The word “underpants” comes from the French culotte troussee – “short pants”, rolled up, rolled up, worn on a naked body. In ancient times, there was no underwear. And if the ancient Egyptians at least wore a loincloth, then the Greeks and Romans did without it at all.
Although a 4th-century mosaic from the Sicilian Villa Armerina depicts lovely Roman women in a bra and panties, similar in appearance to modern items of women’s clothing, these things were not daily underwear, but were used as a sports uniform during competitions.
Something similar was worn by some gladiators. The only exceptions were the Jews, and even then only the high priests, who put on underwear during worship.
According to some sources, the first underpants appeared in 1150. At the same time, back in the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th centuries, a very popular underwear was a long undershirt – a shemis.
Both the poor and the rich wore such shirts. It was in these shirts that the magistrates of Calais left the city in 1347 as a sign of surrender to Edward III. This fragment of history was reflected in his sculpture “Citizens of Calais” by Auguste Rodin.
In the Piedmontese Castello de la Manta, the fresco “Fountain of Youth” dating back to the middle of the 15th century, which depicts dressing men, has been preserved. One of the accessories of their clothes were shorts. Cotton shorts can also be seen in some images dating back to the 12th-15th centuries. Linen shorts of the XIV century are somewhat reminiscent of long family shorts. As early as the 15th century, panties were depicted on images, not much different from modern swimming trunks.
At the end of the 16th century, cowards from Italy came to France and further spread throughout Europe. But these were all men’s underpants, and women’s, according to experts, began to take root at the end of the 18th century. The British were the first to put them on.
But many scholars still argue that underpants in the modern sense of the word did not exist until the end of the 19th century. Men were limited to wearing underpants. And the ladies, even noble ones, did without panties at all. And only in Asian countries, long pants, which women wore under a skirt or dress, were an indispensable part of the women’s wardrobe.
In Europe, oddly enough, the church that condemns nudity was against cowards. All attempts to create underwear were immediately stopped by her. For example, Cardinal Mazarin was honored to issue as many as two edicts, categorically forbidding the manufacture of this “devilish trifle.” And only at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century, ladies of high society began to wear panties. And the peasant women went without them for a long time.
In the 19th century, they wore loose underpants made of linen, cotton or wool, which were pulled into frills at the bottom. Such models can be seen, for example, during the dance of two sisters in Balzaminov’s Marriage. On some pantaloons, there was a fastener with buttons or buttons in the front. In the heat, they also wore short pants to the knees, and they looked like skirts pinned between the legs.
They tried to combine hygiene, body shaping and beauty in women’s shorts later. They began to embroider, trim with lace, decorate with ribbons, bows, flounces and ruffles. As lifestyles changed, they tried to make briefs more comfortable, not restricting movements, adapted for everyday life.
In the 20s of the last century, women of fashion wore butterfly pantaloons, which had a slightly flared shape. In the 30-50s, many models of women’s underpants continued to take the form of cropped pantaloons. In the 50s and 60s of the XX, ladies’ skirts began to shorten rapidly, panties, of course, also had to become shorter and shorter.