inner dork: underwear

Did you know...

Underwear is one of the earliest forms of clothing dating back to at least 3000 B.C.
It started as a narrow band around the waist from which both decorative and magical pendants were hung. The Egyptians wore woven material wrapped around the body several times and then tied in front.
Loincloths were worn in Crete around 2000 B.C. They were usually decorated, often with intricate patterns. Even today, loincloths are worn in my tropical and semitropical regions of the world.
Between 2105 B.C. and 1240 B.C., men in Babylonia and Mesopotamia wore loincloths as undergarments and women wore short skirts as undergarments.
Around A.D. 200 the Romans wore undergarments. Both men and women wore a loincloth similar to our briefs of today. The women also wore a breast band called a, 'mammillare.'
In 1850 Amelia Jenks Bloomer advocated a costume for women made up of a short jacket, a skirt extending below the knee, and loose, "Turkish" trousers, which were later referred to as, "bloomers." The fashion never caught on, but the name stuck. Bloomers became known as loose fitting baggy underwear worn my women.
The term, "underwear" didn't come into fashion until 1879.

FACTOIDS:

During WWII, Americans stationed in Europe had a hard time finding men's underwear. At the time most Europeans considered underwear to be optional. Even today American underwear is extremely popular in Europe.

The word, "negligee" comes from the French word meaning, "careless" or "neglected." The garment was a soft, loose-fitting gown in contrast to the fashion of tightly corseted and laced clothing.

In the 1900's both men and women wore corsets. Men wore them during sports such as horseback riding.