to wonder why we, and our mums, used to wear the silly garments...

[KatrineEM]

petticoats?

I don't remember what age my sisters and I stopped having to wear petticoats (thin, little dresses under clothing), but I've never even thought of dressing my DD in one.

Mums used to wear underskirts, with elasticated waistbands, didn't they? I wonder why?


AIBU to think petticoats are/were a silly garment?

[thegreylady]

In winter 1949 I wore a woollen vest then a liberty bodice made by Chilprufe [fleece lined with suspenders to hold up my itchy woollen stockings-brown or grey] then a petticoat made of flannelette then either a skirt and jumper or,more usually, a pinafore dress and jumper.
I was 5 and still remember how itchy everything was.
I still own a couple of petticoats to wear under semi see through dresses [in my case two Indian cotton ones from East].

[MissFenella]

I've got 2 petticoats they are great under flimsy dresses and give a better line

[Minione]

Yes, I remember the last time I wore an underskirt, I was about 13 and it fell down on the way to school. I remember trying to casually step out of it whilst my friend told a passing male classmate 'don't worry, it's just her bloomers have fell down!' This was in the early 1990s!

[OrangeLily]

I think now most petticoats being sold are big fancy ones for retro dresses. I had one at primary school but just for warmth.

[Earthymama]

I always wore a petticoat and a liberty bodice and a vest and a blouse and a jumper and a pinafore and a cardigan!!
It was very cold in winter in the Welsh Valleys

I always thought I was plump, I think it was all lumpy, lovingly knitted woollen garments.

I hate being cold and love layers.

I hate the skirt dress riding up thing, I am off to look for a petti as we called them.

In fact I now wear long skirts of differing lengths, tunics, boots etc. It is my look, I am desperate for a petti like this
www.morgan-shops.com/collections/frontpage/products/ewa-i-walla-floral-cotton-scarf-77271
I look just like that picture as I am writing (hides polar bear PJs and fleece hoody)

[HibiscusIsland]

I'm 42 and I wore one as a child. I was just thinking about them the other day for the first time in yonks, as i ordered my dd a school summer dress and it was see through (I sent it back rather than buying a petticoat!)

My mum wore a liberty bodice as a child. (I'm off to google as not sure what they are like.) I remember my mum wearing a girdle when i was a kid.

[Twattybollocks]

I have actually been looking for a petticoat for dd for under her summer dress. Poor kid has to wear a flimsy cotton summer dress with ankle socks for school and its pissing freezing outside. I sent her in knee length socks the other day and when the head teacher commented I told her that when I saw her standing outside in a thin cotton skirt with ankle socks/no tights I would happily send dd in ankle socks the next day. She also has a pair of thermal long johns that I have cut off and hemmed into cycling short length to keep the draught out of her unmentionables. Dd that is, not the ht.

[EuroShaggleton]

I've got one. I wear it under a couple of wrap around skirts I've got for work. If a gust of wind takes the skirt or it slips, it spares my blushes. It is just plain black. I've also worn it with an unlined skirt to avoid VPL. After all, it is really just a lining that isn't attached to the skirt!

[OneFingerSjupesUpTheYoni]

i was looking for a petticoat 2/3 years ago can't for the life of me remember why, must have been a dress that was either 'a bit see through' or was maybe an uncomfortable fabric

i would have been around 22 y/o at the time

[thebody]

I remember wearing pretty ones as a child. Also slips to secondary school.

Haven't seen one for years but love them.

Remember the fashion for showing a petticoat under your skirt? Was that early 80s. Wasn't really a petticoat but frilly edge. So pretty.

[OneFingerSjupesUpTheYoni]

my mum had me in them until i was about 7 or 8 i loathed them at the time. want one now tho. again

[Bumpotato]

I bought one the other week. It is black and slinky. I like it a lot so does DH

[YoniTime]

Why are you blushing about that One? It's a practical piece of clothing. Use one if you feel you need one!

[SkaterGrrrrl]

To those who say that their skirts cling to their tights: try rubbing hand cream lightly over your thighs and bottom while wearing tights. The hand cream breaks the static.

[YoniTime]

Btw, anyone know where I can get an underskirt in silk or other nice fabric that isn't polyester or similar?

[ivykaty44]

I wish some woman would wear them now - it would stop a few very unsightly sights

[OneFingerSjupesUpTheYoni]

i'm googling them now yonitime my lovely friend spent ages taking the mick and calling me granny because of it at the time so i still get a bit red about it now. she just can't embrace my love of nice underwear and cardigans and things that may be old fashioned but are still made for good reason :) - she's a daft lass who'd rather catch cold than wear a decent winter coat/thick jumper.

[PimpMyHippo]

I like the layered underskirts that make dresses puffy, but I had no idea what a petticoat was until reading this thread. I have obviously come across the word before but I could never quite picture what it actually referred to - I would get in confused with a pinafore! I was born in 1991.

[EvilTwins]

I'm wearing one right now. I have two- one black, one nude, both from M&S, and wear them under jersey dresses for work- stops the jersey sticking to my lumps and bumps.

[AudrinaAdare]

Holly has a good point. Cheaper clothes are never well lined. The see-through horrors people in my town buy for the summer from market stalls make me long for a petticoat revival.

When I wear skirts they are from Chanel and have fine gold chains sewn into the hemn lining, oh yes. And my coats cleverly have no bulky fabric under the belted waist to make me look slimmer in my dreams

[HintofBream]

I was born at the end of the war. We had a live-in 'maid' as the title was in those days. She apparently wore very thick and stiff bombazine pettcoats, and when she turned around, they tended to knock toddling me over. My brothers called them 'Ivy's bomb proof petticoats' .

[SquinkiesRule]

I'm 51 and rarely wore a petticoat as a child I needed one for a skirt that had to be fluffed out If I remember right. I do have two one full, one half, haven't ever wore them.
I had to google Liberty bodice, I had heard the name but no idea what they were. My Mum must have been quite the hippy, no petticoats and no liberty bodices for us girls back in the 60's

[BackforGood]

It's more of a surprise to me, the number of people who don't wear a petticoat or an underskirt. They help your skirt 'hang' better, and stop the skirt material clinging to your legs. Also, if it's a thin or light coloured material, they stop people being able to see right through your skirt - as in the first photos of Lady Diana Spencer when she was first photographed as Prince Charles' consort.

[Oldraver]

My Mum and others of her generation used to wear a Panty Girdle. She wasn't really big anyway and I can remember her saying to me when I was about 15 "Oh you'll have to wear a Panty Gridle soon" like it was some rite of passage. I was only 9 1/2 stone at the time