Medieval "lingerie"

[mandie_rw]

Saw this floating around Facebook - what do you guys think of it?

Discovered in a castle vault, the scraps of lace that show lingerie was all the rage 500 years ago

My knowledge of pre-16thc clothing is sketchy at best, but after a good look, I think saying the find "totally rewrites" fashion history is a bit of a stretch. A fascinating find? Yes, definitely. But it hasn't totally blown my mind and made me question everything I know about the history of women's undergarments!

Of course, it is the Daily Mail...

Comments

[sewloud.livejournal.com]

I have a GREAT desire to try it I must say.

I think it's really interesting and the description of the other two as "shirts with bags" is pretty hilarious to me. I guess it does make sense to me, I LIKE boob support, and it could be the first step on the way to the corset.

The undies also do make sense to me, from a really really functional level. They'd provide you a way to hold some ahem reinforcements there during a certain time of the month. Yeah women probably had FEWER periods then but I'm SURE they HAD them. And in a drafty castle that could prevent the unwanted "updraft" nicely.

I would have questioned the dating but it was radiocarbon dated so I'd say it's definitely that old.

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Agreed! On the "bra", you can see the strip with eyelets hanging down to the waist, and a waist-length support garment would make perfect sense as a precursor to the garments we know existed acentury or so later.

And same with the undies. Kind of funny that the article's screaming about bikini undies, whereas I'm like, makes perfect sense on a bodily function level to me?

If someone uses this for justification for Ren Faire bikinis I'll have to hit them... ;)