped.

Victorian fashion highlighted a woman’s body with exaggerated full sleeves, minuscule corseted waists, and whalebone hoops and crinolines covered with yards of fabric and enhanced by bustles. Taking it all off was quite a task, and both textual and visual accounts associate Victorian clothing with sexual anticipation (Kunzle 2004). Not surprisingly, this era spawned the first striptease shows. In 1876, garters that hooked to a woman’s stockings were invented and French dancers created great excitement when they showed glimpses of their garters stretched across their thigh. The garters were actually functional because they anchored the corset so that it could not ride up, allowing it to be worn in a less restrictive and tight manner (Steele 2001).

The invention of the bicycle and the walking dress in the Victorian age also spawned the creation of knickers and “drawers” that were attached individually to a deep waistband which fasted at the back. For the first time, women had a dual wardrobe and dual underwear, one for fashion and one for athletic pursuits (Ewing 1972).

Tags: marked neoclassical dress body innovators feminine underwear