TREATS IN TIME

by TREATS! STAFF

LINGERIE, A HISTORY

2000 B.C.:
In Crete, the first corset-like bodice and crinoline (a caged or hoped underskirt) is recorded.

400 A.D.:
A famous mosaic shows several women wearing what appear to be bikinis or briefs.

12th Century:
The prototype of the corset appears.

15th Century:
Women begin wearing a “basquine” or “vasqine,” a laced bodice that a hooped skirt or farthingale was attached to.

1829:
The first steel-front busk fastening was created allowing women to put on or take off the corset without assistance.

1876:
Garters that hooked to a woman’s stockings were invented and French dancers created great excitement when they showed glimpses of their garters stretched across their thigh in strip tease shows.

1889:
The brassiere is invented by Herminie Cadolle of Cadolle Paris.

1893:
Marie Tucek patents a breast supporter.

1895:
Lady Duff-Gordon of Lucile—a leading fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who originated the "mannequin parade", a precursor to the modern fashion show, and training the first professional models, and launched liberating slit skirts and low necklines, popularized less restrictive corsets—creates lacy, sexy undergarments.

1913:
Mary Phelps Jacob, later known as Caresse Crosby, felt the corset was too restrictive for dancing in the nightclubs and claimed she invented the bra by tying two handkerchiefs together with ribbons. Corsets became smaller, less bulky and constricting, and were gradually supplanted by the brassiere.

1920s:
The corset replaces the girdle.