A lingerie dress was a popular type of

dress A dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a garment traditionally worn by women or girls consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice (or a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment). It consists of a top piece that co ...

in the North America and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

throughout the decades of the 1900s until 1920. The dress was lightweight, often white and decorated. It was especially popular as an outdoor dress and for summer.

Overview

Lingerie dresses were heavily decorated and designed to look like a

Regency era The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 1810 and, by the Regency Act 1811, h ...

chemise gown. The dresses featured full skirts, blouses and sleeves of varying lengths. They were most often white, but not always. The dresses could also be worn over different colored

gowns A gown, from the Saxon word, ''gunna'', is a usually loose outer garment from knee-to-full-length worn by men and women in Europe from the Early Middle Ages to the 17th century, and continuing today in certain professions; later, the term ''gown ...

slips Slips (or SLIPS) may refer to: *Slips (oil drilling) *SLIPS (Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surfaces) *SLIPS (company) *SLIPS (Sri Lanka Interbank Payment System) *Slip (cricket), often used in the plural form *The Slips, a UK electronic music duo ...

, expanding a woman's wardrobe. The dresses were named "lingerie" in order to emphasize the lightness and thinness of the dresses, not to suggest

lingerie Lingerie (, , ) is a category of primarily women's clothing including undergarments (mainly brassieres), sleepwear, and lightweight robes. The choice of the word is often motivated by an intention to imply that the garments are alluring, fash ...

as an undergarment. The more sheer the lingerie dress, the better. The dresses were made of various fabrics, including linen,

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

or silk and parts of the dress were see-through to reveal the slip or gown worn underneath. Lingerie dresses were worn by various classes of women in North America and

in the decades of the 1900s up to the 1920. They were often worn at outdoor activities and were touted as being appropriate for warm weather. They were also easier to wash than other kinds of dresses. In addition, they were praised for their simplicity which also implied that they were less costly than other types of dresses. The dresses could be bought ready-made or created at home by pattern. They could be accessorized with collars, laces and bows on the neck. Other accessories included lingerie hats and Umbrella, parasols. Dresses were embellished with lace and embroidery, including eyelet embroidery.

References

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External links

Lingerie dress drawing
(1904)
Lingerie dress photograph
(1907)
Lingerie dress photograph
(1910) Dresses History of clothing (Western fashion) 1900s in North America 1900s in Europe