From the restrictive corsets of tile late 1800s to the revealing thongs of the late 1900s, Women’s lingerie has changed drastically throughout the past century, mirroring changes in society, in the roles of women, and in the ideals of beauty. From the laced, corseted waist of turn-of the-century courtesans to the uplifted busts of early-1990s supermodels, from the flattener underclothes of a 1920s flapper to the sexy lingerie of a 1950s pin-up, from postwar New Look corsetry to the see-through (or entirely absent) bras of the 1970s, women’s underwear has provided the unseen superstructnre on which modern canons of beauty are based.

From the restrictive corsets of tile late 1800s to the revealing thongs of the late 1900s, Women’s lingerie has changed drastically throughout the past century, mirroring changes in society, in the roles of women, and in the ideals of beauty. From the laced, corseted waist of turn-of the-century courtesans to the uplifted busts of early-1990s supermodels, from the flattener underclothes of a 1920s flapper to the sexy lingerie of a 1950s pin-up, from postwar New Look corsetry to the see-through (or entirely absent) bras of the 1970s, women’s underwear has provided the unseen superstructnre on which modern canons of beauty are based.

PROLOGUE: TIIREE LINES OF INQUIRF

   Female Underclothes as Erotic Proposition

    Tile Role of 1,ingerie in tile Trousseau

         Corsetry and Fashion - 13

1) TROUSSEAU AND UNDERWEAR: INVENTORY AND INVENTION

2) THE HEALTHY BODY VERSUS THE CORSET

3) THE FLAPPER IN THE ACE OF DEMOCRATIC LINGERIE

4) PENELOPE 1930s:nostalgia for the feminine

5) 1947-1957:COLD YEARS-HOT UNDIES

6) LITTLE GIRLS AND LIBERATED WOMEN:

  PANTIES,BIKINI BRIEFS,AND TIGHTS

7) TEMPTATIONS FOR A NEW EVE

8) SLIM BACK,BIG BREASTS:THE 1990s

 APPENDIXES