A Brief History of Women’s Underwear

The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR. The University of Wyoming is home to an archive of undergarments. And its collection of unmentionables—from the simple chemises of the Civil War era to the neon nylon stockings of the go-go years—is definitely worth talking about.

In every stitch, there is a story. The trove of women’s bloomers, drawers, knickers, brassieres, corsets, and girdles is just a small part of the school’s historic clothing collection, with images shared by the University of Wyoming Libraries via JSTOR. Taken together, the intimates trace a timeline of scientific innovation, societal progress, and sometimes surprising aesthetic choices.

Click on the image to take a closer look. Here you can step through history in stockings. While the Victorian woman who wore that white cotton chemise would have hidden her often-colorful stockings beneath enormous crinolines, offering the barest hint of ankle, the turn-of-the-century woman, in her narrower skirts, knew her shins would be on display when she lifted her hem slightly to climb stairs.

Hers might be embroidered with delicate flowers. In the 1910s, hems rose a few inches higher—in a practical and patriotic response to the Great War—and opaque fine mesh styles in geometric patterns became popular. Less than a decade later, wide mesh stockings were a signature look for the flapper, with her skirts hemmed just below the knee.

Beige Nylon Stockings from the 1950s. Gold stockings from the 1960s. The flapper style was as functional as it was scandalous; the holes that allowed skin to show through also gave the fabric the stretch necessary for dancing.

In 1940 came the invention of nylon undergarments, which meant women of the midcentury could be more comfortable and less revealing in stockings that mimicked some skin tones. That they were followed by their younger sisters in bright, glittering stockings under miniskirts in the 1960s makes a lot more sense when you know what came before. Peach Cami-Knickers from the 1920s.