Bare Essentials | B Insider

We think of Spanx, and of other body-shaping undergarments, as a contemporary development, a sign of conformity to a sleek, red-carpet, barely possible ideal. But the first “Spanx”—in fact the first recorded lingerie of any kind at all—existed in ancient Egypt and way-old Greece. Our classical heroines wore bands of linen, called zoné, around the waist and lower torso to give themselves statuesque shapes. In the Middle Ages, nobility wore linen beneath their dresses, both to protect the expensive cloth from theirdirt-riddled bodies and to keep themselves warm. From “linen” we get the word “lingerie,” and from the Middle Ages we get the eternal dirty/clean complex of womens’ understuff.

It wasn’t til the mid-19th century that “lingerie,” of course a French word, came into common use. Those French had revolted against the corset, atorturous Medieval invention, by making it without boning—or tossing it altogether. Some revolutionary femmes adopted the Greek zoné to bodyforth that other Greek invention, democracy. But it was the Victorians, incorrigible sex fiends that they were, who made lingerie a hindrance to sex, and so, a means to desire. Their pleasure-delaying corsets, hoops, and crinolines gave way to the first burlesque shows. Their garters would become a pin-up signifier.

In 1913, early it-girl Mary Phelps Jacob decided the corset was too restrictive, too difficult to dance in. And how are you supposed to have sex if you can’t dance? So she tied together two handkerchiefs with ribbons, creating a prototype for what we know now as the “bra.” POP UP VIDEO FACT: She sold the patent to Warner Brothers, embarked on a life most people couldn’t even dream, and changed her name to Caresse Crosby, which is amazing. If I’m ever a porn star—never say never—I’m outright stealing it.

ANYWAY. Without the “bra,” it’s tough to conceive of the entire golden age of Hollywood. Cones shaped the careers of Marilyn Monroe, of Lana Turner, and of Jane Russell, who famously wore a bust-shaper designed by Howard Hughes. Dude should have won the Oscar for “Best Support of Actress!” That in mind, it’s no wonder the late ’60s, early ’70s womens-lib movement brought about “bra burning,” even though bra burning is pretty rampantly mythologized and wasn’t all that significant in, like, the bigger scheme. What’s for real is that hippies and bourgeois-bohemians alike started hanging loose, which in turn forced lingerie-makers to make undergarments for the sake of free love, not function.

The history of lingerie is as bound to the history of my sex as the garter is to the corset. It tells of our ideals, desires, frustrations, oppressions, liberations, reclamations. We have options now: we can wear filmy lacy bralets or ’50s filmic brassieres or flapper-ish bandeaus or (my favourite, often) none of the above. We can assume any number of shapes. But, you know, we should always love—at least try to love—our own. – Sarah Nicole Prickett.

Photographer: Adam Levett Video Cinematographer: Christopher Levett. Fashion Editor: Kate Corbett + Christopher Sherman. Model: Chloe Wise. Make-up and Hair: Natalie Blouin from Plutino Group. Flower Photographs by Adam Levett.
All Clothing + Accessories Available at Select Bay stores.