Odds and Ends
The Right Way To Put On A Girdle
What Do You Do About Underpants?
Can Anyone Tell That You Have A Girdle On?
The Right Way To Put On A Girdle
From Charm: The Career Girl's Guide to Business And Personal Success, by Helen Whitcomb and Rosalind Long (1971)
Do you know how to put on a girdle?
Often more damage is done by the strain and struggle of getting into a girdle than by weeks of wear. The simplest and safest method is to pull the girdle partway up over your hips and then grasp the lower edges and flip the girdle inside out as you pull the entire garment up above your waist. (A bit of swivel at this stage makes the job easier.) Then smooth the waist section into position and, grasping the bottom edges of the girdle, slide them down again (right side out) over your hips. By pulling the girdle down from above your waist, you are working with Nature instead of against her, and your flesh is smoothed into proper position, not all squeezed up to overflow in a roll at the top.
Be sure that your girdle is centered on your figure- that the center panel is really in the center. With so many of the lightweight elastic pull-ons, it's easy to don the girdle off-center. Unless it's on correctly, you'll be uncomfortable and won't get maximum support. If your garment has a zipper, don't try to close the zipper before you've fastened all the hooks beneath it. Fasten from the bottom up-never from the top down.
Panty girdles can't be put on in this flip-the-bottom-up manner, obviously. Instead, first fold the garment in half, top to bottom. Step in and smooth the folded girdle up over your hips to the right position. Then roll the top up to your waist. This makes the tugging much easier.
Caring For A Girdle
It's hard to argue with this advice, printed in the November 1954 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine:
Wash them frequently. This is the first and most important rule in taking care of any foundation garment. Like all clothing worn next to the body, foundation garments should be washed after every wearing or two. (Most of today's lighter weight garments will dry overnight.) Often, soaking the garment a few minutes before washing and using a soft brush on soiled spots helps.
Although many manufacturers recommend hand washing, we at Good Housekeeping have laundered lightly boned and elastic garments in automatic washers with entirely satisfactory results. We use the coolest setting on the machine. And we make sure zippers and other fastenings are closed. Putting the garment in a net bag is another good precaution for machine washing.
Dry them carefully. Roll the garments in a terry towel to eliminate excess moisture. Then remove them from the towel, shape them, and hang them away from direct heat and sunlight. (Rubber deteriorates in heat.) Hang bras evenly over a line or rack, suspend girdles and corselets by the garters. If you iron fabric panels, be sure to keep the iron away from elastic sections.
What Do You Do About Underpants?
Girdles may be worn with or without panties underneath. There is no "correct" way.
That being said, there seems to be no better way to start a discussion among girdle fanciers than to ask The Panty Question.
Retired corsetiere Marianne wrote:
In "my" days panties were almost always worn over shorter open girdles, over garter belts, and over the garters of "merry widows" for convenience. It was of course not the case with panty girdles and longer girdles that were shaping your lower thighs.
The idea to wear panties under the garters may have come around when the actual daily use of these garments went, as most people after that must have formed their impressions from ads of the times. These always portray panties under out of decency and, of course, to fully expose the garment.
What About Garters?
Although many girdles are now available without garter tabs (since most women wear pantyhose now), the classic girdle has garters suspended from it, to hold up stockings. These garters are normally placed under the leg of a long-leg panty girdle and at the bottom of all of the other kinds. Open-bottomed girdles are nearly always worn with gartered stockings, while most control briefs are currently sold without them.
If you want to get the full vintage effect of wearing a classic girdle, I would recommend wearing a girdle with regular stockings. Girdles can, however, be worn quite effectively over pantyhose and they are particularly easy to pull on over pantyhose.
-Suzanne
Can Anyone Tell That You Have A Girdle On?
Yes, if they know what to look for... but few people do these days.
It must be difficult for people who came to adulthood in the period after girdles were widely worn to understand how easy it was to "tell" whether or not a woman was wearing a girdle. If you want to understand how people could tell whether or not a woman was wearing a girdle, simply look at any television show or film made before 1967 or so. The old sitcoms on Nick-at-Nite will do fine (e.g. Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Patty Duke, etc.). All of the women on these shows (except for Jeannie in her harem costume) are wearing girdles. You can be sure of it.
Notice that, particularly in the period 1962-66 (my adolescence), the straight skirts and shift dresses are quite close-fitting at the hips. Like all of the women at the time, the women who wear these clothes on these sitcoms have 1) very smooth and firm-looking hips; 2) virtually flat tummies; 3) a derriere that does not move and that appears to be a single, undivided entity. (The "monobuttock" look.) Their clothes are cut so that if their tummies were not flat, and if their derrieres were capable of umm, divided movement, you would certainly be able to tell. And back then, a moving and unsupported derriere was considered to be a sign of carelessness or lasciviousness.
Although I do think that the smooth, sleek, girdled look is very elegant and attractive, I do not defend this repressive state of mind and I applaud the freedom of young women today who are allowed to "move" if they want to. But this is the way it was. You didn't want your derriere to visibly "bounce" in public any more than you wanted your breasts to.
Even if a woman wasn't wearing a straight skirt, it was possible for a carefully trained eye (and mothers at that time did have such eyes) to tell if she was wearing a girdle. Costumers for plays and films are aware of this. A woman wearing a girdle sits and walks in a particular way. (I saw an interview with a costumer recently in Vogue who defined it, as I recall, as a particularly "sweet" and alert way.) It's what used to be called "good posture" and it's difficult to describe, but easy to recognize. It's the reason why women in plays set from 1930-1967 don't look right unless they're wearing girdles. They don't slouch, they keep their backs straight, they sit down slowly, they never "flop." This too was particularly elegant and ladylike, but here again, I'm glad it's no longer required.
Anyway, this is how one could tell. If you try a girdle, and particularly if you wear one with vintage or vintage style clothes, you'll probably see exactly what I'm talking about.
-Suzanne
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