For centuries underwear mainly comprised the loose male shirt and female smock: except for ladies’ petticoats and men’s drawers, separate undergarments have only evolved since the 1800s. During the medieval, Tudor and Stuart eras, plunging necklines often revealed expanses of flesh, the bosom only thinly veiled with fine lawn. Georgian petticoats incorporating bodices provided an extra layer, but busts grew more prominent with the flimsy neoclassical gowns of the 1790s/early-1800s. While a low décolletage was de rigueur for evening wear, respectable day dress of the early-mid 19th century might require a false chemise front (chemisette) tied around the waist and buttoned behind the neck, modestly concealing the chest. Meanwhile, as Victorian petticoats shed their bodices, the former petticoat bodice re-emerged as an optional corset cover, a new article of underwear that soon became known as the camisole.

Underwear mirrored fashion and the slender cuirass silhouette of the 1ater 1870s and 1880s encouraged slim-fitting unisex combinations. Female styles combined drawers with a camisole or with a similar garment, the ‘vest’, introduced in the 1840s, separate knitted woollen vests also serving women as warm winter versions of the camisole. Men continued to wear combinations until well into the 1900s, or separate drawers and a vest featuring long or short sleeves; however, the modern trend was for lighter, less bulky underwear and between the wars the sleeveless ‘singlet’ became popular, ‘breathable’ cellular fabrics such as Aertex common by the 1930s.

In the late-1800s false bosoms of cotton wool could be sewn into dress bodices, to accentuate a woman’s natural shape, but purpose-designed brassières were only worn as undergarments from the early-1900s, the word ‘brassière’ first appearing in American Vogue in 1907. Various names remained in use before WW1, including ‘bust shaper’ and ‘bust bodice’, these early forms essentially loose-fitting, semi-transparent bust covers fashioned from dainty muslin, chiffon, satin and lace. During the 1920s they remained insubstantial, some even aiming to flatten the bust, to produce the slender boyish look then in vogue, but from the 1930s separate triangular-shaped cups evolved, which, along with improved sizing systems, heralded the modern supportive bra.