Operation Undressed

“I have always had an active curiosity of women’s undergarments and so I am attending this fabulous event here at the museum,” Ruby Von Blush, an attending guest, smiles, “I quite enjoy seductive undergarments myself.” 

 

The World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, put up a grand display of undergarments ranging from corsets to camisoles, in an effort to uncover the change of the modern silhouette from the late 1800s in their latest event titled ‘Operation Undressed’.  

 

To think that World War I set off the precedent of a woman’s self of sense, and with it, the launch of a thousand provocative pinched waistline fashions, bodices, and bustiers all heralding the corsets of the 1800s to the early 1900s that famously perked up bosoms - an arsenal to a woman’s seduction ritual. Peregrine Honig of Birdies Lingerie curated the display with Kansas City Museum. Honig described the effort of wearing a corset and its evolution as: “Wearing corsets was not healthy, but it was comforting. And as women’s bodies changed over the years, it was natural to evolve to brassieres, so it would do the same job of lifting -  just like the high heels we wear.” 

 

The evolving nature of fashion

Fashion changed after the First World War was over. Women started dressing up like boys; they had no inclination to follow in the footsteps of their mother, grandmother and great grandmothers.  They had returned from the wars, lived in European countries - especially France -  and it had changed their idea of what was more comfortable for them. By the 1920s, women wanted everything to be simple and have fashion like their predecessors.

 

At home, women got the opportunity to go out and work for the first time and earn their own money. With that spending power, came new clothing, hairstyles, and freedom. They weren’t monetarily dependent on men – be it their father or husband. Popular culture introduced them to, (besides new hairstyles and clothes) new innerwear, too. There were certain brassieres that flattened your breasts, so you could have that boyish look that everyone was talking about.  

 

Denise Morrison, curator, Kansas City Museum spoke of an entire fashion change that was not only associated with lingerie after the First World War. She said, “It was a period of long lines, no waist, low cut, bob cuts, and a rejection of the previous generation. In fact, the name of the lingerie changed to bodices from uni-boob.”

Corset Calling

The corset was the first innerwear that was modified for the new woman of the 1800s and early 1900s. According to Morrison, “A Frenchwoman in the 1800s (1870 or 1880) cut the corset in half. This was not so much empowering as deemed healthy for women. It was not an act of empowerment until the 1920s, when young women began wearing loose fitted clothing and wanted more than a gamine or boyish look – straight front no curves.”  

 

Yet, with the same breath the world had seen how the French women were more appealing in terms of their lingerie magic, and even more in the fabric department. They brought in lace and silk to the practical and boring fashion of the day. Morrison says, “I don’t think there was a difference between being overseas or at home. Women living in the larger cities had more freedom, while women living in rural areas and small towns probably didn’t feel the impact quite as much.”  Adds Honig, “Lace is an amazing material of sex, rock and roll, and it’s even used for the dead”, whilst describing it as “unfinished eyelashes”.

 

Of fabrics and wedding gowns

Fabrics and wedding gowns, too, underwent a change. The practical wedding dress, which could be worn more than once, got a revamp by someone no less than Queen Victoria herself. In 1840, Queen Victoria wore a fashionable white heavy silky satin and lacy bridal dress – a first-of-its-kind for her wedding.  That launched the bridal wear, as we know now, and the introduction of the classic all-white wedding gown forever.

 

Dr. Mathew Naylor, National World War Museum, and Memorial President puts across an interesting point. He says, “Soldiers from the US were sent to France with the notion that French women were far more desirable and available, and not at all like the frumpy virgins from this country. It was the enticement of the French fling.” With a straight face, Naylor further adds, “The French influence on fashionable lingerie brought in crotchless knickers for women’s health.”

 

Paris has always been the mecca of high fashion and all things considered sensual from the 1800s to date.  During the 1800s ‘can-can’ dancers wore pantalettes, or as Naylor refers to it as “crotchless knickers”. Thus so, because the high kicks that were part of the can-can routine were meant to be a little revealing.

Not just lace and silk

Lingerie today has evolved from lace and silk to all types of materials including leather, nylon, viscose to mixed material combinations. The designs now pertain either to comfort or for pure sexual appeal. Lingerie and women have come a long way  – where no one need be a can-can girl to entice one in pantalettes -  courtesy a French impact.

 

The First World War also changed the history of mindsets as well.  It was a period where what you wore was what you hoped someone else saw in your body. In other words - a visual impact, just like today. 

 

The exhibit not only showcased a visual and mentally stimulating display of exquisite lingerie by live models, and a few more delicate and rare pieces enclosed in glass cases; it also had women and men dressed in period-era fashionable wear and reliving the evolving history of lingerie. 

 

This event revived the romance of lace and silk, of wearing something that could be more than a private affair. As Naylor’s perfectly puts it, “Lingerie is partly about putting on and taking off.”

 

Anjou DurgaGiri is newsable.com's editor-at-large, currently living in Kansas City. The views expressed here are her own.