Ladies Sexy Underwear Of The 1950s

Ladies Sexy Underwear Of The 1950s

glamourdaze.com needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding.

Did you know botnets can be used to shutdown popular websites?
Requests from malicious bots can pose as legitimate traffic. Occasionally, you may see this page while the site ensures that the connection is secure.

Performance & security by
Cloudflare

Vintage Lingerie Guide: 1950s Underwear

© 2022 The Costume Rag • Built with GeneratePress
The Costume Rag is reader-supported. We may receive a commission from these links.
So, you want to look as authentically 1950s as possible? Well, to achieve the perfect ’50s look, you have to start with what’s happening underneath that sheath dress or full-circle skirt and tight sweater… some amazing vintage lingerie!
Don’t forget to check out our favourite vintage lingerie brands:
The 1950s were a time for falsies. Although we think that bust padding is a relatively new invention forever associated with this decade, there in fact was a boom for bust improvers in the late Victorian era when women were known to change the size of their bust improvers depending on who their dance partner might be.
Women had to work very hard to emulate Dior’s New Look that crossed over from Paris in 1947 as a reaction to the horrors and rationing of WW2. Women were expected adapt their form to a silhouette that hadn’t been commonplace since the previous century.
To achieve a sharp-pointed bustline, and nipped-in waistline with exaggerated hips, a lot of blood, sweat and tears had to be shed – and not down in the gym! The ’50s saw the rise of the bullet bra, the girdle and the petticoat.
Many innovations in bra construction date back to the 1930s but didn’t really take off ‘til the 1950s. In 1935 USA Warner Bros introduced cup fittings, A, B, C and D for the first time. They had realised that the measurement of the bust and the size of the breasts involve two different measurements.
Other innovations such as the strapless bra, the wired bra, and the padded bra were introduced in the late ’30s, but didn’t really spring to the fore ‘til the ’50s. With the outbreak of WWII however, these new fashion ideas were put on hold for almost a decade.
As early as Spring 1940, controls were introduced restricting the amount of corsetry available for civilians and when clothes rationing was introduced in the UK in June 1941, restrictions were increased.
During the war, many British women were either working in the factories, toiling in the Land Army providing food for the nation, or occupied in the forces doing ‘men’s work’ – and many complained that they needed good corsetry more than ever for physical support.
These cries for ‘support’ eventually reached the ears of the government early in 1944, through a recently established body the Corset Guild of Great Britain. Formed in 1943 by retail shop owners and leading corset manufacturers, the Guild presented a petition to No. 10 Downing Street that in March 1944 resulted in corsetry being classified under as Essential work order.
War time restrictions on clothing continued until March 1949 in the UK and even after that some rationing continued. Most underwear that was available was purely practical, not alluring, any pretty lingerie that was advertised was astronomically priced and indistinguishable from that which had been produced in the 1930s.
The process of easing women out of wartime restrictions was given a bold impetus by the introduction of the famous ‘New Look’ in Paris by Christian Dior in the Spring of 1947 in the first collection show at his newly established couture house. While cloth was still rationed, Dior put yards-and-yards of it into full-flowing, below-the-calf-length skirts, extending to twelve inches from the ground and replacing the shorter tubular styles that had been the fashion for years.
Instead of the current square-shouldered jackets with lightly defined waists, he presented a short jacket with rounded shoulders and a nipped-in waist. In spite of the loud disapproval of the British authorities (headed by future British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, as President of the Board of Trade) and protests from the patriotic and serious minded, the New Look was instantly and widely adopted in Britain.
The New Look also called a for a new, high-rounded bosom which quite often had to be constructed with ‘shaplies’. These were British made, mass-produced false busts made of sponge rubber and costing 10/6.
1947 was a ground-breaking year for another reason, nylon fabric was first shown at the British Industries Fair, where the new underwear fabrics made from it were described as ‘a beauty and a revolution’.
Fabrics such as nylon taffeta and nylon marquisette were getting used in corsetry by 1947 and they contributed an important step towards the glamourization of foundation wear and the creation of lightweight garments capable of providing degrees of control that were hitherto available only with the use of formidable fabrics.
The sweater girl bra came into fashion around 1955 and reached its zenith in 1957. This style, with its two projecting (often stiffened) cones and its whorls of stitching, was as remote from nature as the flattener bra of the 1920s.
The sweater girl bra also known at the Hollywood Maxwell was inspired by the naturally-endowed film star, Jane Russell; its aim was to create an exaggerated, high-pointed bosom and these bras were shaped to sharp points, stiffened and built up. It was also often underwired beneath the bust to add to the effect and it was hitched up tightly to the shoulder straps to have added desired uplift.
For the less well-endowed, a lining of latex foam
was whirlpool-stitched into the cup to create ‘The Equalizer’ with its
‘cunningly concealed contours for that all-so-feminine American look’. All
sorts of bust improvers were advertised and displayed in shop windows,
including pneumatic busts that could be inflated at will like a balloon.
By 1955 the fashionable bustiers and long-line bras
of the moment were summed up by Alison Adburgham as a ‘caress of nylon, lastex
and lace’, some were so lightweight that they rolled-up as small as the nylon
stockings usually worn along with them.
The New Look was also achieved with the corselette, a heavily boned, echoing the Victorian corsets of the past and padded at the hips to extenuate a tiny waist.
The Corselette was a combination of the bra and the girdle and it was a foundation garment very popular in the ’50s. It was mass manufactured by companies such as Triumph, Jantzen, J Roussel and Warner.
Another key foundation garment was a girdle called
the Waspie, a short corset worn over a slip and bra and the familiar roll-on
(pantie girdle), tight-laced to achieve an hourglass look. The fad was mostly short lived and mainly worn
by high fashion models for catwalk shows. It was replaced by the elasticated
cotton roll-on girdle with suspenders attached around 1950.
A full-length tulle petticoat (just 12 inches off the ground) was required to achieve the New Look. Under the new, full skirts went voluminous petticoats and in the first wave these were often brightly coloured and frilled.
In a time of rationing and when lots of women still made their own clothes on a regular basis, and carrying on the trend of ‘Make Do and Mend’ from the war, in many cases these petticoats were adapted heirlooms rescued from Grandmother’s attic.
A shortened form of the crinoline skirt took off
in the later-half of the decade, when the teenage fashion trends of the late ’50s
seized upon mass-produced paper nylon petticoats. So teenage girls could wear full, circular
skirts and pretty, waisted frocks with full skirts set off with a rustle of
petticoat.

Bobbins & Bombshells celebrates designer fashion and vintage details (bobbins) and those who wore it (bombshells).

Oldest First

Oldest First
Newest First

Most Liked
Least Liked

Preview

Post Comment…

Preview

Post Reply

New items are added in small 6 piece collections. Subscribe to the newsletter for first dibs on new listings!
I'm back on my blogging schedule after some major US election woes and computer issues. I'm not sure what the future will bring but it's always important to know your history. With that said, let's get started on this month's Fashionable History installment. In our Lingerie By Decade mini series, we are already at the 1950's. You can find previous decades here .
The 1950's is post WWII with an emphasis on creating a family and being "happy". The hourglass figure is in- ultra feminine looks with nipped in waists. Women are either wearing full or fitted pencil skirts to emphasize their curves. Lingerie sales increase as women have a need to lift, nip in, and shape. Nylon is also more available and this makes lingerie not only more affordable but also more colorful as well.
The pointy cup is still in fashion after starting in the late 1940's. Bullet bras, cone bras, whirlpool bras are still selling. "Sweater Girls" are popular and no one wore this look better than Marilyn Monroe.
Tap pants are replaced by nylon panties with elastic at the waist and around the leg. High waisted full coverage panties look best under slim pencil skirts. Ruffled and more decorated versions are available to wear under full skirts and dresses.
Corselettes, or merry widows as they are starting to be known as, are still being worn as they were in the decade prior. However, the waist is even more nipped in. Two piece sets are also common, in the form of a bra and high waisted "waspie" girdle. This was not a time of comfort but cake is apparently okay if you wear the right under-garments.
The fabric shortage and rationing of the 1940's is over and to make up for it, skirts and dresses are full. Full and frilly circle skirts take up a lot of yardage and to help give those skirts their shape, petticoats and crinolines are worn underneath. Some are soft and with many ruffles and layers, others are made from tulle and stiffer fabrics to aid in the poufy shape. This becomes a whole new item to add to your wardrobe that we haven't seen in ages.
Elizabeth Taylor in a Cat On a Hot Tin Roof sizzles in her white full slip above. Marilyn Monroe shows off her silk slip below. Worn over shape wear just like in the 1940s slips are not meant to be seen which made these images so alluring.
As mentioned before nylon fabrics are now fully integrated in lingerie manufacturing. With that comes more affordable color choices than previously available and more and more lingerie is sold. Variety in styles is also more evident when it comes to slips and nightwear to suit the individual style and age of the consumer. The modern age of lingerie is born.
This concludes our history of 1950's lingerie. Stay tuned for next month's installment- the 1960s! Afraid to miss out? Sign up for my monthly newsletter or follow on bloglovin' .
I am from the Golden Age of Girdles - 40s, 50s, 60s - and trust me I know for a fact women back then loved being daily in a girdle.
Sign up to get updates, private promotions, and first dibs on new collections.
Want first dibs on the next collection? Love private sales? Sign up today for DROP DAY DISCOUNTS!
Thank you! Our newsletter dispatches on the first Thursday of the month. Be sure to add hello@bobbinsandbombshells.com to your contacts.

When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures.
Florida Fashions 1950s Vavoom , such pretty and sexy lingerie !
Aldens Spring Summer 1954 Love the pinks and the black to !
original vintage 1953 Ad Lovable strapless bras

Panty Bendover
Perfectgirlnet
Teen Boy Cum Tumblr

Ladies Sexy Underwear Of The 1950s

Report Page