Petticoats

B. nuisance it was too....

A friend and I were talking about this subject recently. I never saw a Liberty Bodice, I suppose we didn't have them in Canada where I spent my early childhood. But, I do remember full and half slips. The petticoat was worn with a dress and a slip with a skirt. My grandmother was horrified when she found that I was slip-less once. Some were really pretty, but I felt that a lot of slips used to cling to your stockings especially the cheaper ones. What about garter belts and girdles? What horrors they were and so uncomfortable. I never wore a girdle but my grandmother had a Playtex one . All elastic and stocking holders, it seemed huge to me and I watched with some amusement as she would wrestle with it to get it on. Undies seem to be disappearing fast with girls wearing tiny knicks and bras. My grandmother was an Edwardian and would have been horrified at what is on show these days.

There used to be a lady in most neighbourhoods who measured for corsets I think it was called Spirella or something like that. I seem to remember ne in our road and she was a very haughty lady, very well set up as they used to say and a never ending stream of what my mother called ' stout' women would call for appointments.

I have a half slip that lives at the back of the lingerie drawer in case I need it, as others say an unlined skirt sometimes requires it.All my dresses [all 3]already have linings.
Remember 'roll-ons'? Small corsets, I wore one from about 14 to 18, no idea why as I was a size 10.

Oh rosesarered, yes I do remember roll-ons. I too wore one in my teens. It was like putting a sausage skin on. My Mum still wore something similar until she died last year aged 98. It was probably a corselette but she still called it her roll-on.

I can remember the broderie anglaise petty showing under skirt in the early 70s but I can remember before then when it was all the rage to have a gingham dress with a VERY full skirt and the broderie showing. My mum made me one. The material cost 3/11 a yard from the market and I had a pair of white slip ons to go with it. I had a blue and white one and my best friend had a pink and white one. I think it was a bridgette Bardot fashion. We had paper nylon petticoats under it too and I can remember us sitting in the bus to go somewhere and the skirts all cocking up and not fitting in the bus seats.

My great grandad travelled in ladies corsets!!

He was a salesman for Charles Bayer. Always struck me as a strange job for a man, but I suppose women didn't work back then.

@SuFlay - that was a very pretty look, and one which I enjoyed...

I remember the full gingham dresses worn in the late 1950/60's with a multi layered petticoat underneath so the skirt stuck out. My father said I looked like a walking lampshade. Sometimes we wore more then one petticoat for better effect. Also we used to soak them in sugar-water for the same reason. Ah happy days.

Oh, I still (living in trousers) yearn for a gingham dress seen then in a window on a day trip to Belfast! Red, with three tiers to the skirt....

SueBailey1. My aunt was a Spirella lady. I think it was deemed to be an acceptable job for a middle class lady who could not be seen to go out to work. Spirella had a large factory in Letchworth which is no longer there of course.