Old fashioned undergarments

[Deleted User]

I was also forced into liberty bodices, as we had to wear black woollen stockings for school in the winter. I hated those damn suspenders with the awful rubber buttons. I remember getting my first bra, when I wore it first my grandmother remarked that I looked like I had two chapel hat pegs under my jumper.........I was most indignant, but my mother almost wet herself laughing.

My grandmother always wore a corset made by Spirella? but never wore a bra. My mother wore berlei bras and girdles all her life, she never ever wore tights, thought they were awful things.

Remember playtex girdles????? my friend bought one, she tried it on at home, went to take it off and it rolled down and trapped her pubic hair!! she had to get her husband to cut it off!! I could not stop laughing when she told me about it, for years afterwards she winced if you mentioned playtex girdles!!

Uniscots97

Wore a girdle under my graduation ball gown, felt like you couldn't breathe! When corsets became fashionable as outerwear (90's) I bought one and found it ok, then went and got properly fitted for one. The guy (gay) wore one himself and had been taught how to make them by his grandmother. What I ended up with was the most comfortable item of clothing I've ever worn.

ancientofdays

Do other people remember those horrid thick, scratchy knickers worn for PE?

THIRZAH

We were supposed to wear two pairs of knickers for school. Ordinary white ones and then navy ones on top. For PE we wore navy knickers and an airtex shirt with our names embroidered on the front. For outdoor games we wore a divided skirt.

culpepper

I remember there was an Ad that started 'My Girdle is killing me' in the 1970's because Dad always used to pipe up 'So's mine'
Mum said when she was a child,she and her sister had liberty bodies and when a young lady, her mother was horrified to see bras (and were they called panty Girdles?) 'appear on the scene . I think there was a shop in Willesden that sold nothing but Girdles and corsets.

Pollycat

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

When I was 13, I slipped a disc in my back during a PE lesson and it wouldn't get better - the physio prescribed me a surgical corset that I had to wear every day at school (I spent my weekends laying on the floor with my knees up, as that was the only way I wasn't in extreme pain).

Entirely unintentionally, I not only got used to it and found it very comfortable, my shape changed to have a very pronounced waist, so much so that the prescribed one became too big even when fully adjusted - a very old (to me) member of staff took me aside and said that, if I had a grandmother, I should ask her if she still had an old corset, as the boning would help my back and fit me better than anything the hospital could give me, as they didn't make ones that allowed for 'young ladies' - and it would be a lot prettier.

My grandmother had died when I was 6, but there were a couple of charity shops a short diversion away from my walk home from school where some ladies had obviously passed away and the contents of their wardrobes had been donated. I went in one afternoon and spoke to the positively ancient (she definitely was, as she told me she was 94) volunteer at one.

I spent the next three years going to school wearing something that was absolutely beautiful to my eyes - and felt good. I just made damn sure that nobody else knew about it, as the fuss made about girls that wore bras with even a trace of colour would have been a million times worse had they known about the silk and taffeta I had underneath my uniform.

These days, I think I should have stuck with it.

Sounds lovely.

I had a collection of basques when I was in my twenties and used to wear sheer stockings for going out.

monnagran

My grandmother used to call bras "bust bodices" and referred to them in hushed tones.
She wore a "modesty vest", a square of lace tucked into the point of any V-necked dress. Presumably to prevent the salacious thoughts of any passing male who might be imaging where the V might lead.

Sayschezza

I remember panty girdles and having to wear stockings. Stockings on my little short fat hairy legs always used to roll down except for the bit that was held by the suspenders. Recently my DF bought a shapewear thingie to flatten her tum under an evening dress. Can’t see the difference from a panty girdle myself so not for me.

ivyleaf

I remember an ad where a woman was about to step on board an aeroplane and exclaimed "Stop! I've forgotten my Playtex 18-hour girdle!......Oh! [coy giggle] I have it on!"

I wore Liberty bodices in the late 1950s because I had been very premature and my mother worried terribly about making sure I was warm. I went into hospital to have my tonsils out, as most children seemed to in those days, and one of the young nurses helping to get me undressed said "Whatever's this?" holding up my bodice. she hadn't seen one before, though the other nurse had.

Pollycat

ivyleaf wrote: »

I remember an ad where a woman was about to step on board an aeroplane and exclaimed "Stop! I've forgotten my Playtex 18-hour girdle!......Oh! [coy giggle] I have it on!"

There you go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8qDxk4IJtA
Surprisingly, it was 1974!