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Lingerie is directly and very strongly related to a woman’s intimacy. For centuries, men have always believed that lingerie was created with the aim of seducing them. This desire to seduce undeniably exists.

However, in choosing to wear pretty and seductive underwear, women behave and carry themselves in a slightly egoistic and indeed narcissistic way. Furthermore, lingerie can help a woman feel good about her body, helping her thus to like and accept it, and in doing this, affirming a real sense of self-confidence. The reason behind it is simple. Surprisingly, although no-one can see our underwear, it contributes effectively in enhancing our silhouette and sometimes even shaping it to our personal preferences.

All too often, lingerie has been treated as an object of seduction. Men themselves have created this phenomenon: to see a woman only in her underwear is infinitely more sensual and sexual than seeing a woman entirely naked. One could associate lingerie with high heels for the latter effect, the way in which a woman walks, making her more seductive, charming and provocative.

Chantal Thomass

Collection Fall/ Winter 2001–2002

Associated with stockings, high heels have a power, an obvious fetishist virtue, for both men and women. The perception and judgement of the female body has gone through changes over the years, if one compares for example, our time, the beginning of the 21st century, to the years between 1960 and 1970.

In the 1960s, when a woman married, and moreover when she became a mother, her body could no longer be considered seductive. Today, this outlook is completely old-fashioned and obsolete. Women feel the need to be attractive, whatever their age, whether it be prior to marriage or after, and even years later.

As proof, a grandmother today can still be a beautiful woman and feel it by dressing herself in some appealing underwear, which enables her to make her body more beautiful. This evolution (or revolution?) of morals concerning lingerie is directly related to the innovations and technical contingencies in the creation of underwear, and the subjection to historical events. The history of lingerie deserves to be put in the spotlight. Lingerie, in contrast with the world of fashion, is a state of mind. One can love lingerie and envy looking after one’s body whether one is 15 or 75! The world of prêt-à-porter is a completely different universe from that of the world of underwear.

Clothes always target a particular age group: the fashion of a teenage 15 year-old is different from that of a 30 year-old woman.

This is why lingerie is more a question of mentality and of human nature. A plump woman can feel good in her body, accept who she is and have a desire to emphasize that beauty by wearing gorgeous underwear. Lingerie should respond to all these aspirations and suit every kind of woman. A designer’s work should be orientated towards this fulfilment.

Pair of stays

First half of the 17th century

Iron, Inv. 2002.2.X

Leloir Fund, Musée Galliera, Paris

To create lingerie that satisfies different women's styles, one should observe those women who surround you: daughters, assistants, even women in the street! Poses, which one notices in films, can also help to inspire. Besides those who surround, who play an important role in suggesting new designs, the material is also a source of inspiration.

Pair of stays

English, c. 1660–70

Pink watered silk backed with linen stiffened with whalebone and trimmed with pink silk ribbons

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The fabrics are essential. Lingerie is the type of clothing worn closest to the female body and is in contact with its intimacy, the fabrics and lace have to be agreeable, but not exclusively. Today, lingerie has to be comfortable and practical. If it was 30 years ago, French women (in contrast with American women, for example) accepted and did not balk at wearing and hand-washing a piece of delicate lingerie, with lace, which even needed ironing at times. Today, that is no longer acceptable.

The Morning Toilet

Jan Steen, c. 1663

Oil on wood, 64.7 × 53 cm

Royal collection, London

Lingerie should be machine-washable, with no need for ironing, and should incorporate all the essential elements of comfort, with the beauty of the creations. The evolution of different textiles used in the creation and the making of underwear remains an unforgettable aspect. Besides the materials, the colour of lingerie plays an important role too.

The Toilet

François Boucher, 1742

Oil on canvas, 52.5 × 65.5 cm

Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, Madrid

Black and white are always extremely flattering colours for the skin. Black, (more particularly) allows the softening of bodily flaws that we all have. Hot colours (pink, red, raspberry) are also enhancing colours. On the other hand, cold colours used for lingerie are always more difficult to work with. Greens and blues are magnificent, but all too often evoke swimming costumes.

Body with whalebone

18th century

Fabric decorated with flowers, Inv. 1920.1.1856

Leloir Fund, Musée Galliera, Paris

Lingerie should be associated with women's pleasure. The element of seduction remains, especially with certain pieces of underwear, which are not trivial. Certain pieces are fascinating and provoke an inevitable attraction. Stockings and suspenders make a woman extremely enticing, indeed entrancing. Strapless bras, girdles and bras can be worn under a transparent blouse.

“Undressed for the bath”

Anonymous, 18th century

Engraving from the series “Baths and Toilets”

Musée Carnavalet, Paris

This could produce a mysterious and clashing effect and can be fascinating to the eyes of others and overtly flattering for the woman who dress in this way. There are two kinds of lingerie in my opinion. On the one hand, a woman has the underwear that she desires to show (girdles, suspenders and stockings), and on the other hand the kind of underwear that one wears uniquely for oneself.

Baths and Toilets #7

Anonymous, 18th century

Engraving

Musée Carnavalet, Paris

This latter category should be pleasant for the eye, but also extremely comfortable. Concerning tights, for example, I believe it is very important to make tights which are charming and delicious, so that one could wear them every day and be able, despite everything else, to conserve a seductive power, when one undresses in the presence of a man.

Baths and Toilets no.10

Anonymous, 18th century

Engraving

Musée Carnavalet, Paris

Lingerie is all about being oneself and about one’s attitude. Three terms can be associated with lingerie today: refinement, seduction and comfort. It is necessary to put together these three notions in order to create underwear, excluding vulgarity along the way. To avoid this pitfall, one has to contribute humour and purity.

Woman’s underwear

English, c. 1770–1780 and 1778 respectively

Fine linen shift corset or red silk, damask and side hoop pink striped linen

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The world of lingerie affects everyone. It affects women who wear lingerie, as well as the men who have always believed that they wear it to seduce them. Lingerie deserves to have a greater place in history, as well as in everyday life. Intimate apparel comes in many guises. It can be hidden or exposed, simple or sophisticated, discrete or provocative.

Factory of crinolines: the making of hoops

Bach

Engraving

Musée Carnavalet, Paris

The vast array is traditionally divided into three groups: lingerie, corsetry, and hosiery. Underwear serves a mainly hygienic function. Positioned between the body and its clothing, underwear shields the body from garments made of less comfortable textiles and protects the clothing from body fluids, which is why each epoch produces underwear in various healthful fabrics.

“Le coucher des ouvrières en linge” (The bedtime of the lingerie workers)

c. 1801

Engraving, 15 × 19.2 cm

Maciet collection

Bibliothèque des Arts décoratifs, Paris

Women’s underwear is therefore closely associated with intimacy and feminine hygiene: the first articles of lingerie in contact with the female body were worn in the context of menstruation and evolved into the contemporary sanitary napkin. The word underwear is synonymous with lingerie, the term used to refer to specific undergarments such as petticoats and camisoles, and later bloomers, leggings, underpants, undershirts, and full-length slips.

Corset

c. 1820

White cotton, Inv. 1957.16.17

Leloir Fund, Musée Galliera, Paris

In families of modest means and during wartime, some articles of lingerie were made from worn-out household linens (usually old bed sheets), because underwear and household linens were made from similar materials. Among these fabrics comfort is the common denominator with cotton the most popular choice for its softness, lightness, and hygienic qualities.

“Le Bon Genre № 30” Grisettes’ Bedtime

c. 1830

Private collection, Paris

Other more or less delicate fabrics came to be used for making lingerie: linen, silk, and synthetic fabrics in relatively light weaves such as plain and satin weave, jersey, lawn, muslin, percale, and voile. These fabrics are sometimes found trimmed with decorative and frequently seductive details. For lingerie is not limited to a protective function – it is also a sophisticated costume accessory.

“Eight o’clock in the evening”

Achille Deveria, c. 1830

Les Heures de la Parisienne

Musée Galliera, Paris

Underclothes assume the status of over-clothes when lingerie is partially revealed or fully exposed through flirtatiousness, fashion, or provocation, in which case it flaunts the characteristic frills and flounces of coquetry in the form of lace, embroidery, and ribbons. Lingerie colours vary according to the woman wearing it, changing as a function of her age, status, social role, taste, intended effect, and as fashion dictates.

Ladies underwear

English 1835 and 1834 respectively

Linen shift and cotton drawers

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

But lingerie is only rarely fully displayed due to its association with nudity, as demonstrated by Georges Feydeau’s play, Put Some Clothes On, Clarisse! in which Ventroux chastises his wife for appearing in front of her son in a camisole. “That is completely see-through!“ he tells her. Clarisse replies that she cannot be nude because she is wearing her camisole.

“Trop peu! Trop!” (Too much! Too little!)

Charles Vernier, 1855

Engraving, Charivari

Musée Galliera, Paris

The episode demonstrates that from a woman’s perspective lingerie provides coverage, whereas the male sees the nudity underneath. Because of its contact with skin and its close association with feminine intimacy, lingerie was and remains an object of fantasy among men, discretely fostered by the women who wear it.

“Utilité de la crinoline” (Of the utility of crinoline)

Charles Vernier, 1855

Engraving, Charivari

Musée Galliera, Paris

Glimpsing petticoat flounces in the 18th and 19th centuries had the same impact on the male observer’s imagination as making out the panties or string under a young woman’s jeans today. Lingerie is erotically charged precisely because it is the most private aspect of femininity. The corsetry category belongs more to the realm of disguise.

Underwear of cotton chemise, whalebone corset of blue silk and crinoline spring. Steel hoop frame covered with braid with horsehair frill

English and French, c. 1860–1869

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The relationship of corsetry to clothing is like that of a structural frame to a building, except in the case of corsetry the framework is positioned over a pre-existing foundation: the female body. The role of corsetry is to mold the figure and to impose the shapes of fashion upon it. To this end corsetry is used to transform three key body parts: waist, bust, and hips, the three areas upon which a new silhouette is constructed.

Corset concealer

Stiches and lace

Musées d’Art et d’Histoire, Troyes

In Underwear Through the Ages, Armand Silvestre describes a “proper corset“ in the following terms: The top should be flared enough to support the breasts without constricting them; the armholes should be very deep; the cloth facings should be thin, correctly placed, and supple […] finally, it should fit over the whole pelvis, resting solidly on the hips and following the natural lines of the sides.

Crinoline underskirt

c. 1865

White cotton, wicker frame, Inv.2003.75.X

Musée Galliera, Paris

Corsetry thus accentuates the body’s natural curves and enables the figure to conform to new lines. It can give a round, uplifted, shapely, or flat bust; a more or less slender, invisible, or extremely obvious waist; and it can slim down or widen the hips. Imposing the demands of fashion upon the body, corsetry often goes against nature.

Sport or summer corset and underskirt with bustle (called “crabtail”)

1875–80

Inv. 1920.1.968 Inv. 2003.73.X

Musée Galliera, Paris

And as much as lingerie belongs to the realm of intimacy, corsetry is tied to external appearance. It is her corsetry that turns a woman wearing a dress into a fashion plate. The corsetry category includes underclothes such as whalebone bodies, corsets, girdles, guêpières, bustiers, farthingales, panniers, and crinolines. A piece of corsetry is made up of internal reinforcements that constrict and control the body.

Summer corset

1875–1880

Inv. 1920.1.968