Women Wore Shifts! A small rant.
If you watch a lot of Hollywood period dramas then you would be forgiven for believing that corsets and stays where historically worn against the skin. Truth: They weren’t! Ask a fashion history nerd what their biggest pet peeve is when it comes to period dramas and a vast majority would say “they never show them wearing shifts!”
But what exactly is a shift I hear you ask? Well, a shift (or sometimes called a chemise) is a piece of underwear worn by women throughout history, often made out of linen or cotton. The shift was a protective layer of clothing, worn directly next to the skin to protect outer clothing from the body’s sweat, oils and smells. Clothing wasn’t often washed in history, especially if you were a member of higher society and thus your clothes were made from more delicate and expensive fabrics. Any stains on clothing were spot treated. Instead, the shift was washed and changed as often as possible, much like we do with our underwear.
Bathing of the Nymphs, Francesco Hayez, 1831.
The shift seems to have first become popular in Europe in the Middle Ages, being worn by women under their gowns and by men alongside their trousers. It should be noted that while men did wear a shift-like garment throughout history it became known as a shirt. Shifts were simple garments, created of squares and rectangles and generally sewn together by the women of the household and were seen as a required item of clothing. I mean, I don’t see many people leave the house without their pants (For American readers, I mean underpants here) on! It may surprise you but the shift disappeared not that long ago, with shifts and shift-like garments being worn up to and during the Edwardian era. Although, one could say that a modern-day slip is technically a shift!
Queen Elizabeth 1’s effigy stays.
In the 1500s Catherine de Medici bought to France the idea of a pair of bodies, an item worn beneath the main clothing, and the women of the French court embraced it with open arms, bringing around a change in fashion. You see, up until then any supportive aspects of an outfit were solely in the outer dress itself with kirtles and gowns featuring boning. By having a piece of clothing that gave additional support, women were able to wear even more lavish amounts of clothing, with the bodies helping to support the weight of them. They also aided in creating the desired, clearly not natural, silhouettes of the day. Remember when I said shifts were worn to protect the outer garments? Well, they were also worn to protect the wearer from these other items of clothing. While a correctly fitting pair of bodies, stays or corset are not torture devices, you don’t necessarily want them sitting directly on one’s skin. Those of us who wear bras know how sore it can get!
Keira Knightley in A Dangerous Method. Where is the SHIFT???
So, why does Hollywood rarely show historical ladies wearing their shifts? It’s pretty simple really, they don’t think it looks sexy. Because seeing a woman wearing a poorly fitted corset, that is clearly too small for her, directly against the skin is apparently a big turn on? It is really no wonder then that most people truly believe that corsets are devices of extreme torture, that stop you breathing and cause a variety of ailments, because if this is all you see then that is the conclusion you are inevitably going to draw. They wore shifts. Rant over!
