Petticoat
A petticoat or underskirt is an article of
. Its precise meaning varies over centuries and between countries.According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in current British English, a petticoat is "a light loose undergarment ... hanging from the shoulders or waist". In modern American usage, "petticoat" refers only to a garment hanging from the waist. They are most often made of cotton, silk or tulle. Without petticoats, skirts of the 1850s would not have the volume they were known for.[1] In historical contexts (16th to mid-19th 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. In both historical and modern contexts, petticoat refers to skirt-like undergarments worn for warmth or to give the skirt or dress the desired attractive shape.
Terminology
Sometimes a petticoat may be called a waist slip or underskirt (UK) or half slip (US), with petticoat restricted to extremely full garments. A chemise hangs from the shoulders. Petticoat can also refer to a full-length slip in the UK,[2] although this usage is somewhat old-fashioned.
History
In the 14th century, both men and women wore undercoats called "petticotes".[3] The word "petticoat" came from Middle English pety cote[4] or pety coote,[5] meaning "a small coat/cote".[6] Petticoat is also sometimes spelled "petty coat".[7] The original petticoat was meant to be seen and was worn with an open gown.[3] The practice of wearing petticoats as undergarments was well established in England by 1585.[8] In French, petticoats were called jupe.[9] The basquina, worn in Spain, was considered a type of petticoat.[10]
The petticoat in western men’s dress, what would become known in later years develop into the waistcoat, was from the mid-15th century to around the 17th century an under-doublet.[11] The garment was worn in cooler months under a shirt for warmth, and was usually padded or quilted.[11]
In the 18th century in Europe and in America, petticoats were an integral component of a gown, considered a part of the exterior garment and were meant to be seen.[9] The term petticoat was used to refer to such an outer skirt from the 16th to the 19th century, which were fashioned from either matching or contrasting textiles, in simple fabrics, or were highly decoratively embroidered.[11] An underpetticoat was considered an undergarment and was shorter than a regular petticoat.[9] Underpetticoats were also known as a dickey.[12] Also in the American colonies, working women wore shortgowns (bedgowns) over petticoats that normally matched in color.[13] The hem length of a petticoat in the 18th century depended on what was fashionable in dress at the time.[14] Often, petticoats had slits or holes for women to reach pockets inside.[14] Petticoats were worn by all classes of women throughout the 18th century.[15] The style known as polonaise revealed much of the petticoat intentionally.[12]
In the early 19th century, dresses became narrower and simpler with much less lingerie, including "invisible petticoats".[16] Then, as the waltz became popular in the 1820s, full-skirted gowns with petticoats were revived in Europe and the United States.
In the
In the early 20th century, petticoats were circular, had flounces and buttons, in which women could attach additional flounces to the garment.
After World War I, silk petticoats were in fashion.[12]
Petticoats were revived by
Sybil Connolly recalled how a red flannel petticoat, worn by a Connemara woman, inspired her first international fashion collection which took place in New York in 1953.[22][23] She had travelled to Connemara for inspiration, where she saw a woman wearing a traditional red flannel petticoat. She bought a bolt of the same fabric from the local shop and made it into a quilted evening skirt, which was a huge success at the fashion show.[23] One of these skirts is part of the collection at The Hunt Museum.
Non-Western petticoats
Compared to the Western petticoat, South Asian petticoats are rarely shorter than ankle length and are always worn from the waist down. They may also be called inner skirts[24] or inskirts.
In Japan, similar to a petticoat, a
In popular culture
The early feminist
The phrase "petticoat government" has referred to women running government or domestic affairs.
It is quite certain that the skirt means female dignity, not female submission; it can be proved by the simplest of all tests. No ruler would deliberately dress up in the recognized fetters of a slave; no judge would appear covered with broad arrows. But when men wish to be safely impressive, as judges, priests or kings, they do wear skirts, the long, trailing robes of female dignity. The whole world is under petticoat government; for even men wear petticoats when they wish to govern.
See also
- Breeching (boys), a historical practice involving the change of dress from petticoat-like garments to trouser-like ones
- Crinolines and hoop skirts, stiff petticoats made of sturdy material used to extend skirts into a fashionable shape
- Peshgeer
References
Citations
- ^ "How to Put Together Cute Outfits With Skirts". classroom.synonym.com. Retrieved 2020-08-16.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary (1989) "A light loose undergarment ... hanging from the shoulders or waist"
- ^ ISBN 0713408561.
- ^ "petticoat". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.
- ^ "Origin and meaning of petticoat". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
- ^ Mitchell, James (1908). Significant Etymology: Or, Roots, Stems, and Branches of the English Language. William Blackwood and Sons. pp. 162.
- ^ Picken 1957, p. 249.
- ^ Cunnington & Cunnington 1992, p. 49.
- ^ a b c Sholtz 2016, p. 216.
- ^ Planché, James Robinson (1879). A Cyclopaedia of Costume Or Dictionary of Dress, Including Notices of Contemporaneous Fashions on the Continent: A general history of costume in Europe. Vol. 2. London: Chatto and Windus. pp. 158–159.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4725-7770-2.
- ^ ISBN 9781473505094.
- ^ Baumgarten 2002, p. 118.
- ^ a b Sholtz 2016, p. 217.
- ^ Sholtz 2016, p. 218.
- ^ Cunnington & Cunnington 1992, p. 112.
- ^ a b Cunnington & Cunnington 1992, p. 196.
- ^ Cunnington & Cunnington 1992, p. 177.
- ^ "French Lingerie". The Tipton Daily Tribune. 1965-12-04. p. 2. Retrieved 2018-01-26 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "For the Housewife". Edgefield Advertiser. 1902. p. 4. Retrieved 2018-01-26 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Cunningham 2003, p. 94.
- ^ "Sybil Connolly Interview". RTÉ Archives. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
- ^ "How to wear saree perfectly". Glowpink. 26 March 2015. Archived from the original on 27 September 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- ^ Bentley, Toni (29 May 2005). "A 'Hyena in Petticoats'". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-00-727841-1
- ^ "Definition of petticoat government in English". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on January 27, 2018. Retrieved 2018-01-26.
- ^ Campbell, Jill. Natural Masques: Gender and Identity in Fielding's Plays and Novels, p. 21. Stanford University Press.
- ^ Higgins 2010, p. 184.
- ^ "Rip Van Winkle", p. 60.
- ^ Frances Milton Trollope (1850). Petticoat government: A novel, Volume 1. Henry Colburn. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-486-45427-6.
- ^ Du Brow, Rick (1963-05-18). "Jerry Lewis Bars Ads; Bea Set for Petticoat Junction". The Pensacola News. p. 6. Retrieved 2018-01-26 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Du Brow, Rick (1965-12-04). "Television in Review". The Tipton Daily Tribune. p. 2. Retrieved 2018-01-26 – via Newspapers.com.
Sources
- Baumgarten, Linda (2002). What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300095807.
- Cunningham, Patricia A. (2003). Reforming Women's Fashion, 1850-1920: Politics, Health and Art. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press. ISBN 0873387422.
- ISBN 9780486271248.
- Higgins, Padhraig (2010). A Nation of Politicians: Gender, Patriotism, and Political Culture in Late Eighteenth-Century Ireland. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299233334– via Project MUSE.
- Picken, Mary Brooks (1957). The Fashion Dictionary: Fabric, Sewing, and Dress as Expressed in the Language of Fashion. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.
- Sholtz, Mackenzie Anderson (2016). "Petticoat, 1715-1785". In Blanco, Jose; Doering, Mary D. (eds.). Clothing and Fashion: American Fashion from Head to Toe. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781610693103.