The Men’s Undergarment Hall of Shame
by Kate Dolan
We all know there are men’s clothes and women’s clothes. And
sometimes clothing that is exclusively masculine for centuries eventually
becomes suitable for women as well – think of boots and most notably, pants. But
with one notorious undergarment, the reverse was true – it started as a women’s
garment and was appropriated by fashionable men, though few would probably have
been willing to admit it. Some men even wore vanity devices that women never
would dream of wearing. This is the Men’s Undergarment Hall of Shame (and since
this is history, we’re not even getting as far as Speedos).
“You want pain? Try wearing a corset.” This advice from the
character Elizabeth Swan in the movie Pirates
of the Caribbean sums up the modern
perception of the garment that has been alternately referred to over the
centuries as a corset, stays, and "a pair of bodies." A pair of stays
or a corset are a stiff garment worn around the ribcage and waist. They are
usually “boned” which means they have channels filled with pieces of metal,
cane or baleen “boning” to make them fairly rigid. Some of them come down lower
than others and therefore compress the waist and lower abdomen more. If laced
tightly, they can make it difficult to breathe, bend, reach or eat. I have worn
reproduction 18th Century stays on numerous occasions and in my
experience, if they are not laced too tight, they are much like wearing a back
support brace. But the same garment, if laced up tight to improve the fit of a
gown, makes it really hard to take a full breath.
Women started wearing these by at least the 1400s and period
satire suggests that men may have also secretly worn them during the
Elizabethan period to give themselves a fashionably unnatural pinched waist. There
is no doubt that by the 1780s, some men of fashion were wearing stays, and they
continued to do so for about the next 100 years. One source described the
well-dressed man as “pinched in and laced up until he resemble an earwig.” Before
we condemn them too thoroughly, however, we should also consider that these
dandies were the same men who made it fashionable to bathe, so we do owe them a
certain debt.
The thought of men wearing a corset may be shameful to some,
but if women wore them, too, it seems a bit hypocritical to criticize them too
much. But there was a another fashion device for which ridicule is justly
deserved – the calf pad. From about 1770 onward, men began padding their
stockings to make their calves look more round and well developed. This fad
lasted until men discarded their knee breeches and took to wearing full length,
loose fitting trousers. In Sheridan's play A
Trip to Scarborough, the character Lord Foppington berates his hosier for
thickening the calves of his stockings too much. When the hosier, Mr. Mendlegs,
protests that the stockings are the same he supplied in the fall, Foppington
explains that "if you make a nobleman's Spring legs as robust as his
autumn calves, you commit a monstrous impropriety, and make no allowance for the
fatigues of the winter."
So we have men padding their legs to make them look
muscular, cinching their waists with corsets to make them look trim and fit,
what did they do with the shirts? After all, shirts were considered the basic
undergarment for a man for at least the last 500 years. In the early 19th
Century, they added "ears" to the shirts by creating collars that
were so high, before being turned down, they entirely covered the head and
face. Even when folded down, the points of the collar still came to nearly ear
level. Lady Stanley commented "I think that part would be very comfortable
to keep one snug from flies and sun."
Since most of the time it seems to be women who are slaves
to fashion's torture, I found it amazing to see the devices used by men in the
name of vanity. But then it really should have come as no surprise, since men
were also the first to wear wigs and high heels.
Thank heavens the men in my family pay no attention to
fashion and are content to wear whatever's on the top of the laundry basket.
You never know when corsets might make another comeback!
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Kate Dolan writes historical fiction and romance under her
own name and contemporary mysteries and children’s books under the name K.D.
Hays. You can learn more about her misadventures with history by visiting
www.katedolan.com.
4 comments:
I don't know, Kate, it might be kinda sexy to unlace each others' corsets.
And they say, "Vanity thy name is woman." "They" must have never seen a man in a corset and padded stockings. And we know they padded other things as well -- such as codpieces.
Thanks for the article.
Kate Poole
I don't know why I didn't write about the padded codpieces - maybe reminded me too much of the speedos! Thanks for pointing it out though.
I think men used to be more slaves to fashion than they are now. Look at all the layers and stockings and the wigs! No thanks. I much prefer a wigless man.
I agree, men with wigs don't have much appeal. I don't much like the idea of men wearing lace or high heels either. I wonder if I'd feel differently though if I'd been raised in an era like the 1700s where the "rock stars" wore wigs and heels - oh, wait, 1970s glam rock, Kiss, hair bands -- I guess I was. Never mind. Still not appealing.
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