Underwear Through The Ages with Simply Be

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

My current YouTube collaboration, Makeup Through the Ages is on a little Christmas break until 8th January, when we will all be back with our 1960's looks. In the mean time Simply Be got in contact with ideas for a post on how underwear has changed over the past few decades and how trends come and go.

In our current decade we are really lucky has we have such choice and can take trends and elements from past decades in makeup, underwear, fashion and life to get the best of everything.

Like a lot of people these days when I decide to research things I'm most likely to take to Pinterest more than anywhere else. I've been on a pinning mission and looked at vintage underwear sytles.

We've come a long way from the Victorian corsets all the way round to corsets being back in for a lot of people.


The 1920's was still very much about corsets and girdles but looking at this advert which I came across on Vintage Dancer shows a slightly more relaxed version of what I'd imagined to still be very restrictive. I feel like underwear was becoming more practical for women in this era.

Gossard 1926
Looking through the decades shapes and styles seem to vary only slightly for a few decades and while I'm sure there were some massive advances in manufacturing and fabrics styles and colour are fairly static. Lets call it classic and you can still buy similar items today. I spotted this on the Simply Be website.
NATURANA ZIP FRONT WHITE CORSELETTE
The 1950's is the decade where we start to see more fun, colour, different fabrics, patterns and things are looking a lot less restrictive and comfort seems to coming in. 

It also sees a move away from but still including girdles and the like. I don't think we will ever get away from things like that, we might call them spanx, shape wear but while we might not all like to wear big knickers these days these look a lot comfier than in previous decades. 


For a modern, comfy equivalent but make be not as pretty, I instantly think of brands like Sloggi's & Playtex. I have to admit some of the favourite knickers I own don't look too dissimilar from some of these and they came from a supermarket multipack buy (they were an emergency purchase when I'd not packed enough pairs and they were the only plus size ones they had in) We might not instantly be attracted to these styles but they deserve a bit of kudos for comfort. 

I think looking back at all the decades the 1960's & 1970's have to be my favourite and I think a lot of their influence is still firmly around. There was far more choice, not only in style but prints and fabrics. 

The more modern shapes and sizes of underwear are coming through but the highwaisted pants are not ready to go away and I think they are not going anywhere soon. 

Simply Be kindly gifted me two underwear sets and my choices have a very 60's / 70's vibe to them. I'm not a fan of shapewear but I love a highwaisted knickers to help create a smooth line without being restricted. 
Simply Yours
 I was hoping to take some pictures but lighting and time haven't allowed it. I honestly can't fault either set and I can't decide between a favourite. Both are well made and comfortable. I love the fun print and style of each set.
Anna Scholtz
Simply Be have also written a couple of posts on their blog about Bra Trends and Retro Bra's that are back in style. What is so good about Simply Be's website is the bra sizes includes mine 40B if you are interested. With some many Plus Size Bra's they start at a D cup which isn't great for a lot of us. These two sets both go from 34B to 46/48 DD Some sizes have E / F cups as well. 

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