[Ansteorra] Undergarments and stuff

mikea mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Wed Sep 20 13:02:26 PDT 2006


On Wed, Sep 20, 2006 at 02:47:04PM -0500, Claude Anthony Penny wrote:
> I know that Victorian panties were split in the crotch, so that one
> didn't have to rearrange all of the layers, when one went to the
> necessary.  I keep wondering if any underpants were used, for ladies and
> small children, in much of period.  I could easily be convinced that a
> lot of peasents didn't wear them at all, for most of period.  Has anyone
> found documentation on period diapers?  I know that someone has said
> that women used moss and rags, for the 'moon' times.

One of the winter scenes from the Duc de Berry's _Très Riches Heures_
shows peasants in a hut, seated on a bench, warming themselves in 
front of a fire. One of them is very obviously male, with his gown 
hiked up to mid-thigh and legs wide open. This leads me to believe 
that either the painter was making fun of the silly peasants (which I 
know was fashionable) or that at least some peasants in that place and 
time dispensed with underwear. 

But it's very risky indeed to generalize from that to any wider area or to 
any longer stretch of time, or from a man without underclothes to both  
sexes without them.                                                        

-- 
Mike Andrews        /   Michael Fenwick    Barony of Namron, Ansteorra
mikea at mikea.ath.cx  /   Amateur Extra radio operator W5EGO
Tired old music Laurel; Journeyman Chirurgeon; SCAdian since AS XI



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