On July 18, 2024, our R & D team went to York Castle Museum in England to visit and learn about the long history and culture of British underwear.
The York Castle Museum, located southeast of York Castle, was converted from a former prison. Although named the Castle Museum, the exhibition content is very extensive, once praised as one of the best museums in the UK.
The museum has a collection of everyday objects from the past 400 years, including underwear, old television sets, radios, washing machines and vacuum cleaners. It also introduces the scene of Yorkist life from 1580 to 1980, including Victorian and Edwardian style street scenes and houses. You can also visit the prison where the famous thief Dick Tambing was imprisoned, or enter an Edwardian public tavern. There are bakeries, banks, bars and tailor shops in the old streets, which give people a sense of time crossing.
The museum has a collection of everyday objects from the past 400 years, including underwear, old television sets, radios, washing machines and vacuum cleaners. It also introduces the scene of Yorkist life from 1580 to 1980, including Victorian and Edwardian style street scenes and houses. You can also visit the prison where the famous thief Dick Tambing was imprisoned, or enter an Edwardian public tavern. There are bakeries, banks, bars and tailor shops in the old streets, which give people a sense of time crossing.
The image below shows a 124-year old British shapewear in 1900, with Edwardian tights pushing the chest forward and the pelvis backward.
The picture below is women's underwear from 1885 to 1910, and the style and technology have made great progress.
The picture below is women's underwear from 1885 to 1910, and the style and technology have made great progress.
The following picture shows the corset from 1815 to 1830, made of cotton sateen. The sewing technology of 209 years ago was not popular at that time, so the sewing machine was also evolving. From 1815 to 1830, British shapewear was mainly made of whalebone.
In the 18th century, shapewear underwent a transition from metal to whalebone. In the 18th century, during the Rococo era, shapewear reached its peak, and was made of whale bone and baleen. The shapewear design of this period, though accompanied by bondage and pain, was still an important tool for aristocratic women to pursue beauty and elegance. The popularity of whalebone shapewear, reflected the social standards and aesthetic concepts of female body beauty at that time.
Waist circumference is 18 inches =1.37 feet =45.72 cm. Much smaller than we are today.
As the picture below shows, this is a 1940 silk stockings, but also optimized the bottom of the heel to prevent repeated friction damage, more user-friendly.
Below is a Liberty corset, waist from the early to mid-20th century. The freedom corset is an American invention and is a substitute for the corset. Their purpose is to support the body without restricting it. It was very popular in Britain from the 1920s to the 1970s. The above picture bra is free tights without underwire.
A belt from Marks&Spencer, in the 1960s, new technology allowed experimentation with the way underwear was shaped. The corset has no buckle and is designed to be easier to wear, while the corset has elastic panels forcomfort.
In 1960, products similar to the shapewear we see today were born.
The picture below is a bathing suit designed by York Company in England before 1910, which was also very fashionable at that time.
The picture below shows men's underwear from the 1940s.
Through this meeting in the UK, the Qingyi team learned about the development history of underwear in different times, and also absorbed a lot of inspiration. After returning to China, the group will continue to take the "science and technology leading fashion" spirit of ingenuity as the core, rivet full energy, will continue to witness and help the domestic brand management and design capabilities, research and development capabilities, marketing capabilities and other core competitiveness improvement, in order to achieve the "China's world" Chinese underwear dream together!
