How Did They Pee in Those Dresses? A Superficial History of Underwear 

OK bloomers

I think Karolina covered that... yes The 1851 Women's Pants...

I have been desperately wondering about bloomers for absolutely AGES now. I'm Ren Faire trash, and I knew that all the gown-based costumes featuring bloomers was inaccurate, albeit a comfy inaccuracy come October, and understood the various reasons the costume designers choose to include them. But I didn't understand where the notion of bloomers even came from, and kept forgetting to look it up. I have done a learning, thank you.

THANK YOU for addressing this!

I am still curious about the mechanics of going to the bathroom, though! I presume most wealthy ladies likely wearing the most layers would have had maids to help them with affairs like the chamberpot, especially with hoops or crinolines. But what about regular women/women who were out in public? I distinctly remember reading a (potentially inaccurate) children's history book which described women simply standing over gutters and letting go... And what was one to do about, for lack of a better word, splashes/spattering? How about in other cultures?

This is the collab I need.

I was impressed!!

@@thewordshifter i second that notion. this needs to happen and it needs to happen *now*

Right, I played it back 3x and still feel I have no clue! 😂

I liked the animation that went along with it 👌🏽👌🏽

Nah I've had it for a while but just thought it Too Fancy for filming talky videos, then realised that Occasion-Appropriate Fashion is dead now and I can do what I want 😎

@@bernadettebanner you go girl!

Bernadette mentioning ladies going "commando" got an audible chuckle out of me. :}

@@bernadettebanner Wear what you want, when you want. Don't follow fashion, define your own! (Anything worn with confidence can define fashion. Go ahead, bring back some class to the world.)

@@karencostanzo2906 bro she knows

Straight pins? Ouch!

@@SunnyGirlFlorida I oloo

Pause. Probably remove them because they kept getting stabbed between the legs.

The size of the forests would have obscured any view.

@@GodsOath_com Hmm, in my experience when one goes to visit the wilderness, the forest is as diverting a view as any other feature of the terrain, especially if it is a hitherto undiscovered country. Though I suppose everyone has different travel goals when sight seeing. Surely they wouldn't have gone to the effort of concealing the view if it was not a subject of interest at the time. As an aside, the comfort with which people use large pins near their flesh has always mystified and unnerved me. I handle knives and bladed things all the time, and the first thing I learned was to keep the sharp bits away from mine.

My mommy was also born in 1925, she adopted me when I was 2 days old in 1972 (*math is wrong....I am only 29!!*). I feel so blessed by her experiences and knowledge that. like you said...most "younger" people laugh at, because they can't really fathom the concept of what you are saying. That being said, I too was mortified when she would explain to me about soaking "rags" when I was a young lady....now at my age of 50 (just kidding because math is not real at his moment! LOL) and having kids and such, it is not really that big of an issue or even gross. Just another bodily function that needs to be dealt with. Funny how time and such can change perception.

In my time, the bucket water was used in the garden to fertilize the plants. I was born in the 1950s. My grandmothers were born at the end of the 1890s. The rag soaking method was a common thing.

My mom is borned in the mid-50s. She told me several times how a mom made her those weird belts during her periods (is it the thing you call "contraption" ? English is not my first language). Meanwhile, one of her friends, whom mom died, had a pretty progressive father, who bought her pads. :'D My mom insisted then to were pads too.

Me, an enby in the 21st century: nod

Respect😉

😂😂

Me also a boy in the 21st century: *nods*

Me, a fighter jet in the 54th century: *Nods*

I am not yet comfortable with the exposed-ness of split drawers in my head. I mean. Everything is then just... hanging out, you know? I am not a fan of that

So curious to try them!

@@Fuiotter Nobody could see whether you had any drawers at all. Besides, in PriorAttires video one can see how split drawers actually show pretty much nothing as long as one is standing. They fit rather loosely, and therefore the drawers themselves hang below "everything", instead of anything hanging out.

@@MiljaHahto I dont mean others seeing (20 layers of clothes whaddup), I dont like the feeling of ... nakedness? I guess? I also dont like nightgowns without some kind of underwear

But the rubbing? I am somewhat chunky but I am quite uncomfortable if not bifurcated 24/7 is this a mind over matter issue?

SCA folk should know better, for a start. When I used to wear a long floaty dress to garden in, I ALWAYS tucked it up on each hip (under my knickers and out of sight of neighbours), to be out of the way. (I loved that dress; it was so cool in summer). Old paintings sometimes reflect this habit women had on the farms. Also SCA folk should know that 20 yards of fabric to wash is a real pain, just because it trailed in the mud. Only the very rich could afford to mud sweep with their skirts, trains and ruffles, because some other poor person was doing all the laundry and they had more than one dress anyway. Poorer folk may have only had two frocks or skirts, and one would have been for 'good', not for working in. SCA people can get it right royally wrong, because they're not thinking about things in a practical fashion.

hahaha scadians - the idea of wearing a backward apron underneath bc you sit on the back of the skirt is genius, plus you can just manage when you need to manually to absorb, and considering that women menstruating was considered pretty "unclean" i wouldn't be surprised if they were, when worn and less useful, tossed in as fire kindling or routinely burned - we may not have understood germ theory back in the day, but we were pretty petty and awful about female stuff 🤣

Society for Creative Anachronism Do you have to have a license for that you have to have?

yes, SCA probably planted the seed for my love of costumery, sewing, and history. My mom was in it at the beginning, but my family quit when the accuracy police made it no-fun. :( I might try to get back into it :)

Well said! 💜

I’d say ppl still do!

I love drawing bums, but I may not be human

How was this posted a day ago lol

@@solao3298 I guess there is some patron system allowing early access to new videos.

Unlike today? 😂

I actually clicked on this for the thumbnail as I was researching ("wee vases?) among the court. Horrible Histories Terrible Tudors depicts the ladies asking for permission to go from the queen & they did on the spot in a little vase they carried.

@@vanessaelhenicky5288 I also read that at the French court, they were handed a chamber pot by a footman and simply going behind the curtains 🤨

@@Muck006 Because there wasn't much difference between the undergarments of the upper & working classes? If anything the working class garments would have been simpler versions of upper class clothes made with cheaper fabrics and without some of the more extreme structural elements. But the silhouette would have been the same, the use of stays/corsets would have been the same, and the effect on using the bathroom would be the same too.

Bernadette actually refers to the recent video by PriorAttire, which shows how.

@@lyreparadox Exactly - people have this strange idea that underwear was different between classes. Poor women wear bras just as often as rich women, I don't understand where this idea comes from.

I'm 67. Yes we wore a waist strap with garters to hold our napkins in place

I'm now 50, and I remember my Mum sending an embarrassed me, down to the pharmacy when I was about 10 or 11, in the early 80's, to get her some Dr White's Number 2. And they were for a belt and hook.

​@@lynnodonnell4764 62 year old here. Yep, been there, done that. And sooooo glad I'm past that now! 😎

Yes I’m now 70 and remember first wearing the belt and pads. I found them very uncomfortable

Abby Cox did a video on how women dealt with periods historically! Its great you should check it out

Modern tampons are bad for the environment (takes thousands of years to breakdown) and has a high percentage of causing Toxic Shock Syndrome. I hope more would opt for eco-friendly alternatives like cloth pads (there are even modern styles that look like menstrual pads) or menstrual cups; both reusable, rewashable, budget-friendly.

@@woolflower8316 no thank you

@@woolflower8316 Getting TSS from tampons is very rare. A person can also get TSS from menstrual cups, so if you're trying to dissuade someone from using tampons you should stick with the environmental damage they cause and leave TSS out of your argument.

@@woolflower8316 Using all-cotton tampons reduces both the environmental hazard and the TSS risk to nearly 0, btw. It's the rayon that causes all the problems.

Agreed!

The little stuff adds up! Questions like how did people go to the bathroom seem so stupid but these details are really meaningful.

Sue perkins and Giles Coren did a programme called The Supersizers where they lived in different period costume for a week and followed the diet etc always meant to watch it. Now seems like a good time!

@@mnels5214 It totally did. You don't understand how the fact that there were no appropriate places for middle and upper class women to pee in public until you are post-childbirth and in your thirties and think about just how many local public bathrooms you're familiar with. (Grocery store, library, pharmacy....) Cause when you have to go you have to go, and if you can't safely go anywhere but a private home, you don't go anywhere except to the house of your friends, and use theirs while you're there if you must.

Makes me appreciate modern plumbing.

Chaotic Academia might be my new aesthetic now.

Can you imagine the uptight Victorian ladies peeing at the table? I giggle every time I think about it.

Hahahaha 😂😂😂

@Charisma Girl Not every girl or woman chooses to experience wearing cumbersome skirts or dresses. Not every woman who has worn such dresses have also worn old times undergarment or any garments at all. Boys and men might also be curious about historical dress as well.

@Charisma Girl most modern dresses have 1-2 skirts... and no hoops. How do you bunch up the hoops? that's what I wonder

@@actually_curious4773 hoop skirts collapse up on themselves because the area between each hoop is made of fabric. They don't really "bunch", but you just like, lift the bottom hoop. It's not really any harder than any other big dress.

The Merry Pup--both my grandmothers spoke of the hazards of urinating even while crotchless undergarments were supposed to make elimination easier. Easier, perhaps. Odor and leakage free...not so much.

Got an actual chuckle out of me

@@Muck006 Thank you! That was most informative, I didn't know most of that, though I am well aware that fashion designers didn't become a thing until the early 1900's, or the late 1800's if you count Charles Frederick Worth sewing his name onto the clothes he created.

I think we need a Ryan George style sketch about historical dress, not sure how, but I am sure it would work

I take it Staffordshire opted to forego the fashionable silhouette because "it all felt a bit silly really" ;)

@@solertree8653 clothes he created? Designs?

Wow. That side of your family are odd numbers. My mother side the females are born mainly even numbers. My great grandmother was born in 1920s, grandmother in 1942, my mother in 1962 and me in 1982. 😳 I wouldn't be shocked if my great grandmother was born in 1922 considering females from my mother side were born in the years that ended with 2s. Not directly blood related but lots of female cousins from my mother side had kids in their 40s. However, ideally the majority had kids in their later teens early twenties. My great grandmother however had 12 kids in all, so she started off really young and ended really later on, though only 9 of the original 12 survived. Such is the life of a Cuban lady before communism took over and gave the women better natal care. Even today they just pop out kids, because sadly that is all one can do to keep preoccupied in Cuba before, during and after Cuban Communist revolution. Cuban history is a shitty one from a political perspective and even more so as a Cuban woman. Child miscarriages, death by childbirth and many other mishaps were common place until Communism came in and made having a baby in Cuba a lot easier and cheaper than in the US. Even today, right now, the mortality death rate among babies in the US is higher than in Cuba. The advantages of having free universal health care system. If only United States stop gambling with the lives of citizens, we would and could be the number one nation those politicians love to boost about. ....anyways thank you for sharing your family heritage and experiences. This is the history I like looking into and reading about from real people who share their family background. Thank you.

That book report though! I LIVE!!!

Op send us a copy of the book report the people need to know

" and oddly enough, my dad did a report on this great underpants story in the 3rd grade, that got him send home from school, so apparently he heard it pretty young too." How glorious is that? :D That's a beautiful piece of family story if you ask me!

@Charisma Girl I enjoyed the heck out of this whole thread, but the last line of your comment *killed* me! I burst out laughing so hard my roommate came to check what happened, if I was okay. Excellent, 10/10, would Like again if I could 👍

Not just peeing. What about BM’s?

Thank you for pointing out. Very appreciated.

You are a blessed human for giving me this information

😂

Wow I noticed them too! Thought I was imagining things.

Her sibling, Dani made those portraits. And they have a RU-vid channel, with a video of them painting one of them- the one of His Lordship Cesario. It’s was amazing to watch it all come together- Dani is an extremely talented and skilled artist. They also have videos of making cosplays, and one very hilarious video of going shopping in IKEA while wearing an outfit they made out of IKEA bags. Iconic!

*cometh at me

@@maebholeary2734 i aspire to achieve your way with words

@@pay1370 "sick sunglasses". what are u talking?

they did not have sunglasses back then! 0_0 you're joking

I hadn't thought of that! Ugh and now I can viscerally imagine the chafing....

As a rider, side saddle makes very little sense at all!

@@ellenrittgers990 even when taking several skirts/petticoats, skirt supports and a naked crotch into consideration? Nah man a side saddle is the only reasonable solution to that

@@idasvenning3892 Riding is a magnificent sport, but it’s not worth a broken neck. Even the most placid and well trained horse is capable of getting spooked and tossing a rider- it happens to many a rider even riding astride!

@@ellenrittgers990 but.... the aesthetics... I wanna look like a princess 👑

As a true Italian, I think that's brilliant.

🤔 "What should we call these things?" 🤷 "Dunno, we'll come up with something later." 😱 "But what if we forget?" 😁 "Just call them 'mutande', to remind us." 🙇 "Genius"

No kidding.

As in, the garments that need changing most often? Perfect.

@@irenejohnston6802 Indeed it does.

Although these bloomers are an ingenious idea, I would be concerned that my bloomers would end up getting wet while urinating. I mean with women it’s not exactly a nice clean stream that comes out…so did the design of these split crotch bloomers somehow compensate for this issue?

@@stephnicole3078 I feel like once you, you know, stick your ass out and sit down and you can hold the material out of the way quite easily

@@stephnicole3078 All I know is, I saw a video about women's period clothing and they wore the split bloomers & used a gravy boat-like container that could be placed between their legs to urinate. Lifting all the layers of clothing & using the "gravy boat" seems practical but I think it would've been much easier without the split bloomers.

The innermost petticoat has a tendency to end up securely wedged between ones legs while walking, effectively preventing chafing. On hot days, I'll shove it between my legs immediately instead of waiting for it to end up there naturally :)

Abby Cox address this in her video about dressing in 18th century clothing for her job. Basically, if I correctly recall, petticoats help because they get caught and provide a barrier.

Seconding Abby's 'I Wore 18th Century Dress' video! She mentions the petticoats/shift thing. :)

The petticoat gets wedged in, but I like to think that I wouldve also wrapped my thighs in bandages. And it seems in the Italian renaissance that women wore drawers, they found some pairs! However they seem to have ditched them again until the 19th century

Oh! And I keep yanking it out of there. I guess I'll leave it next time. (I thought it was just me.)

😦😦...🤯

@@bernadettebanner So, ya know... No pressure. 🤣

@@bernadettebanner lol. You do more research than 95% of content creators, you're information is amazing and full of life and interest.

This needs to be a show/book/something now, we must see all the historical antics

Companion- Doctor, we need to go back to 1670. Doctor- Why? Companion- I left my knickers on a Versailles room.

@@aliakhatib4907 I'd watch it ngl

@@Nikki-tx6kh Now, that would be quite an episode 👀

I was thinking that as well...naked time traveller fleeing the scene...Bond...Jane Bond

I would love to see a video introducing your collection! Antique dolls with clothing details like that would be fascinating.

@@Marialla. I second that. If @Romance with the Past is comfortable making that video, I would love to see it!

@@Marialla. Thank you how nice.

@@Caroline28483 I wish I had this talent. It's nice to know other people are interested. Thank you

Great evidence! Thank you for sharing.

And your appreciatiin thereof.... there was not a punch throughout the remainder of the xxxxx that had anything like as much potency as that one. I am interested.... are you an appreciator of the Matrix trilogy??

EXACTLY!

And all her videos are interesting - why else would we still be here?

@@katiezee2 the point is that Bernadette Banner's channel has good quality content

@@katiezee2 You could have switched off - I didn't find it too much 'blah, blah' I found it interesting, entertaining and amusing.

i don't have history anymore. but i love history so i am kinda sad. care to switch a day whit a history less 16 year old Dutch female.

@Charisma Girl i know i know we had them before but i have not had them for 2 years now. 😣 it is even sadder that i need history and geography(don't have that either) for my next school. but i do have classes like plant where you learn to plant thing in the ground, Animal's where you learn to pick up and care for animals and we have cooking.

@Charisma Girl i will remember that thank you. normally duch public schools are amazing and i agree that students must learn to cook and stuff but at some thing is do not have a say in. i wacht a lot of history movies and read heastory books because they intrest me. if you want to have al look at my school. Clusius college castricum

And I doubt that they cover this little info of history treasure in school ... So much is not being taught , but now I understand why , seeing All the corruption in Education , medicine, Politics and more ....

@Charisma Girl 16, turning 17 in april. I don't have history anymore because of the type of secondary education (in my case vocational college for business and administration that opens up a _huge_ career path for me. I could basically become a doctor or a make-up artist from here). You can get courses outside school, but I kinda don't care for those. Too expensive and I think it tends to be quite shit if something goes wrong. I kinda miss history, but I won't die because I don't have it anymore. What I do have and subsequently hate is having to take chemistry and that stuff. Different countries just have different education plans/programms. Edit: Forgot to mention I am Finnish (we have topped in lists multiple times for education so I am not lackin on that department). If I went to "high school" I think I would have history still. Vocational collage is either way a better option. After high school all you have done is memorised some books and can maybe disect a rat. After vocational collage you have a career, maybe you have specialised on a specific careerpath and you are more likely to get a job. Multiple "degrees/qualifications" to different careers are recommended so you don't just need to rely on being a nurse or a librarian. You can just switch careers and go look for a job as a professional gardener or an actor. I have learned in mandatory history Swedish and Russian history, some world history (our class was slow, okay) and also tad of economics on the side. Of course there's more. I also spend most of my life on the internet so I know way too much weird stuff. Also can recognise songs from the first three beats or less.

😂

Oh no, I should probably make sure people don't look at whatever I'm going to be recommended for the next couple days lmao

I refer to it by "monthly blood-sacrifice", which feels appropriately dramatic!

My friends and I call it "Japan" because at the start it resembles the Japanese flag, and guys have no idea what we are talking about as a bonus!

@@PeachPlastic oooh i love it

I call it ‘sharks’. I don’t remember if it was because of the blood or the fact it used to feel like a shark was tearing out my uterus.

It’s been #3 for as long as I can remember. #1 is pretty obvious #2 is again, fairly straight forward #3 is what y’all are talking about here, which generally happens for most human females of appropriate age and child bearing capacity for circa 7 out of every 28 days or so.

THANK YOU for mentioning!!!! Those are sooooo adorable!!!

I had to pause less than 2 minutes in when I noticed these adorable portraits, then search comments for any mention of them lol.

I just came here from watching that exact scene

I read this and all I suddenly started thinking of lasagna images. I'm never eating pasta again.

@Charisma Girl I have watched other channels about this mostly to do with Tudor times where they think they used a belt,. There are instances of Elizabeth I and her laundress washing rags,, but she also experimented with a kind of tampon made out of tightly wound cloth which could be washed and presumably reused

@Charisma Girl what about how some sort of diapers? like what they used back in the days for babys and changed after a shit or piss And normal pins (like the ones for sewing were invented by then) hence they pin the cloth around their bum under the dress and change up when its "full" ...and even without pins you can tie a knot or stick it under your corset to secure it for a while Like if you are really at the ball, the maid might have had to cary a cloth with her so in accidental need they would just tie the lady up and she gets home as soon as possible excusing herself of not feeling well ...

@Charisma Girl when it comes to today it is kind of bad that we still see a natural thing as embarassing when we are perfectly honest about it, me myself included because that's what my mother kind of told me BUT that aside wasn't it easier for them back then at least when we are talking about the somthing around the 1800s where they had chaperon basically wherever they went. So Balls and parties wouldn't be much of a problem i would say. But traveling is problematic

Problem? Do not wear.Nude is better.

Presumably Cancan dancers and the like required special garments or face arrest.

Oh dear that would have been a problem for the Rocketts as well.

@@TheLhester1965 this Wik may be of interest The dance was considered scandalous, and for a while there were attempts to suppress it. This may have been partly because in the 19th century, women wore pantalettes, which had an open crotch, and the high kicks were intentionally revealing. There is no evidence that can-can dancers wore special closed underwear, although it has been said that the Moulin Rouge management did not permit dancers to perform in "revealing undergarments".[6] Occasionally, people dancing the can-can were arrested, but there is no record of its being banned, as some accounts claim. Throughout the 1830s, it was often groups of men, particularly students, who danced the can-can at public dance-halls.[7

I can totally imagine Claire or Brianna in Outlander making a pair, wearing them once, and deciding they were useless.

I was going to comment: "Women now: 'How on earth do you pee while wearing a dress like that?!' Also Women now: *taking off their entire outfit in a freezing public bathroom after realising that wearing a jumper OVER a catsuit wasn't the best idea*

Also not flushing a strap or a sleeve down the WC or worse. Like clumsy pregnant me did!

@@butcheromance ahah it's so true isn't it!

@@BeerElf66 I feel like there's a very interesting story to be told there hehe

@@BeerElf66 And no accidentally getting your skirt tucked into your undergarments!

As pretty and wonderful as historical/retro garments are i would never change todays practicity, i mean it would be nice if they make Quality clothes, but i like this situation where we wear one or two layers of clothes as the minimun (it depends where you live, and if the weather alow its).

I'm more concerned about the modernday ladies wearing jumpsuits, or rather how do they do their "business" when they go to loo...!!! Do they have to remove the upper portion of the dress...?!! I'll be grateful to anyone, enlightening me about the same 🙄🤔🤯

Mousumi, that's exactly what happens with jumpsuits. You have to remove or unchain the jumpsuit to pee.

@@mskim-wo7vh you have to remove the jumpsuit down to your legs so you can go

I always have to wear shorts under dresses because of chaffing, if there's even a little hole in them I will notice it instantly. I believe this to be in my DNA, not enough to call it an illness but I believe I don't quite have all layers in the skin as other people may have which is why I'm so sensitive (my skin never thickens, easily chaff, blisters and is sensitive to pressure). The interesting part is that this must have existed previously in my family as well. I was the first in my family to get rheumatism but my mom murmurs about her own ailments and also thinks back to her own mother and her mother, and how they too had symptoms thats most likely the illness I too inherited. Now I obviously get off track, but my point is that I think people have dealt with private issues that they simply didn't share... and humans being inventive obviously had to fix problems. So I think it's entirely possible that there's humans in the past with chaffing issues wearing some sort of shorts of their own making to survive. But this is most likely garments that would not survive or be misinterpreted today.

Chaffing is less of an issue when you have pubic hair. It helps wick away moisture from sweating, too. So, thanks for letting us know your grooming habits and the fact that you went commando at every renaissance faire when BTW you could just literally have worn underwear.

@@Fddlstxx Hahaha oh my godsess you are so very much mistaken. I've literally never shaved anything but lower legs and armpits and stopped doing that years ago. Plus I have literally worn shorts or tights because my thighs will die otherwise. Where do you think the chaffing is happening, anyway? It's between the thighs from top to like halfway down, underwear won't do shite about that! Plus I have been doing faires since I was a toddler, so pubic hair was not always an option, but chaffing has been a problem as long as I can remember. I used to wear looser cotton shorts or bloomers because that's what everyone else did, but they always would ride up and that plus sweat meant chaffing. Later as part of the Robin Hood crew I wore modern tights for a short while under my skirt. They pilled very quickly and led to the worst chaffing I've ever had. So now it's bike shorts, or leggings when on stilts, no exceptions. I'm very perplexed as to how you jumped so readily to the conclusions you did....

@@Fddlstxx gold medal mental gymnastics

​@@moi1310I know this comment is 7 months old so you may already know this (or even have a diagnosis now) but skin like that can be an indication of classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. There are of course other skin disorders but EDS goes undiagnosed a lot especially if people are able to 'put up' with it.

Yes, and no irritating vocal fry like most American females seem to lazily and idetically seem to emulate.

And amazing lung capacity and breathing control: the amount of talking you do in just one breath makes me dizzy!

Original Owner- opens gift of closed crotch drawers (having worn open ones her entire life) Thinking "What hell am I supposed to do with these?!."

Or someone buying the discount mistake with every intention of 'fixing' it....and never gets to it just like all of us.

haha

Would you believe that there are people out there that would prefer that they had already been worn? I accidentally saw some that sold on Ebay years and years ago when they still allowed stuff like that. At first, I was confused (read: NAIVE) because it took me about 5 or 10 minutes before I figured it out. Duh 😉

@@luxurycardstore you can’t sell open drawers on eBay?! That’s so weird. I just bought a handful of them at a brocante in France (score!!) and I see them on Etsy. But not allowed on eBay?! Weird.

But then, why a bra? That seems like a useless garment for a man. Wouldn't it be more reasonable to assume it is a woman's outfit cobbled together from some leftover mens clothing, or the cabbage thereof?

@@Marialla. the bra wasnt for a man. The underwear was for a man. All the pieces were found together under the floorboards and is believed to have been in fill during renovations in about 1485. Over 1200 fragments in total, ranging from mens hose and shirt fragments, leather shoes, womens garments, and a childs dress. Women did not wear underwear in the 15th century because undies were seen as a symbol of male power and dominance. There's even satiral pictures about it. The Lengberg Bra isnt even a bra as we know it because it would have had a skirt attached (there is remaining evidence of this). You have to be so very careful about making assumptions when this sort of thing is found. Also, if the underwear was refashioned from mens underwear, why on earth would there STILL be wool from the mens hose attached to it?

@@historysquirrel Because underwear being a symbol of male power and dominance isn't just a major assumption on your part, instead of the obvious practicality of having to contain waggly outer bits when oh, I dunno, doing nearly all the dangerous work that waggly outer bits snag on!? Please, you sound like someone who rails against corsetry for the same ridiculous reasons.

@@MiaogisTeas ... erm, i dont rail against corsetry actually. I like corsetry. Also, the fact about them being a symbol of power and dominance is a fact. Its documented.

@@historysquirrel There's obviously a lot of research here I've never had the chance to see yet. i was not even aware there was a huge stash of 1200 pieces in the find! I've only ever seen the photos shown here, and thought they were "solo" artifacts. Looking forward to seeing more information about this find published! Meanwhile, can you tell me more about how/why underwear would be seen as a male dominance thing? I can't make the connection in my own mind. What is "dominant" about wearing underwear?

Kate, it's funny you mentioned about the clothing and your family. I asked my aunt about grandma's clothes once. That's when I realized how valuable they would have been. She said there isn't anything, it's all gone. My grandma would have been born at the turn of the century. What a shame, there were probably a lot of treasures that were lost.

My grandma called them “ever readies” handy for picnic romances or everyday.

Somthing to remember her by of course

When "It still smells like her" gets a completely new universe.

Honestly that’s kind of sweet

'My underwear to that horrid woman living across the street'

I was wondering who in their right mind lists their underwear in their will! 🤣🤣

And to think modern-day ppl are embarrassed to accidentally fart in front of others, when in the past they just casually peed at the dinner table with friends. Wtf.

I kinda need to see this

@@iprobablyforgotsomething I don't think I'd even physically be able to pee in public while casually talking to someone. Like the pee would just refuse to come out. I don't know how men do it in urinals.