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Underwear

Pants, knickers, G-strings, unmentionables, smalls, panties, knickerbockers, briaes, bloomers, high leg, camiknickers, boxers, lingerie, small clothes, pantalettes, briefs, French knickers, tangas, indescribables, Y-fronts, breeches and crotchless. For men and women alike these are some of the bizarre names that we have called that which covers the nether regions of ourselves through the ages. Women have lacy ones, men have plainer ones. Men, it appears, started this fashion of underwear, but now most of us feel undressed without that psychological safety garment.

The fashion industry has devoted part of itself to purely this area of the market. There are whole shops devoted to enticing us all to try prettier, lacier, more practical or more scanty designs. Early men's underpants (Briaes) were usually made of linen or cotton, but in the case of medieval man, they were a necessity caused by the fact that his hose, or trousers were made in two single legs, unjoined at the crotch. Without these briaes, he would have suffered a case of severe unease, especially in battle with all that chain mail hanging around.

Eventually the idea caught on with women. By about the 1800's, pantaloons had become quite popular, and we haven't looked back since. The Victorian ladies with their sense of decency, had these undergarments created out of good white linen and starched them firmly. As fashion changed, the style of undies had to change also. Smoother lines of dress dictated the need for smoother lines of undies, and so gradually silk, wormed its way in as a popular fabric for not only those rich and famous, and open drawers were superseded, by necessity, with gusseted knickers,Cami of French.

Even during the second world war, women managed to create special undies. My mother who was young at the time has told me that her mother happened upon some parachute material (and it was an old silk one!) and so it was cut up and made into various under and over garments for themselves and the neighbours. Now we take undies for granted (even men have options in cut, style, fabric and colour), but whatever style we choose, we're lucky that elastic has improved with time.

M. Cope.