For centuries women wore layers of underwear beneath their upper clothes, for modesty, warmth, comfort and hygiene. Basic coverings date back at least to early Christian times – long T-shaped smocks or shifts (equivalent to the male shirt: see DYA Sep 2016). Generally of plain, washable linen, these provided a protective buffer between the skin and upper garments. Surviving shifts dating to the 1540s, voluminous, with wide, round necklines are made from the finest linens: cambric, Holland and lawn; meanwhile, throughout the medieval and early-modern eras, working people wore heavy-duty canvas and hemp hair shifts and smocks.

Shifts were often made at home: wealthier ladies owned many and these were changed frequently for cleanliness; yet wills suggest that even ordinary folk had several, keeping special shifts for ‘hallydays’ and weddings. Put on over the head, the neck was drawn in with ribbon ties, buttons or hooks and eyes. During the 16th and 17th centuries, when the shift was exposed at the neck and wrists, this inspired delicate lace work and embroidery.

Around this time separate ‘petticoats’ evolved and for about 200 years they fluctuated between under and outer wear. When gowns were styled with open-fronted skirts, a pretty underskirt or petticoat was integral to the ensemble, for example the satin quilted petticoats of the 1700s. By 1800 the shift/smock was generally called the chemise – still of linen and typically knee-length, the neckline cut to follow that of the gown.

During the early 1800s and 1810s a narrow, half-glimpsed coloured garment was worn under gauzy neo-classical gowns: called a ‘slip’ this was an early form of dress lining. Otherwise petticoats were now hidden: made of cotton (cambric or muslin), linen or warm flannel, they were usually white and fastened at the back. From c1815 stiffer petticoats were worn to give structure to widening skirts, the top petticoat starched, or reinforced at the hem. Petticoats retained attached bodices until the Victorian era, when they separated into a corset over and waist-length petticoat. As skirts expanded during the 1830s-1850s, several under-petticoats and an upper horsehair petticoat supported the vast bell shape, until cage crinoline frames appeared in the mid-1850s.

A mid-Victorian era a lady might wear a cotton chemise, now fitted, less bulky than earlier, and several petticoats: in the 1860s as the crinoline swayed, it was fashionable to show off the hems of embroidered or bright red flannel petticoats. As dress styles changed, underwear grew more tailored and petticoats for formal wear featured trains in the 1870s. During the 1890s and early-1900s underwear grew lighter, more exquisite and sets of alluring underwear in soft cottons and silks were termed ‘lingerie’. Ornate flounced petticoats created the rustling ‘frou frou’ effect admired in the Edwardian age: only in the First World War did underwear grow more practical, less bulky, divided petticoats (like culottes) growing popular with active women. A shorter, narrower version in the 1920s was again called the ‘slip’, a modern term.