The Story of Lingerie. Muriel Barbier
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Название: The Story of Lingerie

Автор: Muriel Barbier

Издательство: Parkstone International Publishing

Жанр: Дом и Семья: прочее

Серия: Temporis

isbn: 978-1-78310-745-2, 978-1-78042-970-0

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ the hips with a flat, rigid front. The bust was shaped due to the invention of the brassiere (bra)[13]. Slenderness was still all the rage, as confirmed by Vogue in 1922: “the pursuit of slimness is one of the chief labours of the modern woman”[14]. This liberty of the body was encouraged in shows in which the artists’ bodies performed freely on stage. These shows were very popular and included the Russian Ballet which performed at the Châtelet Theatre in Paris in 1909 and the performances of the dancer Isadora Duncan. The fashion designers Paul Poiret, Madeleine Vionnet and Nicole Groult were aware of these developments and helped suppress sinuous figure shapes. These innovations were taking place at the same time as the new craze for Latin-American dances (such as the Tango and the Charleston) that required freedom of body movement. In addition, the emergence of the middle class with its demand for more functional dress for the purpose of work contributed to simpler shapes. The First World War simplified these shapes even more and ruled out volume.

      Charles Vernier, The utility of crinoline. Print, Charivari, 1855. Musée Galliera.

      The Thomson American Cage, 1862. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Exhibition Room of Prints, Oa 20, Paris.

      Underskirt with bustle, 1857. “Le Parisien”. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Exhibiton Room of Prints, Oa 20, Paris.

      Farthingale Slip, 1863. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Exhibtion Room of Prints, Oa 20.

      Nevertheless, only the intrepid and the slimmest abandoned the corset: as for the others, their use of the garment was reduced and indiscernible. Women wore dresses which reached to the knee and did not accentuate bust or waist. In the 1920s, there was no question of having a full bust. Like the Romans, women wore bodices or long bras with no relief which flattened the breasts.

      At the end of the decade, curves began to return: the bust was defined and accentuated and had to be supported by boning. Kestos, for example, launched the new idea of the bra as a non-restrictive control garment, because any corsetry that was still worn had to be less restrictive. The human anatomy was beginning to be understood better and corsetry started to follow the natural lines of the body. In Australia, the house of Berlei ordered the first anthropometrical study which was carried out by two Sydney University professors and which defined five types of women showing differing morphology.

      Warner made innovations in cup measurements with the sizes A, B, C and D. The “Garçonne” (“Tomboy”) became fashionable at the beginning of the 1930s. Manufacturers tried to respect the diversity of figures by offering a large choice of sizes. The pre-Second World War high bust appeared in 1939 supported by bras and corsets with round and pointed cups. After 1935, padded cups were introduced to enhance small busts and three years later the underwired bra gave the bust more curves. The small waist also made a comeback assisted by the girdle. The woman of 1940 was thin but with rounded hips and a pointed, curvy bust. She had help from a new type of bra with overstitched cups and often reinforced cones. During the 1940s the bust rose with the fashion of the pullover which clung to the torso. In order to have a small waist and flat belly, the waspie was introduced by Marcel Rochas.

      Crinoline Petticoat, c. 1865. White cotton, wicker frame. Musée Galliera, Paris. Inv. 003.75.X.

      Underskirt with bustle (also called “crayfish tail”), 1875–80. White stitched cotton. Musée Galliera, Paris. Inv. 2003.73.X.

      Bustles and Corsets. Illustration from the Winter Fashion album. Commercial catalogues of the Grands Magasins du Louvre, 1876–1877. Musée Galliera, Paris.

      Roussel girdle model no. 860, especially designed to reduce the hips and bust.

      Bra shown at the Decorative Arts Exhibition in 1925. Embroided feather, lace, cotton cloth and silk satin. Don Andreeff, Musée Galliera, Paris. Inv. 1947.49.1.

      Front cover of Jeanne de Charme, c. 1935. 17 × 12.6 cm. Private collection, Paris.

      This was the “New Look” – a silhouette created by Christian Dior in 1947, with full skirts, wasp-waist and a full bust. At the beginning of the 1950s, the figure lengthened, the breasts were high up, the bust was smaller and a flat stomach was accentuated. Corsetry and padding were necessary. Journalists wrote about the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise as well as good corsetry. In 1950 the bust was oversized following the fashion for “zeppelin” or very full breasts and was obtained by wearing an overstitched bra. The image was popularised by actresses such as Anita Ekberg, Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Jane Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. Manufacturers such as Marcel Carlier, Carles Krafft, Jessos, Scandale and Star designed underwired corsetry to enhance the “flower woman”.

      In the 1960s the female form followed the changes of the day by being liberated. The fashion was for gamine breasts, narrow hips and extreme slenderness. This glorification of youth was only generalised after 1965 when André Courrèges’ collection showed androgynous shapes and modern woman at ease with her body. Underwear, particularly briefs, followed the line of the body. As a result of the liberation movements of 1968 and Women’s Libbers who burnt their bras, at the end of the 1960s, breasts were emancipated under form-hugging sweaters and Indian tunics: complex underwear sets gave way to almost nothing. The fashion was for leggy, small-breasted women like Jane Birkin or the model Twiggy. After the hippie trend, fashion became more sophisticated and feminine again. There was an obsession with slimming and body-toning to enhance firmness. Gym and aerobics were in vogue. 1980s women exchanged briefs, girdles and corsets for weight-training and hunger. Support came from the inside: women created their own corsets. At the same time breasts became ample and firm. This fashion for a small waist, toned buttocks and ample bust gave a feminine shape that called for underwired bras for those “under endowed by nature”. At the end of the 20th century an ambiguous silhouette began to appear. It was extremely tall and slim, with narrow hips but a generous bust. It can be summed up as a woman who is simultaneously gamine and sensual, an effect which is hard to reproduce and which implies measures from draconian diets to padded bras, if not cosmetic surgery.

      Damart nightie, feminine underwear.

      Wonderbra advertisement.

      From Ancient Greece to modern woman: what have they been wearing under their clothes?

      Chantal Thomass, Catwalk 2004.

      Since the ancient Greek and Roman empires, women have been clad in piles of underwear under their clothes. Many garments were used to shape the body as well as to ward off amorous approaches. So let us undress them!

      Hellenistic Greek women (1st century BC) were hardly naked under their robes. Once a woman’s robe was removed, her body was still draped in a linen tunic. Under this tunic she was wrapped in straps to control her shape: apodesme to support and control the bust, mastodeton which was a narrow red ribbon which encircled the bust for young girls and zona which pulled in and flattened the belly.

      Roman СКАЧАТЬ



<p>13</p>

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

<p>14</p>

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