During the day, I received an exciting post on the costume list to which I belong: "Interesting Underwear Find". The link brought me to this article which detailed a "discovery of 15th century undergarments in Austria" in the Daily Mail.
"Fascinating", I think, as an amateur costume history buff who was introduced to the world of period clothing by Hilary Derby, the costume designer during the 1984 season at the Theatre at Monmouth (can you imagine: one of the costumer's took out Patterns of Fashion I, Englishwoman's Dress and their Construction 1660-1860 and made a reproduction of the dress Martha Washington wore to the inauguration to wear to one of the opening nights).
But it was to grow more fascinating still.
Many of the costumers who belong to the loop began to write in, complaining that the pictures provided in the Daily Mail did not accurately provide a full image of the piece found--that it could have been, in fact, a portion of a bodice that did no longer existed.
And, some people wrote in, the garments described as underpants in the American lingo, could have been worn by both men as well as women.
Next, someone posted a link to this article: "Bras in the 15th century? A Preliminary Report" by Beatrix Nutz.
The end result? Who knows?
Messages are still coming in...
Who knew the history of bras could be so exciting?
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