Weird how style change

[GettingStuffed]

I've been sorting through MiL's clothing as she has far too much and can only wear easy access stuff. I've found drawer after drawer of slips and camisoles. The odd thing is that she would be wearing them under clothes but now they are clothes. Some are seriously pretty too. One slip is like a damask , pale print with tulips .

Isn't it odd how quickly fashion changes. I'd guess these would be 80s at the earliest

i find the nude and black M&S slips useful for too-sheer and/or clingy things- particularly with dresses worn over nylony staticky tights. A slip helps the skirt fabric to hang properly.
However this all now reads to me like something from a bygone age of office wear- I have realised an outfit requiring a slip is not something I would ever need at home or working from home these days. Makes me feel a bit nostalgic!

I am in my early 50s and the only good thing a slip is good for is to stop your skirt riding up your tights because of the static. At least that is the only reason I wore them as a child.

As a teen I wore fishnets, platforms and lacy slips out and about without a care in the world. They must have been so see-through but I was channelling the riot grrrl look and thought I looked very cool!

Yes! I remember getting half slips as gifts in the '80's. I had completely forgotten that! Wore one a couple of years ago under a particularly clingy dress from COS.
Also remember the broderie anglaise petticoats under the corduroy tiered gypsy skirts craze in the late '70's.

Many a mother had their daughters in girdles from early to mid teens onwards, the panty girdle replaced the open girdle, in reality, it was less about keeping tummies in and more about keeping boyfriends out!!

Nylon carpets used to be popular in shops and offices too. Sometimes if you were walking on one and wearing a nylon slip, possibly with tights or stockings, you’d get a small electric shock.

Slips and the like were very practical before all our easy modern washable clothes.

They tended to be easier to wash so had them next to your skin. The outerwear could then just be brushed or washed less often.

I still wear a slip under every dress . The M&S cool comfort ones are wonderful and I take one on holidays too to use as a nightie . I love the way a slip makes dresses hang better.

@dontyoubother

My mum (early 60s) has asked me once or twice "haven't you got a nice slip to go under that?"

How odd. I am in my early 60s and I was a punk, my mum was a hippy. My grandmother (born 1902) was the only person I knew who wore petticoats or slips.

Why is it that ideas of the over 60s are stuck somewhere in the 1980s? Time has moved on. People in their 60s, 70s and 80s went through the whole counter cultural thing and consider young people pretty conservative.

I'm 38 and I regularly wear a slip! They double up as nighties in the Summer too. They help clothes hang better.

Mind you, the only 2 other people I know who wear them are 48 and 78.

Is it not a child's (as the first poster would have been at the time) interpretation of "chemise" which is what that sort of garment is actually called?

I just read through the whole thread intending to add "isn't shimmy just short for chemise" but see @latetothefisting got there first! I am late to the shimmy chat, if not the fisting 😂

Ha ha, no I’m from Sheffield! When l was dressing Dd years ago in a pinafore, l told her to get her shimmy on. She didn’t understand!

Sometimes, round me it’s used in the as a sort of noun to describe moving. Ie’Get a shimmy on’ or ‘Shimmy over here’’

Dunno why!

@Horological,

Yeah l totally agree. My friend who will now be 62, used to wear a rubber dress. Htf would she wear a slip under that? It took a carton of talc to get her into it.

As l said, bit hard to get a slip under black leggings or leather trousers. Might have matched my red and white Mohawk though….🤔

Over 60’s and slips!🙄🙄😂😂😂Get away! What an agesit comment. Think Morrisey wore the closest thing to a slip in the 80’s. And Kurt Cobain in the 90’s.

Slip😂😂

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow totally agree. It’s ageist and shows a complete ignorance of social history to state that most over 60s wore petticoats in their youth.It makes me think of the ‘brave and stunning’ men who wear dresses or women who ‘dress as men’ in 2022. Has nobody seen pictures of Boy George, David Bowie, Annie Lennox back in the day? All of whom are much older than 60 years of age now (or dead 🙁).

Boy George would have rocked a slip!

Yep, no slip wearing round me. We wore cropped tops, which we cut the bottoms off. And maybe a fishnet top underneath over our midriffs.

A nylon slip under that😂😂😂😂don’t think so! The idea was to show off your little waist.

I’m early 40s and wore an ‘underskirt’ as it’s called round my way under thin dresses in childhood and in my early 20s. I still do sometimes - I agree with all the other comments that clothes hang better with them on.

I still wear a half slip under longer dresses which for some reason are only lined to the knee or above leaving the bottom half see through.

Shimmy is a variation of chemise, yes. I haven’t heard it for a while but it used to be in fairly common use.

I have several slips and petticoats. I am considerably less than 60.

Obviously I don't wear one every day but depending upon fashions and outfits they are really useful. It has nothing to do with age, how traditional you are or how style conscious you ate and everything to do with the fabric and cut of dresses/skirts. Much better to wear an underskirt that be constantly fiddling with a skirt that sticks to your legs or rides up.

But the type of slips l was talking about were also used for warmth.

l have underskirts to stop things sticking to tights.

I’m 50 and can remember in the late 80’s wearing camisoles and cami knickers. The maddest thing I had were a few ‘teddies’. Sort of satin all in ones with poppers at the crotch, like the old body suits. Sooo uncomfortable down below! Let’s just say you sat down very carefully!

As for petticoats, Gudrun Sjoden sells them. I’ve been tempted to get one to relive the 70’s!

I’m over 60 and I wear a slip if the dress or skirt needs one to block transparency or to make it hang properly - not much seems to be properly lined nowadays.

I think they are/were more necessary when wearing stockings, to stop the little bumps of the suspenders showing through. Back in the 70s I had a satin petticoat with a frill, as well as the broderie anglaise type.

I remember wearing an underskirt occasionally as a child. (Must have been in the 80s.) I also remember being told the meaning of the phrase "Charlie's dead" which apparently was code for "your underskirt is showing" - anyone else heard of that?!

I always wear a full slip or a half slip under unlined dresses or skirts.