Petticoats

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.

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....

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

B. nuisance it was too....

But when I had a 'half slip' - IT clung....

I'm just assuming Alie but possibly because the coats had no lining and the petty coat was worn underneath to stop whatever fabric the coat was made of irritating the skin. This was then adapted over the years for comfort and in the case of clothing without a lining an undergarment was necessary for skirts and dresses to stop them clinging.

I found this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petticoat which explains...

But in the 60s they were NOT meant to be seen, and one episode of Dr.Who got this wrong!

(Your show is slipping?)

Yes Agus but I was thinking, how has this become an undergarment?

I remember that saying Nancy Drew-wonder how on earth it started? I sometimes still wear a half slip in summer as skirts seem to be so see-through these days!Come the cold weather though,I'm a jeans and jumper gal.

I can remember soaking mine in sugar water and hanging it on the line to drip dry. When I looked at it later it was covered in wasps. Still wore it out though.

The origin of petticoats comes from 'petty coats' (small coats). These were light garments worn by men under their coats or doublets. As it was male orientated I am thinking maybe the petty comes from the French petit and they were possibly worn by those at court in French upper class society.

I had a hooped petticoat. At the time the joke was that it was one petticoat per drawer!

Never heard of pettipants, but good idea.
...come to think of it, why are petticoats called that??

I sometimes think the fact that my second wife took up trouser wearing in a big way, probably laid the seeds of our future breakup and divorce...

Yes Pittcity I remember those. I was 18,19 at the time and wore my favourite one all summer. We all looked like extras from Little House on the Prairie.

I do not think I have worn, or possessed a petticoat for over 30 years.

I wore two net underskirts to go to the youth club in the early sixties, stiffened by ironing them after spraying on sugar water. Two wasps plagued me the whole way, and the scratchy net laddered my stockings.

Thanks JoyBloggs for the sugar water affirmation. It seemed such an unlikely idea. Didn't it attract ants? Don't remember it being a problem anyway. I never had a hooped petticoat [sigh] but I do remember scratchy net ones which were called can can petticoats I believe.
What will today's girls have to remember with nostalgia? I cannot imagine anyone getting misty eyed over thongs and g strings

I discovered about 6 of these "slips" the other day and as I also only wear trousers now, I have no idea what to do with them. They are in too good a condition to throw out so they will probably stay in a drawer for another 10 years or so.