Did ladies wear pantaloons during the Regency?

 by Donna Hatch

www.donnahatch.com

I recently taught a workshop at a writer's conference on Regency Ladies Fashions. One attendee asked what ladies wore underneath their skirts. You should have heard the gasps when I told her, "Nothing."  So, this seems to be a good time to revise and repost this blog post about the somewhat controversial topic.

Historians, researchers, and authors agree that ladies wore a shift, or chemise, over which they laced up stays (a type of Regency corset but more comfortable), and then a petticoat, which was basically a long slip or jumper. We also know they wore stockings that tied or buckled. 

Our modern-day sensibilities insist that the ladies who lived during the time of Jane Austen's heroines must have worn something underneath all that, right?

Read on, dear reader.

Drawers

We know drawers existed by 1806 because merchants advertised and sold them. However, these merchants did not cater to the upper classes; their clientele was the working class.  Some advertisements tried to bring them into fashion for the wealthy by listing them as being good for wearing while riding. However, they didn't understand the first rule of advertising: know your audience.

In 1811, Princess Charlotte wore them at least once, because she accidentally revealed them. However, many considered the garment shocking and openly criticized her for not only letting it show but wearing it at all.

Drawers and similar undergarments were a direct imitation of men's undergarments called "small clothes." As such, they were considered masculine and therefore vulgar for ladies. In addition, drawers had two entirely separate legs with strings that tied around the waist and left open in the middle. For decades, the only women who wore them were prostitutes.  Ladies of high society wanted nothing to do with this kind of garment.

In 1817, some fashionable ladies wore pantaloons, a longer, lace-edged variation of drawers that were meant to be seen below the petticoat. In English Women's Clothing in the 19th Century, by C Willet Cunnington, the author describes drawers as "frilled trousers" but goes on to state that the fashion disappeared almost immediately, adding, "On the whole however, it seems probable that most women did not wear any garment of this kind until the '30's" (meaning the 1830's).

Before you continue, I must warn you: the colored drawings below are a tad graphic, so please don't send me hate mail.

Risqué Regency Era Cartoons

The lack of any garment underneath ladies' skirts was such common knowledge that even social and political cartoons of the day reflected this. Thomas Rowlandson, a famous illustrator and cartoonist, created watercolors of soldiers, wars, death and dying, the hunt, several humorous series, as well as some rather erotic pieces. I  have not included those in this post. You're welcome.

One of Rowlandson's pieces is called Exhibition Stare Case (pictured to the left). In this image, several people are tumbling down the stairs. Three of them are misfortunate ladies, positioned with their legs up, revealing naked thighs and bums. This suggests ladies did not wear drawers or pantaloons.

Other satirical cartoons by different cartoonists including Cruikshank and Gilray show pictures of women falling off horses or, in the case of the picture to the right, warming themselves in front of a fire. In all these drawings, women are wearing nothing underneath their skirts except stockings and shoes. (Don't you love the fat cat lying in front of her as if it has just expired?)

Obviously, back then, as today, political cartoons are only loosely based on fact. They're supposed to be absurd. However, so many of them reveal (no pun intended) the lack of ladies' undergarments that the combination begins to present a strong case against the practice, at least among the wealthier classes.

Another period drawing that addresses this is called "Progress of the Toilet." It's a set of three images published by James Gillray in 1810. His drawings are well-known to ridicule many practices of the Regency Era. Several of his creations mock the fashions of the period which dictated how the shapes of women should be altered to meet current standards of beauty.

The image to the left shows a woman wearing drawers. It's difficult to see, but she's wearing a chemise -- you can see the sleeves and the edge around the top of her stays -- which seems to be tucked into her drawers. The stays appear to be from earlier in the century when ladies wore Georgian stays, as evidenced by the little tabs on the bottom of the stays. But I digress. It's also possible the cartoonist showed drawers to further ridicule the complicated process of dressing for the day and even perhaps to poke fun at the drawers themselves. Unfortunately, I was unable to determine the exact date of the image. One source said this series was created in 1810 but I have not been able to verify that. I find it more likely that it was around 1817 during that blip when drawers were popular.

Pantaloons

In the 1820s, which was the Victorian Era, long pantaloons (also called pantaletes) arrived on the scene with more popularity. The term can be confusing because men wore pantaloons -- silk breeches that went to the knee -- for formal occasions until well into the 1820s until trousers became mainstream fashion.

None of my books of Regency fashion prints show drawers or anything of the kind peeping out from underneath skirts -- not even those labeled "walking dress," "carriage dress," or "riding habit."

Conclusion

While some historians stubbornly claim that women wore drawers, there is too much proof to the contrary.  I suspect that just as today some men and women don't always wear underwear, there were those ladies during the Regency while most did not. Our modern-day sensibilities might make the idea of not wearing underwear sound a tad obscene. Just remember, they had far different viewpoints about a great many things during the Regency.

Sources:

English Women's Clothing in the Nineteenth Century by C. Willet Cunningham

Fashions in the Era of Jane Austen by Jody Gayles

http://www.janeausten.co.uk/corsets-and-drawers-a-look-at-regency-underwear/

https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/ladies-underdrawers-in-regency-times/

http://www.fashion-era.com/drawers-pants-combinations-knickers-fashion.htm

https://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/2011/11/regemcy-era-ladys-prodigious-layers-of.html

https://www.kristenkoster.com/a-primer-on-regency-era-womens-fashion/

Regency bathing suits

A Calm Day (at the beach in Brighton)

Ah, summer! The warm months invite a variety of activities best enjoyed outside such as hiking, fishing, water sports, and swimming to name a few. I love to swim, and so do some of the heroines in my Regency romance novels. Since many readers report that reading about the fun and beautiful clothing characters wear is one of the reasons they read historical novels, this begs the question: what did ladies in Regency England wear when they swam or visited the seashore?

Brighton

Historical Swimsuits

Swimsuits, also as bathing costumes, have evolved over the years. Even the concept of what to wear while swimming has changed. However, having special clothing for such a delightful activity is a relatively new concept.

So back to the question: what did Regency-era people wear while swimming?

The short answer is: anything they wanted. Even nothing, if they so desired. 

Are you scandalized?

Ladies would not swim--or would they?

Before I go into clothing, I should point out that some historians claim that until the last hundred years or so, women in general, and ladies in particular, didn't know how to swim; it was considered unladylike.

I agree it's unlikely the average well-bred lady in Regency England swam in lakes, rivers, or the ocean because the water was probably extremely cold. For much of that era, Europe experienced a mini Ice Age. Also, wet clothing is bulky and can get tangled in limbs, not to mention a lot of cloth becomes practically transparent, so swimming was probably frowned upon for safety and modesty reasons.

However, kids weren’t all that different then than now. Show me a kid who won't play in water even if the weather is chilly and I'll be shocked. Like most children, I have always loved to swim, cold water or modesty or not, so I assume plenty of girls in Regency England, even daughters of gentlemen, grew up swimming or at least playing in the water. Surely most of them had someone who could teach them to swim if they so desired because, really, nothing is as refreshing as cold water on a sunny day. And I have evidence to back up that theory; period drawings.

Regency shift
modeled by yours truly
copyright Donna Hatch

Bathing suits or the lack thereof

None of my historical fashion books mention clothing worn while bathing or swimming until the late Victorian Era, At that time, sea bathing attire became fashionable at seaside resorts. But during the Regency, nothing was quite so standardized.

Swimming in the nude, at least in non-public places, seems to have been the norm--especially for men and children. Ladies, however, seemed to wear whatever they wanted (or whatever their mothers dictated).

Women generally either swam naked or wore a shift, (pictured to the right) which is the undermost layer of clothing, made out of muslin. One source mentioned women wearing a long flannel shift while bathing, but I have never heard of a shift made of flannel--only petticoats, which are different. It's possible some wore a shift especially made of flannel for playing in the water.

Bathing machine

If you're thinking, "dresses float up," you are right. To combat that, women sometimes wore shifts or gowns with lead weights sewn into the hem to keep them in place. This seems to be most common in Bath while bathing in the Roman baths for health reasons where men and women often all bathed together in the same pool. (more about Bath here.)

Resort Towns

In Brighton, a fashionable seaside resort, the genders often swam separately, most often at different beaches so modesty would have been less of a concern.

Often, men, women, and children all frolicked in the water together, as seen in the image above left labeled Seaside Resort.

Bathing machine in Brighton

Bathing Machines

Ladies who could not swim or wished to do so with a measure of privacy used bathing machines -- small closed carts pulled by a horse into the ocean until the water level roughly matched the floor of the changing room. Inside, the bather undressed or changed, then stepped down the stairs into the water.

Although I expect it was less common, men used these bathing machines as well, also aided by a bathing attendant. Female attendants were called dippers and male attendants were dunkers. 

By the 1890s, bathing machines stopped being a means of getting into the water and instead became stationary changing rooms.

Bathing attendants

Pictured to the right above, bathing attendants wearing dark blue woolen gowns, probably weighted, help a fragile creature into the water. Attendants ensured the bather dunked herself or himself into the saltwater, believed to be healing, or ensured they didn't drown. Or both.

The image to the left show a variety of confidence in the bathers. They all appear to be wearing long-sleeved gowns which had the added benefit of protecting skin from sunburn as well as an increased measure of modesty. Whether the gowns in this image are all brown because that was fashionable or because the artist chose to make them all the same color, is open for discussion. 

I find it interesting that the dippers in both images are wearing dark blue but no one else is. Make of that what you will.

Mermaids

Plenty of drawings, such as the one to the right, show men peeping at bathers or "mermaids," some who are wearing nothing and others wearing their revealing wet shifts. 

I love the addition of the woman in pink about to bash her man over the head for peeking at other women. Serves him right!

Proper swimwear? 

‘Sea Side Bathing Dress’
La Belle Assemblée
 August 1815

Several images in both La Belle Assemble and Acknerman's repository (famous fashion magazines of the time) feature ensembles labeled Seaside Dress or Bathing Dress. Make no mistake, they were not dresses meant to be worn while swimming in the water; they were walking gowns or morning gowns worn while walking to and from bathing machines or to promenade fashionably along the beach. 

The only mention of an ensemble made for swimming mentions a corset that is easy to into and out of without help. But that's nothing new. Short stays served that purpose, as well.

Real proper historical swimwear

No ensembles for swimming or sea bathing appear in fashion prints until the mid to late Victorian Era, probably due to the Victorian sensibility of modesty. 

At that point, many resorts banned naked swimming and enforced the wearing of proper swimwear.

Bathing costumes, circa 1899

Historical Bathing Costumes

Though these designs date after the Regency Era, I thought they were fun and wanted to share them.

To the right is an image of early Victorian swimwear labeled bathing dresses and hats from 1870. I believe the nearly transparent women's faces are not meant to be ghostly but rather a bleed-through of illustrations on the other side of the page. Note the dark colors and clearly thick fabrics. Both have pantaloons and some kind of overskirt. One shows short sleeves and the other has long sleeves. Clearly, these are meant to be worn with a corset, although I cannot imagine trying to swim in a corset! I'd think the thick dresses would make swimming difficult enough. 

Bathing costumes
circa 1870

To the left is an advertisement of two Edwardian ladies modeling period bathing suits, dated 1899. Their sleeves are short and the fabrics appear to be lighter weight. They also seem to have corsetted waists, or maybe that's just the artist's rendering. I like the hats in both images and enjoy seeing their evolution.

To the right is a photo of some weird chick (who, me?) wearing a proper bathing costume from approximately 1910. Note the dark blue thick fabric and modest design which includes, pantaloons, and skirt, similar to the 1899 image. I am not, however wearing a corset!

The hat, dark stockings, and white shoes are period appropriate for that era but I'm sure ladies removed them before going into the water. I wasn't brave enough to test out how well I could swim while wearing all of these layers--mostly because I borrowed the costume and didn't want to risk it fading in the chlorinated pool water of our hotel.

Which costume is your favorite?

Sources:

Sue Berry Historian, Sea Bathing in Brighton

the Jane Austen Centre, The Georgian Practice of Sea Bathing

Jane Austen's World, Regency Sea Bathing

Jane Austen's London; Mrs. Bell

All Things Georgian, Regency Swimwear

Fashion History Timeline, A History of Women's Swimwear

Word Wenches: Keeping It Clean

 

 

 

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