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Photograph by Byron Kerman
Mary and Addie Birkicht
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Photograph by Byron Kerman
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Photograph by Byron Kerman
Busks were often used with corsets “to keep the torso straight and flatten the stomach.”
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Photograph by Byron Kerman
A nursing corset.
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Photograph by Byron Kerman
The bustle.
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Photograph by Byron Kerman
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Photograph by Byron Kerman
The architecture of a hoop skirt.
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Photograph by Byron Kerman
A Playtex "freedom girdle."
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Photograph by Byron Kerman
Shoulder pads.
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Photograph by Byron Kerman
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Photograph by Byron Kerman
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Photograph by Byron Kerman
Ladies, if you want to appreciate the pain that generations of women have gone through to conform to the fads and fashions of undergarments through the ages, and just how very lucky you are to live in a time of relaxed waistlines and relaxed moral strictures, check out Underneath It All, an exhibition on the history of women’s unmentionables at the Missouri History Museum.
It is only very recently that the modern woman has been encouraged to wear undergarments that did not squish, pinch, or otherwise hurt the heck out of her body. Whether confined in a corset or girdle, having to walk sideways to get a hoop skirt through a doorway, or bent backward by a weighty metal bustle, women’s bodies have been victimized by fashion and conservative mores for hundreds of years.
The exhibition includes visuals that show how:
- A corset could not be donned without help. Sometimes the helper would have to plant her foot on the back of the lady to gain sufficient leverage to lace up the corset properly. Sound barbaric? We’re just getting started.
- Hoop skirts, like corsets, were often a sign of wealth. The hoop skirt was so terribly impractical, it rendered the wearer virtually immobile—and guess who barely needs to move? The gentry, tended by servants.
- Petticoats were an innovation, but even they were hot, and they made it difficult to walk.
- As if a corset wasn’t horrid enough, many of them were built to enclose a hard wood, ivory, metal or whalebone slat called a “busk.” The busk slid down the front of the corset “to keep the torso straight and flatten the stomach,” according to exhibition materials. Adding insult to injury, men often gave decorative busks to their beloved, as if to say, “Darling— when you’re so damned uncomfortable you can hardly move, remember that I love you—and that my love is a tight, awful prison.”
- As soon as women began to develop more practical undergarments, men were right there to attack and ridicule them. Legged undergarments—“bloomers”—were roundly mocked by anti-feminists when introduced in the 1850s.
- Many of the garments and devices on display are so complex, you’d be right to wonder how the heck women could easily go to the bathroom in them. Imagine having to disengage from a series of petticoats, drawers, bloomers, a chemise, and god knows what else every time nature called. That was reality for women for hundreds of years.
- Menstruation was considered so thoroughly taboo a subject that in the early 20th century, when the first tampons and pads and such began to be widely sold in stores, they were often packaged in plain white paper. Sometimes, companies even printed “silent purchase” coupons that could be handed to a clerk so no one need say a word during the shameful procedure of the exchange. It’s not difficult to imagine what this did to women’s self-esteem.
- In 1894, proto-feminists Mary and Addie Birkicht rode their bicycles around the state, stopping to give lectures on the indignities of the corset. The Missouri Republic newspaper reported on their tour, falsely characterizing their loose-fitting garments as revealing “a generous portion of their lower limbs.” (Again, men shaming women into the stereotype of the matron or the slut, with nothing in-between.)
- The sexual revolution changed everything. Women bared more, and they wore more comfortable outerwear and undergarments in the bargain. Brassieres became more practical, panties got sexier, and unmentionables gradually became feather-light.
- Hemlines, waistlines, and bustlines have risen and fallen with the decades. Women have rallied for greater comfort, retreated back into painful fashions, and then taken baby steps forward again, time after time.
- The corset yielded to the girdle, and then to Spanx. The falsie yielded to the Wonderbra. Nursing bras went from chafing nightmare to thoroughly practical godsend.
To men, a great many mysteries are revealed by Underneath It All. To female museum-goers, the education is more severe. They say the political is the personal, and it doesn’t get much more personal than your undies. The fight for women’s rights is inextricably linked to the right to comfortable clothes. We’re awfully lucky to live in a world of modern medicine, rapid transportation, and underwear that doesn’t insult our rights any longer.
Underneath It All runs through Jan. 27, 2013 at the Missouri History Museum, Lindell and DeBaliviere in Forest Park, 314-746-4599, mohistory.org. Admission is free.
