Two main elements in a silhouette
Colorful thongs, leather garters, peignoirs, latex sports bras and the French maid outfit: today, lingerie is readily available in any style or fabric you can imagine. In order to understand how far lingerie has come, it is notable to take a closer look at the history of lingerie throughout the ages.
Women’s lingerie history has been changing over the ages. Female body has always been an item to be admired by. Many writers, painters, philosophers discussed it and could never come to the common conclusion. Some people considered women to be slaves; others saw goddesses in their appearance. The society was changing as well as the fashion did.
The things that were acceptable to society have changed from one extreme to the other – and back again. But the silhouette has been administrated by what’s dressed over it. And throughout history, it’s been bedecked in many various ways, with different areas emphasized along the way.
Women have worn everything from a heavy whalebone piece of lingerie with laces and pulleys, all the way to the light silky sexy lingerie of today. For example, panties have gone through many evolutions and women no longer have granny panties as their only options. Thongs were designed to minimize any risk of visible panty line. Boyshorts were fun and comfortable alternative, also designed to minimize panty lines.
Other pairs such as bikini’s and briefs were designed for comfort and became perfect for workouts, sleeping or a women’s menstrual cycle. Talking about the first lingerie, it should be mentioned that before underwear appeared, women were very bold on the island of Crete, in the Mediterranean Sea. Their idea of lingerie was a boned bodice corset, designed not for support, but to tease men, by pushing their breasts up and out, literally exposing them in their entire splendor.
Although they reached the “lingerie” part was nothing like what we think of as lingerie today. As each idea of the silhouette came into minds, clothing was created to fit and highlight this shape. Basically, there were two main elements in a silhouette – the bust and the butt. Some societies wanted the bust to be prominent, while some felt that the butt should be the “point of interest”.
The silhouette goes from reflective to padded Society in the Middle Ages felt that the silhouette should be controlled, especially the breasts, which they thought should be hard and small. Back to those days, women wore many styles of corsets over their dresses, all with the similar purpose of flattening their breasts.
