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| Front of a pair of drawers I made. |
I love this history of underwear! I have so much fun with it :) Today, I wanted to give you just a tidbit on women's drawers.
Drawers came about in the late 18th century for females, however they weren't a commonality until around 1830 when women began to wear drawers/pantaloons/pantalettes almost all the time.
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| Back of the drawers. |
Drawers were calf to ankle or knee length, made mostly of linen or silk. They were however used more widely by the upper class than the lower class. So ladies…we’ve technically only been wearing some form of underwear for 181 years to cover our lady parts down under…not that long… and if our ancestors weren’t nobles—which mine were Irish dairy farmers… it may have been that women in your family were only wearing underwear for maybe a century or so.
There is a difference between drawers, pantaloons and pantalettes. Drawers were shorter. Depending on your social status/wealth, the craftsmanship, fabric and frills would be completely different. Most drawers were crotchless. Why you ask? Have you ever helped a woman lift her wedding gown and shimmy down her panties to pee? It is a TASK! If only the bride would have gone commando or worn crotchless undies. Ah-ha! So, it made certain tasks much easier, you see? I'm sure their male counterparts were also pleased :)
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| Shows the "crotchless" section of the drawers. |
Pantaloons and pantalettes often had pretty lace and embroidery along the bottoms—much like on the sample drawers I made, and were meant to be seen when a woman lifted her skirts, to say, walk over a puddle or up some stairs. Pantalettes, were not only crotchless, they were in fact two separate pieces that covered the legs and tied around the waist. Pantaloons, were more like an extended version of the drawers—coming down to the ankles.
Hope you enjoyed this short lesson!
Cheers,
Eliza
