‡ Voodoo Envy ‡

Underwear, a brief history
Article written by Tatyana Mishel, MSN writer.

The following photos highlight the evolution of our underwear — and how these prime pieces have earned their place in history for lifting, cinching, smoothing, supporting and adorning our various body parts.

 

The Egyptian

We start our tour with the loincloth, one of the original forms of clothing. King Tut was found buried with them, and today some indigenous tribes still wear them. But we’ve come a long way since people roamed their communities in nothing but triangular G-strings and cloth swatches.

 

 

The codpiece

This strategically placed pouch showed up in the 15th century to adorn the male crotch. Some codpieces, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, were decorated with gems. Other sources say codpieces were used to carry family jewels. (We mean that literally.) They also held coins or sweets. Basically they doubled as a very small man-purse. Rumor has it that King Henry VIII liked his codpieces padded.

 

 

The Corsets

Corsets molded, synched, flattened or lifted women’s silhouettes, for a look largely associated with the fashion of the 1800s and the Victorian age.

The ultimate achievement of the corset? The 20-inch waist — and along with it, stories (some likely exaggerated) of contraptions so tight they damaged internal organs. Some credit corsets, which were often worn under numerous layers of clothing, with giving us the “fainting couch,” a place for women to lie down when they became light-headed or overheated.

 

The push-up bra

Although one of the first push-up bras hit the market in 1893, the “uplift” bra, as it was first called, became popular in the 1940s thanks to Maidenform and its long-running “I dream” ads.

The campaign featured a woman wearing nothing on top but a very pointy bra with text that read: “I dreamed I barged down the Nile in my Maidenform bra.” Cruising the Nile was just one of the many dream activities; there was also shopping, being an outlaw, going bowling and painting the town red.

Men’s great debate: Boxers or briefs?

In the 1800s, men wore union suits. But in the 20th century, men’s undergarments were liberated and in came two choices: boxer shorts, inspired by the roomy shorts worn by pugilists; and briefs, which were introduced in 1934 by Jockey and offered “masculine support,” according to the company’s Web site.

Since then, not much has changed, other than a friendly rivalry between the two skivvies. In 1958, Elvis Presley’s preference was exposed in this photograph of a weigh-in for Army recruits.

Still, the question of “Boxers or briefs?” held steady. It became an unspoken test of coolness and class — boxers were for preppies, “tighty whities” for the working class, according to the book “Unmentionables: A Brief History of Underwear.”

 

 

Women’s sexy underwear

During the 1960s and 1970s, women’s underwear officially shifted away from utilitarian to sexy — thanks in part to a little store called Frederick’s of Hollywood. It opened back in 1946 and was among the first mainstream lingerie shops to sell alluring undergarments.

Until the early 19th century, women didn’t wear underpants. All pants were for men. By the 1950s, women had been through a lot (voting, entering the workforce, competing in sports), and so had their textiles (elastic, nylon, Lycra, washing machines). And it was those developments that allowed undergarments to be more flexible and form-fitting. Of course, lingerie followed.

 

Underwear as outerwear

When Madonna hit the music scene in the ’80s, she flaunted lacy black bras with her urban-urchin look. Ever since, women’s fashion has been ripped at the seams. Showing a bit of bra underneath a sheer shirt was not only acceptable but stylish.

A decade later, the Material Girl was performing in corsets and conical bras designed by Jean Paul Gaultier. The trend of underwear as outerwear lives on. For spring-summer 2009 shows, fashion designers such as Max Mara and Marc Jacobs sent models down the catwalk in elaborate outfits with “pants” that resembled little more than haute-couture granny panties.

The thong

The thong was introduced in the 1980s with one very important job to do: eliminate all panty lines. But it wasn’t until the mid-’90s that this antidote to the granny panty got national recognition. How? When a young intern name Monica Lewinsky gave then-prez Bill Clinton a flash of thong that went down in history.

 

Boxer briefs

In the ’90s, Mark Wahlberg bared almost all in a series of provocative Calvin Klein ads for a new men’s hybrid skivvy: the boxer brief. Finally. Men now had a third underwear choice and a hunky spokesman to make them feel instantly cool. This best-of-both-worlds brief offered Jockey’s original “masculine support,” plus stability, containment and aesthetics.

Boy shorts for women

As men’s underwear grew sexier throughout the ’90s, women’s underwear became sportier. Sporty and sexy combined for women’s form-fitting, short boxer briefs baptized as “boy shorts.” Sarah Jessica Parker wore them on “Sex and the City”; Jennifer Aniston donned a pair in the movie “Along Came Polly.” In 2004, according to USA Today, the boy short outsold the thong.

Spanx power panties

Tummy control and hip control will never go out of style. Right out of the gate, Spanx, the slimming shapewear, got on “Oprah’s Favorite Things” list in 2000. Since then Spanx has become the go-to undergarment for women trying to pour themselves into sleek dresses or tight pants.

Check out Spanx’s Power Panty or the Higher Power Panty, and you’ll see something like a sheer version of a girdle on steroids. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a return of the fainting couch.