The Stripped-Down History Of Underwear, From Whalebone Girdles To Spanx

They’re hidden in drawers. They’re tucked away at the bottoms of bins. They’re the open secret of the sartorial world: Underthings, those articles of clothing that shape the way our jeans and shirts look and feel on our bodies.

Today, there are trainers and push-up bras, Spanx and boxers, all serving different purposes for their wearers. Certain underthings may be meant to boost the confidence of the wearer, while others looking at you, thongs are purely aesthetic.

A new exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum titled “Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear ,” reminds us that underwear wasn’t always a form of comfy loungewear. On the contrary, it mainly forced its wearers to conform to desired shapes, sometimes with medical costs attached.

The show begins with underwear from the mid-1800s, including a pair of cotton drawers worn by Queen Victoria along with a waist belt from 1842 that a man wore on his wedding day, demonstrating the moral implications of some underthings.

It then moves through the 19th century, when the dangers of corset-wearing, including compressed lungs and fractured ribs, are called into question. Although an alternative was eventually presented the still-restrictive, yet less medically threatening, bra corsets are still worn by women looking to achieve an hourglass shape .

However, the show is less a condemnation of the ways underwear can enforce gender stereotypes and more a celebration of one taboo corner of the fashion world. A vibrant pink corset from 1890 is displayed as an example of how underwear has helped people explore fantasies in the past. A pair of chiffon knickers from 1930 is shown as an example of how underwear transitioned from form-shaping to shapeless, comfy getups to wear around the home.

One of the most recent underthing artifacts on display is a pair of gender-neutral briefs, designed by Acne Studios, showing that underwear, once a hush-hush element of everyday dressing, is sometimes a way to outwardly display your views on social issues, like gender fluidity.

All of which is to say: We’ve come a long way from whalebone girdles.