Wash Your Dirty Linen In Public

Well, well, you don’t have to wash your dirty linen in public as the old French proverb goes “Il faut laver son linge sale en famille” (“we should wash our dirty linen in private”) later incorporated into English by Anthony Trollope in 1867. But the proverb itself creates a curiosity in the dirty linen, of course, the unmentionables- the undergarments. We go to the market, look for a brief, underwear, a panty, a thong, a bra, whatever, come back happy with the purchase but hardly think whether our ancestors needed at all something between the garment and the skin and what wisdom lied beneath wearing the undergarments.

Hush-Hush Attitude About Undergarments

It is very interesting to note how with time the hush-hush attitude about undergarments has changed and how the need for comfort has transmuted into fashion and how the plain and course has turned erotic and sexualized.
To quench our curiosity we will have to travel thousands of years back. Perhaps loincloth was the forefather of all these naughty thongs, G-strings, and briefs- the Adam or Manu of the undergarment species. It is something else, with a difference.

loincloth-the undergarment served as the outer garment also in warmer climates. Although in colder climates it remained hidden behind other garments. The existence of the undies dates back to the older civilizations. In Indian myths and religious documents, Lord Hanuman, the monkey god wore a red langot- a sort of loincloth- a rectangular strip of cloth with strings at its four ends. Similar was kopin worn by the sadhus and the wrestlers. We find leather loincloths dating 7,000 years back. It seems the Egyptian king

About Undergarments

Tutankhamun (1342BC-1325 BC) was more particular about undergarments in his afterlife as he was buried with numerous, almost 145 triangular loincloths! And strontium a strip of cloth or leather worn around the chest was the ancient counterpart of the bra. Subligaculam was a unisex loincloth with the ancient Romans. And the ancient Greek women wore an apodeme- some sort of a bra.

So there is nothing new under the sun. Still, the design, the attitude, the fantasy have always polished the old with a new shine. If we just pry into the closets of the medieval ladies and gentlemen for undergarments we will find linen shorts called braies and shift. The ladies used to shift- a long linen garment as underwear under their costumes. The beginning of the 19th century changed shift to chemise, though it was long. But Knickers came for them later in the 19th century and the succeeding two centuries shortened the knickers to surprising brevity. The shorts of the gentlemen, too, didn’t lag in precision in the 21st century.

Fashion Entered Into The Undergarments

Time rolled on and fashion entered into the undergarments. Basically, if we get down to brass tacks of wearing underwear, a few needs come up the protection of outer garment as the undergarments absorb the bodily secretions, protection of skin itself from the friction of the outer garments, and ultimately the concealment of the more private parts of the body and maybe lastly to give support to certain parts of the body- upper or lower. But fantasy always gets its share even in the necessities.

So the 7,000-year-old journey of undergarments- the strontium and subiculum, the loincloth and the langot or Kopin has taken interesting twists and turns and somewhere romantic and somewhere darker fantasies have been added in its knapsack.

How The Company Turned The Idea

Before exploring those creative turns, let’s take a look at the up-gradation in strontium and apodeme. There is a bit of controversy- it is said that the bra is a 20th-century invention, maybe a refinement of its ancient twin, or it was conceptualized much before. That is 1913 Mary Phelps Jacob accidentally invented a bra with a pair of silk handkerchiefs and silk ribbons as there was a hitch in the adjustment of her corset with her evening gown.

And how she sold its patent to Warner Brothers Corset Co. for a very meager amount and how the company turned the idea into gold is history but the general notion is that bra is a 20th-century invention. But in 2008, the renovation of an Austrian castle- the Lengberg Castle, of the 12th century with the construction of the second floor in the 15th century revealed a surprising fact. A vault was preserved in which with other items four linen fragments were there exactly like a modern bra! Was a resemblance of a modern bra that was very much there 500 years before its claim.

Undergarments Have Created

But we leave the controversy here and proceed to contradictions that this lot of undergarments have created. One of the purposes was to conceal. Well, the journey has reached such a destination in wear of both the genders, where maybe a bit of vital is concealed but what is revealed is too damn suggestive. If we look at Calvin Klein’s advertising technique he exposed masculinity with the help of underwear. And coming to the feminine camp, they run for Wonderbra and its many counterparts which shape your figure. So many classifications and variations. You can see on the sea beaches in bikini briefs- high-sided, low-sided, and even string bikini. G-string and C-string are perhaps dead opponents of the concealing school of thought. And the Jockstrap for males!

Change Of The Brass Tacks Of Undergarments

A few more interesting aspects of an upside-down change of the brass tacks of undergarments. A parallel industry of the sale of used underwear is also running. Though surprising, it is the darker side of sex fantasy. The customers of used female underwear are males rather than perverts. So the dirty panties also sell. And the internet helps them to flourish online. The Egyptian king Tutankhamun with 145 loincloths in his pyramid would never have thought in his lifetime dream of such an obnoxious use of underwear!

Greatness Of Underwear

And then it is less the greatness of underwear rather that of who wears it. Here also used undergarments sell but with a change. In 2012, the dirty underwear of Elvis Presley fetched some 8,000 dollars. Celebrities’ used undergarments have always been on auction, a few of the illustrious names are Queen Elizabeth and Marilyn Monroe. And not only auction the famous and the popular donate their undergarments to be sold for charity purposes.
The simple ancients have turned into complex moderns. So have changed the thoughts, the angles of vision and the taboo, and the acceptable. I didn’t feel surprised about unwrapping my birthday gift given by my sister-in-law and her husband – red triangular underwear! (written by Sanjay Kumar Kundan )
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