A vivid portrait of Canadian teenage life
during a fascinating era.
I was born in 1939 and therefore experienced that most formative period of life -- adolescence -- during the 1950's.
Compared with current times, the 1950's was a more innocent era, characterized by the prevalence of quite conservative values.
I was born and raised in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia - - Canada's westernmost province. During the period of this memoir, Victoria's population averaged around the 80,000 mark. In overall terms, the community enjoyed a high level of prosperity. Being a provincial capital, there was considerable white collar, civil service employment. This, in turn, supported employment in a wide range of schools, hospitals, banks, shops and many other types of service-oriented establishments. There was relatively little heavy industry and the city definitely did not have a blue collar feeling.
Unlike most of Canada, Victoria is blessed with a benign, Pacific climate. Golfing and gardening can be enjoyed 10 months of the year. In fact, the city is renowned for its beautiful gardens. Back in the 1950's, Victoria also prided itself on being "a little bit of Olde Englande". To further this illusion -- and no doubt foster tourism -- the police used to wear English "Bobby" helmets in the summer.
And if the 1950's was a decade generally characterized by conservative values, then I think one could safely say that those values were even more pronounced in a place like Victoria.
However, something else of great importance was happening in the 1950's -- it was the era when teenagers and teen culture became established as an important social, economic and demographic fact. And, of course, there were many interesting points of tension between this new reality and the conservative ethos of the era.
My girdle memoir begins in 1956 when I was 17 and in grade 11 at high school. I came from a comfortable background (my father was a lawyer) and my future plans included going on to college after high school graduation. I was a good student but also interested in sports. During my last two years at high school I played on the basketball team. I enjoyed the competition but enjoyed even more the effect team membership had on my social popularity (particularly when we won!)
Although no movie star, I was a presentable young man and I had a car which -- in the 1950's -- was essential to having a decent social life. So equipped I was able, at the age of 17, to acquire my first steady girlfriend. (The reader should bear in mind that all this was before the "Sexual Revolution" of the 1960's which was facilitated by changing attitudes and the birth control pill.)
In 1950's. Victoria there wasn't much mixing among the social classes. Practically all the girls I knew were from the upper middle class (that is, fathers in the professions, houses in the "right part of town", and destined for college.)
Such families typically regulated their daughter's behaviour to a considerable extent -- including pretty inflexible "dress codes". (Sons were also regulated, but not to quite the same extent. The upper middle class parents I knew in those days had obsessive fears about their daughters incurring social disapproval which might undermine their marital prospects. This was long before the feminist movement took root and started to cause change.)
Among the high school girls I knew, their "going to school uniform" typically comprised the following elements:
- cashmere sweaters (the more a girl had the higher her status. The bolder girls would favour a tighter fit but still emphasize their virginal innocence by wearing the sweater over a blouse with a Peter Pan collar;
- a plaid skirt -- full or tight, plaid was very popular. Grey and black gabardines were also popular;
- bobby sox as pristine as the driven snow;
- saddle shoes, loafers and "Pixie boots" (the latter typically in dark blue suede.)
But if a girl of 16 or more was doing "something special" -- for example, going downtown shopping, going out on a date, going to church etc. -- then she would wear nylons and heels, and that is where girdles enter the picture. But first a word about the shoes and stockings.
It hardly seems necessary to point out that in the 1950's (or much of the 1960's for that matter) pantyhose did not exist. Similarly, the extensive range of "stocking shades" available nowadays did not exist in the 1950's.
In 1958, for example, the predominant shade in nylons was beige or tan. It might be light beige, mid-beige or darker beige, but beige was the basic idea. During the period I'm examining (1956- 1961) and, of course, in my part of the world, no well brought up girl would have dreamed of wearing charcoal-hued hose during the day. These were reserved for "special occasions" -- notably Saturday evening dates.
The big stocking-related development in 1956 Victoria was the beginning of the general availability of "seam-free" nylons. A local ladies-wear shop proudly proclaimed that "there was no looking back with our seam-free stockings!" At last, the dreaded humiliation of crooked seams had apparently been slain by modern technology!
As for the shoes, spike heeled pumps were the favoured footwear for "dress up" occasions. The heels on these ranged from two-and-one-half inches to a perilous four-and-a-quarter inches. I never met a girl who didn't complain about the discomfort and inconvenience of spikes but, of course, they wore them anyway in accordance with the culturally defined principles of attractiveness (or glamour) that prevailed at the time.
As far as 1950's shoe shades are concerned, the most popular were black patent, white patent, plain calfskin in black, brown or blue, and the "spectator pump" in blue and white. Among the girls I knew, shades like red, pink, powder blue,, yellow etc. were generally regarded as vulgar unless they were specifically required to match another garment, such as a formal dress for the prom.
 |
|
A tool of the Inquisition? |
This brings us to girdles. In my experience (direct and swapping stories with other guys at school or college), the open-bottomed, pull-on girdle was the overwhelming choice. The most common colour was off-white although shades like pink, peach and beige were also available. Black was considered tres risque' by well-brought-up girls. Most commonly, these girdles were fabricated from elasticized fabrics. Later in the decade (say around 1959 in my part of the world) latex also became more popular although the girls I knew complained that it was hot and uncomfortable.
Panty girdles were rare. "They're American, aren't they?" one girl said to me. I never encountered a "long leg" model. They existed, of course, but were seen as only being appropriate for "older women" with "special needs".
Of course, girls also wore garter belts. But the typical 1950's garter belt had little in common with the lace fantasies depicted in mens' magazines". They were likely to be made of plain elastic, have off-white for a colour, and be styled more for serviceability than seduction. However, I actually found these 1950's garter belts quite sexy -- I think the explanation is that they were so obviously designed to be a private garment and not something intended for show. This made the opportunity to view them both intimate and exciting.
I knew one girl who mainly wore a garter belt and was assisted in this preference by possessing a perfect 36-24-36 figure. However, she would not have dreamed of going to church or attending a sorority tea without first putting on a girdle. In short, girdles were often associated with a "sense of occasion" or circumstances where a girl wanted to ensure she was her "lady-like best".
When I was in my third year of college I started to go out steadily with a 19-year-old first-year student, Miss Jane B. She was a highly intelligent and very attractive young woman. Standing 5'7" in her stocking feet, her measurements were 37-25-38 and she invariably wore a girdle. Her choice was for the open-bottomed style (ending at the terminal curves of her hips) in off white. She greatly preferred the elasticized fabrics to latex, describing the latter as a "tool of the Inquisition"!
I met her parents early on in our relationship. They were successful people, well established in the community. Jane's mother was a respected clubwoman and superb bridge player, and although she was warm and loving toward her youngest daughter (the two older girls had contracted successful marriages) she was also quite strict. As Jane once confided, her mother could tell at fifty feet if she were wearing a girdle and would be most displeased if she were not!
This, however, was simply part of an overall "dress code" that had several features. Jane's mother totally forbade blue jeans, which were beginning to assume greater popularity at that time. A shopping trip downtown, going to church or visiting friends for tea called for hat and gloves, and spike heels with a matching handbag. (In the 1950's -- before the influence of television really took hold north of the border -- Canadians were considerably less informal than their American neighbours.)
 |
|
The slim suit. |
On Sunday mornings I would often see Jane at the Anglican church she and her parents attended. (This church-going had more to do with observing the social niceties than deeply held religious convictions.) Jane's church attire (she would wear the same types of outfits for a downtown shopping spree or attending a sorority tea) was a careful blending of ladylike demeanour and sexual attraction as it was understood and interpreted at the time. In the fall and spring she would usually wear a light wool suit with a skirt ending just below the knee. In 1959, these suits often had short jackets and slim skirts. When Jane wore such a suit, the contours of her girdled hips were attractively -- but certainly not vulgarly -- displayed. In summer, a cotton suit or dress would be substituted for wool. As far as stockings were concerned, there was really only one acceptable hue for daytime wear and that was some variant of beige or tan. A favoured hat style was the small "pillbox" type which was worn with matching wrist length gloves. Spike heeled pumps and handbags were also de rigeur and matched the hat and gloves.
In that era, well-bred girls worried about their bottoms jiggling in an unsavoury manner -- especially when wearing spikes. Girdles eliminated the "jiggle factor" but did not prevent a pleasing sway while walking. Achieving this balance of the ladylike with the sexual was a tricky process and the girdle was absolutely fundamental to its achievement. Think back to Jane's church- going outfit for a moment -- if she had been wearing a garter belt instead of a girdle the whole effect would have been quite different. Ladylike sexuality would have crossed into the realm of the unacceptably suggestive (unacceptable, at least, in those circles.)
However, even the most carefully-brought-up girl is likely to have at least a small streak of rebellion and Jane was no exception in this regard. Although the following examples doubtless seem laughable by today's standards, in 1950's, middle class Canada they bordered on the daring.
 |
|
La gaine |
In 1950's Victoria, teenagers in search of adventure and prosperous enough to travel would make a trip to Vancouver or Seattle. Both cities were considerably larger than Victoria and somewhat more sophisticated. On one such trip to Vancouver, Jane and I were walking around the downtown area when she spied a shop selling underwear of a type one simply would not find in Victoria. (I hasten to add that this was not some sort of disreputable "adult sex aid" shop -- they didn't exist in Vancouver in those days. It was simply a place oriented toward young women who wanted to be more daring than the norm.) I accompanied Jane inside (although I confess I felt a bit awkward -- typical 1950's male!). The matronly woman who ran the place showed her a number of items. Jane bought a couple of bras that were more decorative and low cut than anything she'd find in Victoria. Then the woman produced some panties styled in the bikini fashion and also a tres risque' black nylon g-string. The woman matter-of-factly commented on the g-string: "Yes, dear. Many girls are wearing these under their girdles now."
Jane blushed but ended up buying the g-string along with a couple of other more conventional pairs of panties. She did indeed wear the g-string under her girdle (even to church!) and it became a secret talisman of our intimate life together.
A few weeks after the Vancouver trip, we traveled together to Seattle. Here Jane bought an open-bottomed, pull-on Lycra girdle that was completely transparent except for the reinforced waistband and the areas at the bottom where the four stocking supporters had been sewn in. Worn over a pair of shocking pink bikini style panties, the effect was quite electric. It was another interesting example of how Jane conformed to her mother's "dress code" while still managing to take enjoyable liberties with its specifics.
My final anecdote about Jane relates to her purchase of an open-bottomed girdle in black latex. (Given how she felt about latex, this was a major concession.) This she often wore on Saturday night dates -- without panties! The 1950's, of course, was the "heavy petting" era. Available contraceptive devices were hardly failsafe and there was considerable anxiety about the risks of unwanted pregnancy -- especially in middle and upper middle class circles with their strong orientation toward social conformity.
Virtually every girl I knew had a love/hate relationship with her girdle. Wearing it made her feel better -- it controlled the problem of unsavoury jiggling (at my college, the girls invariably wore stockings and even heels to class), it made her hips look better (I never met a girl who didn't have some anxieties about her hips) , and it gave the wonderful sense of security associated with complying with the prevailing social norms.
On the negative side, no one would ever say that the girdle was a comfortable garment. To augment discomfort, the open bottomed models had a disconcerting tendency to ride up in back. As the girdle rode up, it tended to pull the panties along with it, lodging them in the gluteal crevice. I remember several instances at college seeing coeds secretively tugging at the backs of their skirts in an attempt to rectify an uncomfortable situation. And, of course, all of these discomforts were compounded in hot weather. But as Jane's mother used to say -- and she was by no means untypical in her era -- "warm weather is not a licence for sloppiness." (The definition of "sloppiness" included not wearing stockings in public and, of course, the girdle required to hold them up!)
Return to Men's Dreams
Page designed and maintained by 
Last updated December 4, 1997