Petticoat
A woman's garment worn under a skirt, a kind of slip, especially one that has ruffles or other adornment and may be worn to make the skirt fuller. The petticoat is a separate garment hanging from the waist (unlike the chemise). In historical contexts (sixteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries), petticoat refers to any separate skirt worn with a gown, bedgown, bodice or jacket; these petticoats are not strictly speaking underwear as they were made to be seen.
History of Petticoats
The practice of wearing petticoats as undergarments was well established by 1585. Petticoats were worn throughout history by women who wanted to have the currently fashionable shape created by their clothing. The petticoat(s), if sufficiently full or stiff, would hold the overskirt out in a pleasingly domed shape and give the impression of a smaller waist than the wearer actually had. It would also complement the desired large bust.
Elaborately decorated petticoats were worn under open-fronted gowns and looped overskirts from the mid-sixteenth century. Eighteenth century petticoats of wool or silk were often quilted for additional warmth and were worn with matching short gowns or jackets, which could be fashioned like a man's jacket with military details and trimmings. These ankle-length petticoats remained a rural fashion, especially in the UK, into the nineteenth century and are a part of Welsh national dress.
Elaborate, lacy petticoats were worn with elegant silk dresses in the eighteenth century in much of Europe and America, sometimes supported by whalebone frames. The Laurel and Hardy film adaptation of Auber's comic opera Fra Diavolo offers a glimpse of the intricate petticoats, corsets, and other underwear worn in the eighteenth century, especially in a scene where actress Thelma Todd prepares for bed, assisted by a maid. Colored pictures, called "fashion plates", were used to advertise the popular dresses and lingerie of the eighteenth century, a practice that continued through the nineteenth century until the introduction of photography around 1840.
