Underwear
They serve to keep outer clothing from being soiled or damaged by bodily excretions, to lessen the friction of outerwear against the skin, to shape the body, and to provide concealment or support for parts of it.
Women may wear sports bras which provide greater support, thus increasing comfort and reducing the chance of damage to the ligaments of the chest during high-impact exercises such as jogging.
The suitability of underwear as outer clothing is, apart from the indoor or outdoor climate, largely dependent on societal norms, fashion, and the requirements of the law.
Mosaics of the Roman period indicate that women (primarily in an athletic context, whilst wearing nothing else) sometimes wore strophiae (breastcloths) or brassieres made of soft leather, along with subligacula which were either in the form of shorts or loincloths.
In various, mainly tropical, cultures, the traditional male dress may still consist of only a single garment below the waist or even none at all, with underwear as optional, including the Indian dhoti and lungi, or the Scottish kilt.
The loincloth was replaced by loose, trouser-like clothing called braies, which the wearer stepped into and then laced or tied around the waist and legs at about mid-calf.
It has been speculated that the King may have had the sexually transmitted disease syphilis, and his large codpiece may have included a bandage soaked in medication to relieve its symptoms.
[5] Over the upper part of their bodies, both medieval men and women usually wore a close-fitting shirt-like garment called a chemise in France, or a smock or shift in England.
Men's braies and hose were eventually replaced by simple cotton, silk or linen drawers, which were usually knee-length trousers with a button flap in the front.
[5] Medieval people wearing only tunics, without underpants, can be seen on works like The Ass in the School by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, in the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry by Limbourg Brothers, or in the Grimani Breviary: The Month of February by Gerard Horenbout.
In 2012, findings in Lengberg Castle, in Austria, showed that lace and linen brassiere-like garments, one of which greatly resembled the modern bra, date back to hundreds of years before it was thought to exist.
This allowed factories to mass-produce underwear, and for the first time, large numbers of people began buying undergarments in stores rather than making them at home.
Invented in Utica, New York and patented in 1868, this was a one-piece front-buttoning garment usually made of knitted material with sleeves extending to the wrists and legs down to the ankles.
[5] The jockstrap was invented in 1874, by C. F. Bennett of a Chicago sporting goods company, Sharp & Smith, to provide comfort and support for bicycle jockeys riding the cobblestone streets of Boston, Massachusetts.
[10] By the early 20th century, the mass-produced undergarment industry was booming, and competition forced producers to come up with all sorts of innovative and gimmicky designs to compete.
The first underwear print advertisement in the US appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1911 and featured oil paintings by J. C. Leyendecker of the "Kenosha Klosed Krotch".
By the end of the 1910s, Chalmers Knitting Company split the union suit into upper and lower sections, effectively inventing the modern undershirt and drawers.
The buttons attached to a separate piece of cloth, or "yoke", sewn to the front of the garment, and tightness of fit was adjusted by means of ties on the sides.
In 1928, Maidenform, a company operated by Ida Rosenthal, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, developed the brassiere and introduced modern cup sizes for bras.
For four weeks in July and August, as temperatures rose to 37C, men from the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were made to wear three different types of vest underneath their bush jackets.
By the 1960s, department stores began offering men's double-seat briefs, an optional feature that would double the wear and add greater comfort.
Pantyhose, also called tights in British English, which combined panties and hose into one garment, made their first appearance in 1959,[13] invented by Glen Raven Mills of North Carolina.
Some people choose not to wear any underpants, a practice sometimes referred to as going commando, for comfort, to enable their outer garments (particularly those which are form-fitting) to look more flattering, to avoid creating a panty line, because they find it sexually exciting,[16] to increase ventilation and reduce moisture[17][18] or because they do not see any need for them.
In the 21st century, when the Internet made anonymous mail-order sales possible for individuals, some women in the U.S. and UK, in response to male demand, began selling their dirty panties, and sometimes other underwear.
[28] The celebrities Jarvis Cocker, Alison Goldfrapp, Nick Cave, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ricky Gervais, Jah Wobble, Fergie, and Helen Mirren donated underwear to be sold for charity.
UK: trunks Boxer shorts with colorful patterns, pictures of cartoon characters, sports team logos, and slogans are readily available.
Specialist retailers of underwear include high street stores La Senza (Canada), Agent Provocateur (UK), Victoria's Secret (U.S.), and GapBody, the lingerie division of the Gap established in 1998 (U.S.).
[36] The modern usage may be traced in the United States to university students c. 1974, where it was perhaps associated with soldiers in the Vietnam War, who were reputed to go without underwear to "increase ventilation and reduce moisture".
[35] The connection to the UK and women has been suggested to link to a World War II euphemism for prostitutes working in London's West End, who were termed "Piccadilly Commandos".
[37][38] The term was re-popularized in the US after it appeared in a 1996 episode of Friends, where Joey Tribbiani wears everything Chandler Bing owns in an act of revenge, while also going "commando".
