I have been a vintage lover since I was a kid, buying my first vintage items at 11-years old. They were a pair of 1960s green and yellow heels with matching clip on earrings. Later on, I became a more regular vintage shopper, and I scoured all over the city, and later online, for vintage pieces that spoke to me. It didn’t take long for me to realize what I loved was the styles of the 1920s-60s, and it’s no surprise that I became a pinup model. Being a pinup model allows me to dress up in the clothes I otherwise wouldn’t wear and it gives me a reason to expand my collection. Of course, there are many other reasons why I model, but this is just one fun one!
Shot by Jamie T Photography, hair by Sam's Hair Band, makeup by Erin Wheatley
Women’s fashion, and in turn, lingerie, took an incredible turn in just a few years. A woman at 18 at the turn of the 20th century would be wearing layers of undergarments, and virtually exposed by Victorian standards, by the time she was 30 in the 1920s. The last time a woman’s natural figure, not modified by undergarments like corsets, had not been since the ancient Greeks. The flapper look that took the 1920s by storm hid a woman’s breasts and showed off her legs. The quintessential flapper dress could be compared to a Greek tunic, and her undergarments are not so different. Women of this period wore wide cami-knickers, coming down to the thigh. Women often wouldn’t wear suspender belts either, the trendy thing to do was to roll ones stockings up to the knee with a garter. The only tight garment a woman wore was her brassiere, which girls started wearing quite late, if at all. Many women didn’t think they needed them. But for fuller figured and fuller busted women, they still had to wear firm corsets. It was still a new, lighter garment, with a wrap-around style with front-busks that fell low on the hips, pulling them in. The aim of the corset and brassiere in the 1920s was to provide an unbroken line down the body. With corsets going out of fashion in favour of a boyish, more natural look, most corset manufacturers went into the brassiere market. One famous claim made about a brassiere was that it was the only one to “give the wearer a perfectly flat form from the shoulder to the hem… and does not push up the bust”.
By the late 1920s and early 30s, Rosalind Klin, the director of the Kestos company, couldn’t find a bra to her taste, so she developed the first ever two-cup brassiere that would be the synonym for “brassiere” for many years to come. Women didn’t buy bras, they bought “Kestos”. The triangle shape of the bra would recur throughout the 20th century, in the 1960s with the “no bra” bra, a step away from the incredibly structured and wired bras of the 1950s, and even today with the bralette. This created the idea that then brassiere was a controlling garment and not just a flattening garment.
By the late 20s, knickers got shorter and due to the tendency to copy children’s clothes, became a lot more fitted. These are more similar to the panties we wear today. Yet while children’s underwear was made of cotton, women’s panties were made of silk. Women’s underwear was usually blue or pink during this period. Black underwear, which was worn by respectable women during the war, was now considered scandalous and only worn by sex workers. This would be why you never see black lingerie from this period! The combinations of what women wore under their clothes diminished by the 1930s and into WWII to the standard bra, panties, garter belt and stockings.
In the 20th century, as outer clothes became less formal, underwear followed suit. This meant that women desired lighter undergarments to go under their lighter clothing. After WWII, bras become more widespread and by this time, were more structured, cami-knickers were out of fashion, and pants had started to come into fashion, allowing tighter knickers to come into the mainstream. The end of WWII had inspired the “new look”, a term and style created by Christian Dior, which consisted of extreme hourglass silhouettes and meant women were supposed to have large breasts, wasp waists, and wide hips. While women were expected to remain thin, it wasn’t possible for most women to also have the rounded hips and full bosom that fashion designers sought after. This led to the reintroduction of petticoats into fashion. At first, women resisted them, thinking they were too Victorian and out of style to wear under dresses. It wasn’t until Hollywood films wanted to film erotic scenes and still get past the censors (the Hays Code, instated in 1934 and used until the fall of the studio system in 1968, had very strict rules about portraying anything sexual on screen), and they decided they could do this by using layers of fabric and only hinting at nudity. This is where the petticoat came in. Audiences assumed that the stars wore them along with slips and other similar garments, and were eager to wear them. Women were also quite hygiene conscious in the mid-century, and preferred that their clothes not directly touch their skin. Slips and petticoats worked well for this purpose.
While petticoats solved the issue of creating wider hips, it didn’t help with cinching in the waist to fit all the “new look” styles of the 1950s. To aid in giving women the tiniest waist possible, women started wearing girdles. Short girdles started from the waist, while others were more inspired by the corset and went up to the chest. They supported the breasts and nipped in the waist, they were called corselets, merry widows, or “wasps”.
The 1950s were a golden age for the lingerie industry due to a large amount of soft natural and synthetic materials available, a large economic boom for the lingerie industry with women buying more undergarments than ever before, and advertising led to a great variety of styles, quick changes in fashions from season to season, and a huge assortment of colours. Personally, my favourite vintage lingerie pieces and styles that I covet are from the 50s.
The bra has the most interesting history in post-WWII years. Engineering on a Hollywood starlet’s bosom on the set of a film led to the development of more structured, supportive bras. By this point, underwires were in popular use, despite having been patented in the 1940s. The strapless bra was also developed in the 1950s, many of these styles utilizing a wire that arched on top of the breast tissue, as opposed to under it. This was known as an over-wire bra and it was particularly useful for women who wanted to wear low-cut dresses without having her bra show through. The over-wire bra also allowed women to don a more natural shape instead of the very sculpted pointed shape the bullet bra provided. I’m personally obsessed with over-wire bras, and sadly they’re hard to find.
I wasn’t able to find out too much about vintage loungewear in my research but slips, nightgowns, and peignoirs are some of my favourite pieces to buy. They’re also good pieces to buy online because unlike bras, the fit isn’t as finicky. Etsy is an amazing resource for buying vintage loungewear and lingerie online. However, I’ve found that just searching “vintage lingerie” isn’t particularly helpful. I normally search different brands to see what pops up like “Vanity Fair” (an all-time favourite of mine whose pieces are highly collectible), or “Lucie Ann Beverly Hills”. I also find that for some of the earlier pieces, like 1920s and 30s, it helps to search those decades in particular because there is less of those pieces. By the time you get to the 50s and 60s, Etsy and other websites seem to become oversaturated with mediocre items, so keep your searches specific to find exactly what you’re looking for. Another shop I love and have mentioned before is Gigi's House of Frills in Toronto. They specialize in vintage lingerie (and vintage repro!) and have some amazing pieces. If you're not in Toronto, check out their Instagram because they'll ship items out of town!
Instagram has also proven to be very impressive when it comes to buying vintage lingerie. Sellers like Butchwax Vintage, Cult of Chiffon, and Guermantes Vintage utilize the app to get a bigger reach to sell the products in their Etsy shops. Some sellers, like Butchwax, even offer items specifically for Instagram users. Instagram also has non-professional sellers looking to sell items to clear up space. Make sure to search hashtags for particular decades, designers, and styles to find what you’re looking for. You may just find something fabulous!
There are quite a few groups on Facebook that allow people to swap and sell vintage items. While buying from professional sellers is great, buying from regular vintage lovers is equally good for different reasons. Oftentimes, they’re looking to free up some space in their closets and are open to selling fabulous things, or they need some fast cash and are more willing to part with treasures. Often items in these groups are “priced to sell” as opposed to making a real profit like many professional sellers. This can be much easier on your bank account, that is, if you don’t buy too many things!
Of course, when buying online, make sure that the seller uses Paypal and that you receive a tracking number after purchase. Make sure to ask questions before you purchase about the quality of the garment, the fit, size, and to see the tags. The tags can be very telling about a piece’s true age. Buying in a shop is always easier, but depending on where you are, there may not be too many options for finding beautiful vintage lingerie.
I hope that this helped you a bit in your understanding of vintage lingerie styles and how to recognize and source them. Happy shopping!
Are you interested in buying vintage lingerie, or already have some in your collection? Let me know in the comments!