The Chemise

The way the weather has been going lately in my part of the world, underwear is greatly on my mind—long, woolly underwear, to be precise! Brrr!

But underwear has also been on my mind because I have something very neat to show you—a recent addition to my antiques collection!

This, dear readers, is a chemise—pretty much the mainstay of women’s undergarments for many, many centuries, from medieval times up through the early twentieth century. This particular chemise probably dates to the early 19th century. It is made of fine but sturdy linen, and the seams are all handsewn and flat felled, so that there are no edges to ravel. The seamstress cut her chemise with the bottom edge on the selvage of the fabric, so that no hem was necessary. It is slightly A-lined, has a yoke top and slightly drop-shouldered cap sleeves (see photo below).

As you can see in the closeup below, there’s a drawstring around the neckline to adjust the fit: the casing for it is made of twilled tape sewn to the body of the garment. The drawstring itself is interesting—it looks initially like a knit, but on closer examination appears to be woven on the bias, which surprised me—I had no idea bias tape dated back so far. And last of all, the chemise is marked with the owner’s initials, M R, cross-stitched in red thread. The entire garment measures 40 inches from the back of the neck to the hem (probably just below the wearer's knees), 25 inches wide at the top of the underarm seam, and 37 ½ inches across at the bottom.  This chemise is on the plain side, but they might have lace or ruffles or embroidery around the neckline, depending on how much time and patience one had for fancywork!

So—what is a chemise, anyway?

The chemise was worn as a sort of multipurpose foundation garment. It went next to the skin, and everything else was worn on top of it—corset, petticoats, dresses, underskirts—everything (in the image at right, a French fashion print from 1822, the young woman is lacing her stays over her long chemise). It added an extra layer for warmth, but more importantly, protected all of one’s other garments from direct contact with the skin. In the days of no deodorant or automatic washing machines, that was a big deal: the chemise took the brunt of skin oils and sweat, and being plainly made of sturdy fabric, could be washed (which generally involved strong lye soaps and boiling water). Pretty smart, when you think about how dresses might have oodles of lace or other elaborate trimmings on them which would be almost impossible to launder. Chemises also doubled as sleeping garments, and were probably quite comfortable for that purpose.

Under Where?

So here we're been discussing all our lovely young ladies in their nineteenth-century finery. You might wonder what they wore under all that.

I know some of you are.

At the very bottom layer, she’d have worn a chemise, like a loose nightgown of cotton or linen, going to about the knee. Some of the most daring young ladies omitted this so that their gowns would drape better. Next she’d wear a bodiced petticoat of cotton, cambric, or linen, although some wore flannel ones in the winter in some areas. As Marissa mentioned, later in the century the more petticoats, the better. Drawers (think cotton board shorts with draw strings at the waist and at the knee openings) were just coming into fashion and considered rather shocking.

Ask me sometime how they actually went to the bathroom in all this.

Over all this (yes over, not under) she wore a corset, also called stays. It probably didn’t have bones in the seams yet, but there would be a busk (a length of wood, ivory, or whale bone about the size of a ruler) separating her breasts. You had to have good posture wearing a corset. And, contrary to numerous films, it didn’t lace up tight like a shoe. The single string wound back and forth like a sewing needle through eyes in the stiff fabric, pulling the two sides together. There are a very few examples of stays that cross over the breasts and fasten in front. I imagine those would have been very welcome for the young lady forced to live with her father and brothers and no maid!

As Marissa mentioned in response to a comment on Tuesday’s post, they’d also be wearing knee-high silk or perhaps wool stockings held up by garters. Earlier young ladies also wore pockets under their clothes. These were fabric pouches on a ribbon that tied around your waist. Because so many of the fashionable fabrics were now sheer, pockets would have been visible, so they were considered quite passé. The idea of those sheer fabrics was to hint at the curves of the female form. There are also distressing rumors that some young ladies actually dampened their petticoats with water to allow the fabrics to cling even more.

Thinking of those cool, damp winters in England, all I can say is brrrr.