What The Early 20th Century Woman Wore Under Her Clothes

Sexy Lingerie, Corsets & Other Flattering Clothing

Gimbel Brothers Department Store Catalog 1910

What was considered sexy 100 years ago might not draw the same conclusions today.

To look her best, the woman of the late 19th and early 20th century was stuffed into a variety of tight fitting and often times restrictive undergarments.

Much like today with online shopping, store catalogs offered goods of all sorts to the public without the need to first try on the merchandise.

Gimbel Brothers Department Store Catalog 1910

From nightgowns to corsets to petticoats to chemises to reducing garments, women could buy a wide variety of underclothing, never setting foot in a store.

Once you put on a corset, you of course needed corset accessories.

To advertise all these undergarments, merchandisers had to show women what they would look like in them. The models were often real women, but usually altered from photographs to line drawings.

Siegel-Cooper Fall & Winter Styles 1906-1907

The following illustrations are from The Siegel-Cooper Department Store Catalog. To read more about this huge store located on Sixth Avenue and 18th Street, click here.

The Siegel-Cooper illustrations are definitely not a Victoria’s Secret catalog. But I’m sure in its day these images could have titillated boys and men. Though they may not appear so to a modern audience, these items were meant to be alluring. Note the wasp waist for many models and the ad for the inflatable bust.

If you’re wondering about the seemingly inexpensive prices of items in the catalog, realize the average working man in a city like New York was bringing home about $15 per week. A woman working in a store might bring home as little as eight dollars per week. By the way, for most workers a week was five and a half days and was often at least a ten hour day.

How much has fashion changed in the last 117 years?

Judge for yourself.