It's Almost A Complete Load Of Pants
April 17, 2016 9:14 AM   Subscribe

BBC: "Ever since the Victoria and Albert Museum opened, textiles and how they're used has been a primary focus. But it's taken until now to organise a whole exhibition about underwear. The curator says more than any other clothing, underwear is a mix of the alluring and the utterly practical." [V&A]
posted by marienbad (8 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
"me explaining underwear to aliens: we have smaller, secret pants that we wear under our normal pants"
wrecknician.tumblr.com
posted by maxwelton at 9:38 AM on April 17, 2016 [5 favorites]


...Okay.

There are more things apart from corsets that are more interesting-- bra-like Regency era stays, open-crotch pantalettes (so you could crouch over a chamberpot in the 1840s without having to deal with a half dozen petticoats or a modern crinoline), or early menstrual belts/ pads and aprons. But I guess latex corsets are things some women wear too.
posted by sukeban at 9:46 AM on April 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


Related: This is Underwear Time
'The cover of a 1920s trade catalog with the title “This is Underwear Time” — complete with the illustration of a a man getting dressed while his dog looks on — is one of those times where we can unequivocally proclaim to have found a truly (possibly unintentionally) brilliant piece of marketing.'
posted by cynical pinnacle at 9:51 AM on April 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


OK, that pantalettes link has this fascinating bit of trivia: "It has been recorded Queen Victoria had fresh, new, hand made, silk undergarments every day of her adult life, so starting around the time she took the throne, 1837. Once removed from her royal body, these garments were cleaned, then embroidered with a crown, the date, and the initials VR, for Victoria Regina, and perhaps VRI (Imperatrix, once she became Empress of India, 1876)." It's one thing to use underwear only once, another thing entirely to have the worn undergarments meticulously cataloged.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:16 AM on April 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


...open-crotch pantalettes (so you could crouch over a chamberpot in the 1840s without having to deal with a half dozen petticoats...

I've made and worn those. If you're doing a show in a late Victorian corset, even having a modern toilet isn't going to make it easier to go to the bathroom. The key is a low, loose crotch. I was doing a lot of dancing last time I pulled out the Victorian drag, and it was starting to feel a little breezy down there. So, I added two buttons and buttonholes. It's the ladylike version of the flap in the back of your long johns.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:06 PM on April 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


It's one thing to use underwear only once, another thing entirely to have the worn undergarments meticulously cataloged.

I've been lately mainlining documentaries with Lucy Worsley and she's got access to the royal wardrobe. Apparently the underclothes of British royals were usually monogrammed when they were gifted/discarded -- this episode for example has clothes of several royals in it (8:40 for William III's socks and vest, 38:50 for George III's clothes with monogrammed shirt).
posted by sukeban at 12:30 PM on April 17, 2016


> I've made and worn those.

Monster.
posted by mosk at 12:31 PM on April 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


The V&A had a nice exhibition on shoes last year as well (here's a video tour of it with Lianne La Havas), which, as a genus of clothing, are also a nice fit for the "mixture of alluring and utterly practical" quote from the main post.
posted by dng at 2:02 PM on April 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


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