Vintage lingerie

Over at Hedonistic Pleasureseeker's place, a few of us had a discussion a while back about our enthusiasm for vintage lingerie and how difficult it is to find nowadays. Of course Miss Hedonist had a link to a vintage lingerie website that had some beautiful stuff, but it was a little bit spendy for my liking.

Most of the ones I have (see pictures below) are from eBay; a couple of them even arrived still in the original package. I've also found them at estate sales, but I haven't seen any like these in thrift shops for years.

Anyway, frequent commenter Pony asked for photos, so here they are. I was going to take some of them on the clothesline with the Holga (and maybe I did, but they're not back from the processing lab) but it rained and I had to bring them in and drape them over the hooks in the bathroom to finish drying. The BVM at left is actually a bath towel hung from the curtain rod. From outside at night it looks like a stained glass window if the bathroom light is on.

I first started wearing these old, 1940s & 1950s style slips when I was in high school and got hold of a trunkful of old dresses, hats, shoes, and lingerie that had belonged to my fathers' aunts and great-aunts.

One of the latter, my great-great-aunt Elizabeth, had been a milliner for many years, so the hats were spectacular, and each had a dress, suit, or coat to match. And of course shoes. A few even had matching belts.

And everything in the trunk either fit me perfectly or was easily altered. Most of it was handmade, and all those ladies were excellent seamstresses. I really miss all that old stuff. I wore it all through high school & college -- and some of it much longer. The stuff I have now is disappointing somehow. They just don't make stuff like they used to.

I will admit, however, that modern bras are way more comfortable than those old bullet-bras; I'm not even going to go there. But these old slips are constructed to enhance a gal's, um, figure, and her clothing. They're tailored in such a way that there's no bunched up extra fabric at your waist; they're full-length so there's no extra elastic waistband, which makes them comfortable under both skirts and dresses.

And, in general, vintage lingerie is much higher in quality than what you find nowadays. The few full-length slips I find new in stores are generally not fitted, and come in two useless lengths: too short and too long. And they generate enough static electricity to power your iPod all day. Or they would, if iPods ran on static.

Plus the older ones are pretty. I know some of the younger gals like to wear them as dresses. Not my style nowadays, but I do recall going out dancing in a pale blue lace number under a black leather jacket with big-ass army boots and a spiked leather dog collar. I believe I left the house with a black turtleneck and a black plaid schoolgirl skirt over the slip.

Ah, the eighties.