Petticoat - History

History

The practice of wearing petticoats as undergarments was well established by 1585. Petticoats were worn throughout history by women who wanted to have the currently fashionable shape created by their clothing. The petticoat(s), if sufficiently full or stiff, would hold the overskirt out in a pleasingly domed shape and give the impression of a smaller waist than the wearer actually had. It would also complement the desired large bust.

Elaborately decorated petticoats were worn under open-fronted gowns and looped overskirts from the mid-sixteenth century. Eighteenth century petticoats of wool or silk were often quilted for additional warmth and were worn with matching short gowns or jackets, which could be fashioned like a man's jacket with military details and trimmings. These ankle-length petticoats remained a rural fashion, especially in the UK, into the nineteenth century and are a part of Welsh national dress.

Elaborate, lacy petticoats were worn with elegant silk dresses in the eighteenth century in much of Europe and America, sometimes supported by whalebone frames. The Laurel and Hardy film adaptation of Auber's comic opera Fra Diavolo offers a glimpse of the intricate petticoats, corsets, and other underwear worn in the eighteenth century, especially in a scene where actress Thelma Todd prepares for bed, assisted by a maid. Colored pictures, called "fashion plates", were used to advertise the popular dresses and lingerie of the eighteenth century, a practice that continued through the nineteenth century until the introduction of photography around 1840.

In the early nineteenth century, dresses became narrower and simpler with much less lingerie. Then, as the waltz became popular in the 1820s, full-skirted gowns with petticoats were revived in Europe and the United States. By the mid nineteenth century, petticoats were worn over hoops, which were placed over other underwear, including a corset cover, a corset, and drawers. The popular novel Gone with the Wind provides considerable, detailed descriptions of these fashions. One scene in the 1939 film adaptation with actress Vivien Leigh gives a good idea of the layers of petticoats and underwear that were worn in the 1860s.

The sheer weight of the clothing, along with the tightness of the corsets, sometimes caused women to faint. The voluminous, layered Victorian petticoats were fashionable in the eras when "full-bodied" was associated with health, wealth, and belonging to a higher class in the social structure, while "skinny" was associated with sickness, poverty, and belonging to a lower class.

The use of multiple petticoats continued to be popular until the 1870s, when the bustle was introduced, resulting in a return of narrower skirts. Some full-skirted gowns with petticoats were revived in the 1890s into the early twentieth century, but most women continued to wear relatively narrow skirts. The "Gibson Girl" look with white blouses and long, narrow skirts was very popular during the late nineteenth and early 20th-century.