very dirty laundry is made to be seen whether that's bringing your pyjamas to the party or your boxers to the morning briefing we have you covered and we’re on the hunt through history to see when it became socially acceptable to leave your living room in your lingerie.
the 70s was our first glimpse into this new era of lingerie when vivienne westwood came out with collections featuring corsets as garments in their own right. shifting the ideas of lingerie and undergarments from practical to playful. this exciting new life of lingerie was continued throughout the collections of thierry mugler and issey miyake through the 80s and 90s. as fashion historian einav rabinovitch-fox states “it was only in the mid 20th century that wearing underwear as outerwear became normative,”’ (Bateman, 2022) an ‘unexpected example’ of this was the t-shirt. originally worn as an undergarment to a dress shirt, hollywood superstars in the 50s began to wear them on their own. rabinovitch-fox declares that by “shift[ing the t-shirt] from underwear to outerwear, [it] also moved from being masculine wear to unisex.” (Bateman, 2022) illustrating that by making the t-shirt visible it changed the gender associated with it.
we have seen a similar trend with the boxer becoming a unisex garment after ‘calvin klein followed up his men's underwear success… by introducing men's style underwear for women’(Cole, 2012) in 1983. ‘calvin klein’ was of course ‘emblazoned on the waistband’ (Cole, 2012) signifying the inventor of this iconic garment. the huge impact the 90s had on underwear becoming outerwear can be attributed to the rise of logo stamped boxers over low-rise jeans. first spotted on the cover of a racy rolling stones magazine in 1992 mark wahlberg accessorised this new look with ‘his perfectly formed six- pack.’ (Cole, 2012) lending hand to a shiny sales increase of 34% over the previous year. logoed waistbands went on to become widespread in the underwear industry but franco moschino was here to riot and as part of his 1994 collection produced an underwear line ‘with the waistband slogan “to be shown in public."' (Cole, 2012) women quickly followed suit with thongs and strings starting to become the star of the show over their jeans and trousers. we also saw slip dresses and baby dolls sported on the red carpet alongside madonnas iconic cone bra as designers were becoming more ambitious with the incorporation of lingerie in their collections, it was becoming much more normalised to wear undergarments out. daring ‘buttock-baring looks were on full display… [at] both jean paul gaultier’s and tom ford’s gucci spring 1997.’(Bateman, 2022) although the renaissance of underwear was ramping up, respect was beginning to be questioned. as the state of new york issued a series of billboards ‘aimed at discouraging such styles with the slogan "you can raise your level of respect if you raise your pants.”’(Cole, 2012) ironically the billboards were ‘described’ “to be seen and salivated over”(Cole, 2012) as they displayed the raunchy rear view of two men wearing low rise jeans and sagging boxers.
very dirty laundry is here to be visible and we feel that loose jeans should be lost altogether. we want to see pink cheeks and pants and from what muiccia prada plated up last season we feel proud to be seen. in her 2023 autumn winter miu miu show underwear to outerwear was taken to a whole new level. knitted, woven and sparkly briefs owned the runway as the knickerbecame the new trouser.
from bloomers to briefs we believe bare is better.
