Panty Ho ! A Hundred Years Of ' Covering ' Up

BY  R.K.MISRA

How do you describe a garment that heats up half of humanity and cools down the other half ?

Poised perilously between male fantasy and feminine felicity ,the panty remains the softest thing between two legs. This piece of attire  has waxed and waned over a hundred years to emerge from a coarse  legging to a soft as satin statement of an iron hard resolve. Along the way it has picked up a matching upper body companion piece and the twain possess the fabled capacity to have long  entombed pharaohs  come alive and run to a Nile on fire, pep-pill in hand !

Nevertheless, it’s shrinking  wafer thin size should in no way be seen as a sign of weakness. Symbolisms do empower. More so at a time when social scientists predict the beginning of  an era of ascendency for womanhood globally. At a more mundane level, the fact of the matter is  that it has also given the feminine of the species a sense of  cosy comfort and credible control over their own choices. Three cheers for womankind and the panty which ennobles her, for completing a hundred years !

The present day itsy-bitsy, shorter than shortest clinger had a long john like beginning.(a hip to ankle tight dress for males which made it’s advent in 17^th century England but found popularity as a sleepwear in the 18^th century).

Cotton panties owe their invention to Etienne Valton  and were the successor to traditional wollen undergarments which felt too long for the new age . In 1918 Etienne was inspired enough to cut the legs off a pair of long underwear . And lo and behold the earliest version of the panty was born. The underpants had a squarish shape with a high but curved waist. Buttons replaced ribbons for adjustment at the waist.

Underwear evolved majorly in the last century from cotton granny briefs which would be branded staid by present day standards if not downright ugly. Long hose, stockings and layers of petticoats were worn under the skirt in the early 19^th century by most british women. Wealthy ladies who wore sheer garments  adopted men’s drawers known as pantaloons for modesty purposes. These were made of a light stockinet fabric, usually in a flesh toned nude colour. They came down to the knees, sometimes to the ankles. Subsequently the pantaloons merged into knickers. In those days poor women could not afford underwear in Victorian  times but Queen Victoria was a great proponent  of women’s panties and  these knickers  became  very fashionable.

Plain or embellished knickers were loose shorts that came to the knees but they were tighter and silk and flannel became the cloth of choice for it. Combinations came into vogue  at the turn of the century and these were full bodied underwear that included a bra top. Introduced in 1877,they remained in use until the late 1950s.

It was however in 1924 that the knickers became known  as panties. By the 1940s, it had become a lot skimpier and ‘butt’ fitting. The 1950s and the  1960s saw the undergarments turn sexier with lace and pastel colours making their presence felt. Like an army camp flag at sundown, the garment began it’s slow descent from the high waistly perch around this time. The introduction of nylon gave wings to the designers fantasy making a form fitting cling easier, besides making it cheaper too.

It was in the late sixties that the hipster briefs made their presence felt as low rise shorts that did not completely cover the butts and were hip hugging in form. The G-string followed with a ‘thongs’ sweep in the nineties primarily because it prevented panty lines.

Sexy underwear is a comparatively recent phenomenon with variety matching shape, form, choice and wearer through hipsters, shorts, thongs, bikini bottoms, full panties with the half-mast and the hoister in the works.

If a structureless silhouette was the order of the day in the twenties, a curvier silhouette emphasizing hips and waist became popular in the thirties with slips becoming the garment of choice in the forties, often featuring bra cuts, thin straps and V-lines. Fifties ushered in the era of the hourglass silhouette with emphasis on large bust and a small waist. High waisted brief panties helped achieve this.

The sixties flowered  smaller patterned lingerie with playful and girlish styles while the seventies saw fringe and tassles gain precedence with high waisted cuts making a strong return.

The women of the eighties were not afraid to make bolder choices so diverse material and bright colours made their debut. Rockstars like Madonna left an indelible stamp on the undergarment fashion scene  as they flirted with leather and fishnet.

According to global fashion magazine ,Glamour, the nineties were marked by mismatched separates and the 2000s by sexy form fitting styles while the 2010s is all about details.

Beauty may lie in the eyes of the beholder, but the self-confident woman of the day carries a devil may care attitude  about dressing. If you have it, why not flaunt it. I have a right to myself and your problems are your own, is how  she would like to put it.

The modern woman is re-thinking and re-defining herself. And it is showing. Whether in the re-thinking on the period panty or in the’ going commando’ movement-the bright and busy liberating  feeling  about going  without panties. And ditching  the bra as well. Was it not Jean-Dennis Rouillon, a sports medicine specialist at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire in France  who was quoted as saying “Medically, physiologically, anatomically- breasts gain no benefit  from being denied gravity”.

It may at best be a fad  but the lingerie industry better watch out !