A Short History of Underwear: Part 1 – The Ancients
Underwear. We (almost!)
all wear it in one form or another. Briefs or Boxers, Trunks or Jockstraps, Panties
of various kinds – the choices are wide and varied and what we individually
wear depends upon our own style, comfort and, in many cases, preferences
ingrained during our childhoods. It’s
not, however – especially if you are a man – something to which we tend to give
a lot of thought. A little research, though, shows a history of the evolution
of the humble undies that is quite fascinating and, at times, surprising.
In primitive times, when our
ancestors usually roamed their world naked, the first nod to any kind of “underwear”
was purely for protection – a hollowed, dried out gourd – basically a penile
shaft - that was worn to protect the man’s genital area. Since then, men’s
underwear has changed enormously – yet it remains a functional, at times
protective item rather than the pointedly attractive covering that women’s
underwear had evolved into (more on ladies undies another day).
Cavemen wore loincloths – these are documented in Ancient Egyptian tomb drawings
and King Tutankhamun’s mummy wore a linen loincloth. Physical proof of loincloth
wear was also noted upon the discovery of 3300 year old Otzi Man in the Swiss
Alps: his frozen corpse wore a leather
loincloth under his cloak. Even medieval artists depict the Crucifixion with
Jesus wearing a loincloth – whether he actually did we will never know for
sure.
Ancient Ethiopian painting
showing loincloth
The Ancient Greeks wore no
underwear at all!
The Ancient Romans adopted longer
underwear, similar to shorts or trunks, to be worn with their short tunics, and
eventually also under togas. Women, who still wore longer dresses, as such did
not at this time tend to wear any “underwear”.
During the first millennium AD,
the wearing of “underpants” became more commonplace – the nobility wore fitted
breeches, which fell to anywhere below the knee, while the working class wore
looser, baggy breeches. Both were usually made of linen. Peasants, however,
were still known to wear linen loincloths (even, in some places, up to the nineteenth century).
By the time Knights wearing
armour were commonplace, underwear had a new purpose to serve: protection
against the cold, hard metal. Padded loincloths came into vogue…
Next Week: Part 2: Medieval Undies
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