A codpiece, a chest tightener and other fashionable wisdom from the past that are perplexing today

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Fashion trends from the past were not just crazy and wild, but also unsafe. Dyes that were used in fabrics could contain poisonous arsenic, and the so-called giant crinoline was easily ignited by any spark. And even if clothes in themselves did not pose a danger to health and life, many of the strange things from the past made it difficult to move around and feel truly comfortable. For example, those who wore blio could not really move their arms. Just like people who preferred pulleins, they actually could not move normally. Like the wide panniers worn by the women, they did not allow them to squeeze through the narrow doorway. In any case, regardless of whether these ideas were abnormal or purely stupid, we can thank them for being there and for inspiring us to create this article.

1. Codpiece

During the XV-XVI centuries, men began to pay more attention to protecting their natural, physical dignity with the help of so-called armor, which acquired the name "codpiece". It was often made from embroidered fabric, soft to the touch, and sometimes even from a single piece of metal. The codpiece was held in place by ribbons, buttons and ribbons, and should have been praised and admirable. The very name of this piece of clothing gave off a slight obscenity, since "codpiece" was actually a slang word that was used to define the scrotum.

The French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, however, was one of the main critics of this garment. In the late 1580s, he described the codpiece as. Gulfs eventually ceased to be necessary, because breeches and long doublets soon came into fashion, hiding the groin area and quickly gaining popularity among the masses.

2. Binder or breast tightener

In the roaring 20s, the boyish slender figure was seen to grow wildly in popularity, and underwear with a squeeze effect began to evolve as the beloved hourglass body type faded into oblivion. The main purpose of each piece of underwear was to make the chest and torso appear flattened as a whole, so that sheath dresses do not show the shape, but hang straight down. This led corset makers R. & WH Symington to invent a new type of garment known as the "Symington Side Lacer" for breast tightening. The woman could easily slip the garment over her head and then tighten the side laces and check the straps, making sure that the curves of her figure were smoothed out. Other manufacturers of women's clothing also took advantage of the new fashion and offered their new products. For example, the Miracle Reducing Rubber bra was made without knuckles or lacing, while the then popular Bramley Corsele was a bra-corset hybrid that could be worn under any type of dress.

3. Corsets

Women from all over the world have been using corsets and their variations since the 5th century. Corsets were originally created from a stiff fabric, and then gradually began to resemble a cage-like dress, created from whalebone, steel or natural wood. The first corsets were so narrow that they even managed to displace organs within the body, and eventually caused health problems such as constipation, indigestion, but never led to a tragic outcome. In fact, experts of our time agree that people misinformed regarding this type of clothing.

Valerie Still, director of the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, argues that modern people believe corsets are deadly and cause all kinds of problems, such as cancer and even scoliosis, which is not true. In fact, the diseases initially attributed to these narrow gizmos were the result of other actions and causes. However, this does not mean that corsets could not cause other, albeit minor, health problems.

4. Bombast

At the end of the 16th century, printing for clothes, which bore the bright name "bombast", was very popular and was used by both men and women. The most frequently used material for such stuffing was cotton, wool, less often the most natural sawdust, which made it possible to add volume to some part of the garment, for example, to the sleeves. Men often used bombs and stuffed their doublets with them, giving the impression that they had a full belly, or used stuffing on their calves to look braver.

5. Blio

In the 12th century, men and women from Europe began to wear fancy clothes, the sleeves of which reached the floor. The name of this garment, which is often denoted as "bliaut" or "bliaud", is a word that is of ancient French or Germanic origin, and in fact is the root and progenitor of the modern word "blouse". Blio was extremely popular for its long sleeves, which made a lasting, often dramatic impression on others, but at the same time, they significantly limited movement. Blio was usually sewn from wool or silk, and sometimes they were even sewn from the favorite fabrics of aristocrats. The exact origin of the blio is unknown, but most modern historians agree that these clothes came to the lands of Europe during the Crusades.

6. Tournure

In the 1870s of the Victorian era, the so-called "Greek bend" was incredibly popular. The first version of this fashion trend was that extra fabric was added and sewn to the back of a woman's dress. Gradually, more and more variations of such clothes appeared: the skirts were often supplemented with soft pillows that were filled with straw and sawdust. Ladies who dared to wear such dresses ended up boasting a voluptuous figure with a very large back.

In fact, the bustle has always been ridiculed. In 1868, a young girl named Laura Redden Siring, aka Howard Glyndon, wrote about how young girls and women experienced pain and ridicule simply to follow fashion trends from the wealthy. She spoke of this fashion trend as something that demanded a truly "Spartan courage" from women.

7. Bloomer costume

Amelia Bloom, a moderation advocate and newspaper editor in the 1850s, became the pioneer of a fashion trend that encouraged women to wear less tight-fitting clothing, with an emphasis on more practical things. Her newspaper Lilia was where she, along with activist and popular writer Elizabeth Smith Miller, began promoting the so-called bloomer suit. It consisted of trousers worn under a knee-length skirt and a vest. This costume has gained insane popularity among women, as well as among activists and supporters of the idea of moderation in dress.

However, women who dared to wear a Bloomer costume were persecuted by the people, as such clothing was considered scandalous and blasphemous by the standards of society at the time. In fact, a lot of material has been written about how the Bloomer costume revealed women's secrets by showing the world too much. The press and society ridiculed such a piece of clothing until it finally went out of fashion, but not before it had time to leave its mark on it.

8. Muslin dresses

Such a dress was considered very risky, since it was almost transparent. And it became popular thanks to Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France. This time represented the heyday of a new era, when women began to feel more relaxed and free, feeling comfortable in clothes that were demonstrated by leather in the French court. However, muslin was not suitable for winter as it was extremely thin and provided virtually zero warmth. It was rumored that many women resorted to tricks, deliberately spilling water or perfume on themselves in order to further expose and show their bodies, which, of course, negatively affected their health due to climatic conditions. The muslin dress, according to numerous historians, actually led to nearly eighteen hundred outbreaks of influenza in Paris, and claimed the lives of many women due to the so-called muslin disease.

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