The history of underwear: ASU professor says garments were once luxury, a show of power

There are some things about modern life that many of us probably tend to take for granted — things that are designed to make us comfortable. Air conditioning, upholstery and sunglasses.

But when we do stop for a moment to consider the origins of these things, it’s usually not long before we have to reckon with class. And that’s definitely the case for one of those things we all rely on, but really don’t like to think about: underwear.

Arizona State University professor Kelly Hawkinson has spent a lot of time thinking about underwear. She’s a trained costume designer, and she says that the garments we conceal under our clothes were once considered a great luxury.

Hawkinson spoke more about the history of the garments with The Show.

Full conversation

KELLY HAWKINSON: Around the 13th or 14th century, we start to see trends that start with the aristocracy and move downward. So the initial early women's underwear, you always kind of started with a layer that would protect your body’s oils, sweat, whatever from the garment itself. So there was always some sort of chemise.

And then, as we move forward, we want a little bit more structure. You know, we gain more technology when it comes to cutting things. And one of the first things we start to see is a stiffened bodice. So around the early 16th century, we decide to separate the bodice from the skirt. So this gives us many more options when it comes to tailoring, and we start making choices that are beyond just practicality.

SAM DINGMAN: That’s very interesting to me what you said about how early versions of underwear, part of the design thinking was absorption. To like, prevent the clothes themselves from being soiled. Is that because it was a bigger deal to wash things?

HAWKINSON: Fabric was very expensive. So you think about what it takes to make fabric in pre-industrial society. I have to go out and I have to feed that sheep until it gets big enough to grow its wool. Or, I've got to grow linen, which takes like seven months and then process it into fiber and then weave it into something that is fabric, all basically by hand.

Fabric was precious, and you can't necessarily wash wool regularly because it'll shrink. So you want something next to your body that you can wash every day. And that's where things like, what is known as the chemise, which is a long dress and it was worn by women.

And then men had some sort of undershirt that did the same kind of thing. And oftentimes it was long enough that it could wrap around themselves, below their pants, so it could kind of envelope their undercarriage.

Because, yeah, it was more difficult to wash things and kind of not practical. You didn't have a lot of clothes.

DINGMAN: Right. So at a certain point, the visual presentation of the underwear itself becomes something that people are thinking about?

HAWKINSON: Well, think of it as architecture. So, let's take Tudor England. So Catherine of Aragon is known for bringing the Spanish farthingale to England. And what it was, it was made of bent pieces of wood, and it kept the skirts out in sort of an A shape. But it's a chance to really turn what we thought was something practical — it's about collecting sweat – into an article of fashion and actually a chance to really engineer something.

There's a lot of showing status, having a garment that takes up space to say, look, I'm in charge here, you know?

DINGMAN: Right.

HAWKINSON: Think of Queen Elizabeth the first in this big round dress. And, you know, the idea of taking up physical space via the undergarments became important.

It keeps people away from her. It's a way to show off your wealth because it takes a lot of fabric to cover that kind of ground. Kind of like soft power.

DINGMAN: When do the briefs and what probably most people listening to this are picturing when they think of underwear. When do those start to appear?

HAWKINSON: Shockingly late!

DINGMAN: OK. 

HAWKINSON: Listen, the men's Y-front brief: 1935. That's when that was introduced on the scene.

DINGMAN: Less than 100 years ago. 

HAWKINSON: Yes, exactly. Women didn't wear panties, as we know it, until the '30s regularly. Before that, it was like little pantaloons, like in the '20s. So, little shorts.

DINGMAN: OK.

HAWKINSON: They were like knickers, that kind of thing. But women didn't even wear underwear under those skirts. Like the bigger skirts that we see in Elizabethan times. During the 18th century, no underwear. Why? Because you had all this skirt

DINGMAN: Right. It's a lot of fabric happening.

HAWKINSON: So if you had to use the restroom, you can't take that off. So your best bet was you had some sort of crotch-less drawers and then you would just stand over wherever you had to use the restroom. You know, that's practical.

DINGMAN: Something I have always been curious about in men's underwear is I remember the horrific experience of having to change in the locker room during gym class when I was in school, and that there was this real point where it switched over and it was no longer cool to wear briefs. You were supposed to wear boxers.

What was that about? Like where does the boxer brief divide?

HAWKINSON: So boxers were first worn in the military. So they were issued to soldiers in World War II.

DINGMAN: OK.

HAWKINSON: And then part of what made them popular is that the soldiers came home and they were like, these are great, you know? And then we started to see more patterns and prints.

And it's interesting, like in the '90s, what you're talking about, that was the rise of Calvin Klein. And like all of a sudden we got somebody — I mean, Calvin Klein was the first one to put his name on underpants — and people wanted to show that off as, again, a form of status. So I think that those trends just ebb and flow and will continue.

DINGMAN: Well, since you brought up Calvin Klein. When does underwear go from being a practical item that you're using just to have something on under your clothes to something that is being advertised, something that is a fashion statement to wear? 

HAWKINSON: Well, to be honest, I think it started in gay culture that you started to see more magazines that were targeted at fashion for gay men. That you would see colored underwear and different things.

But Calvin Klein, that series of posters, of those ads, really changed. Like made underwear a fashion statement. And he set a trend. Like now you see it everywhere.

I mean, when you look at Edwardian underwear. So this is the Gilded Age, you know, and we have these frothy confections of petticoats that have lace upon tuck, and no one's supposed to see that.

But again, this is a time where the country has money or the world is wealthier. People can afford more. Plus we can mechanize more things. So maybe it's just, why not? Why not think about every detail?

We make choices in our personal dress about how we want to see ourselves and how we want our world to see ourselves. And so, you can make an argument that that absolutely comes down to the first thing you put on in the morning, which is your underwear.