UnderwearFor.Me – A Brief History of Underwear

When it comes to fashion, most of the things are visible right away. Clothes are aesthetically pleasing or unpleasing to the eye and we can combine them in many ways. Patterns, materials, colours, sizes and other variations are allowing us to express our individuality. However, just like personalities, sometimes we don’t see everything right away and some very important parts are hidden underneath. Same is for clothing and underwear. So today we are going to talk a bit about underwear history with underwearfor.me.

Knickers, bras, boxers, thongs, corsets, bloomers, tighty-whities and so on. There are many variations of what we consider underwear but their main characteristic is that they are worn under the clothes and often directly on the skin. Besides todays obvious support and shaping function, its main purpose was to provide additional warmth in colder climates. Some undergarments are worn as nightwear or swimsuits and some have pure visual (read: erotic) effect. There are two types, those that are worn to cover torso or waist and legs, but there were and are some pieces that cover both.

Ancient History

The oldest proof of undergarment is loincloth that is 7,000 years old. The first consistent usage of underwear can be found in Egypt, some 4,000 years ago. There were even supplies of the underwear in the tombs of pharaohs. Although Romans and Greeks were cultured, they were not fans of clothing. In Greece, only slaves wore loincloth, and in Rome, although undergarment called subligaculum existed, it was usually worn by athletes, gladiators or actors, not common people. Japan had its own version of undergarment called fundoshi that is still in use today, but in rare and festive/traditional occasions.

Middle ages brough looser fitting undergarment called braies. Closest thing today are ordinary shorts. They were worn by Celtic and Germanic tribes and subsequently spread over the Europe. With time, they became shorter and by the time of Renaissance they accommodated chausses (type of armour for the legs made of chainmail) and tight fitting hoses. However, those three were worn always covered with other clothing, so they were not underwear in the strict sense. For the upper body parts, there was close-fitting precursor to the modern shirts called chemise in France or smock or shift in England.

Revolutionising Industry and Underwear

However, that time period provided some more fascinating pieces like corsets, chastity belts or cod pieces. You must bare in mind that until Enlightenment and Industrial Age, underwear was made at home. With industrial revolution, mass production started on everything, including cotton fabric which translated to undergarments. Although corsets were widely used, somewhere in 1800’s when victorian dress reform occurred, they slowly but surely disappeared from everyday use in favour of more rational and comfortable clothing. Around that time union suit was invented, a processor to long johns and popular male sport piece, jockstrap.

20th century brought undergarments that we know today. It was the time when underwear became shorter, anatomically more adjusted to curves, bumps and other body lines, and briefs, boxers, modern bra and bikini were invented. It not only covered intimate parts it gave support and was close fitted. Colours, patterns, different materials and purposes like sport, humour, romance etc. also gave birth to designer underwear. Although that brought up sexualization of underwear and many sexy advertisements, it also started one contradictory trend: not wearing underwear. It all came full circle perhaps?

Hello Internet!

With modern times comes the modern shopping, so not only we do not have to make undergarments ourselves, we don’t have to leave the house to buy it. That is where UnderwearFor.Me comes in handy. There you can buy male and female underwear of famous brands like Calvin Klein, Emporio Armani, D&G, Tommy Hilfiger and Andrew Christian. You can buy batches of 5, 10 or 20 pieces or pick your own quantity, and even combine different models so you can avoid having 20 pieces of the same underwear. Prices are expressed in Euros, USD and Rubles so you can pick your choice there too and they have free shipping.

Underwear can be a touchy feely subject. It can go from practical usage to titillating whispers. What ever is your choice is we support it and we hope that you get some support from your underwear too. So if you are shy, try UnderwearFor.Me and make yourself and/or your better half happy.