How To: Ancient Underwear

Most underwear as we know it today evolved in the 20th-century. In terms of clothing worn next to the skin, then the shirt is the most ubiquitous piece of underwear since at least the early Mediæval period. Alongside the shift or smock worn by women, the T-shaped shirt was donned for reasons of hygiene. Even today these linen garments minimise odour, wick sweat away from the body and are easily laundered. They also protected the skin from the rubbing of armour, corsets or coarse woollen clothing. When women’s fashion was for multiple layers of petticoats, skirts, under-dresses and over-dresses, plus bustle cages or hoops, then ladies up to the Georgian, and to an extent the Victorian, era omitted drawers. From practical experience this better facilitates the use of the garderobe, privy or lavatory where the layers can be a hinderance. Even modest Victorian ladies often wore drawers or bloomers with separate legs joined at the waistband (in other words, crotchless) for the same reason.

A 4th-century mosaic depicting young women exercising wearing subligacula (loincloths) and strophia (breastbands).

Surviving examples of later underwear are useful for recreating these garments, but our evidence for more ancient costume is somewhat limited to the interpretation of statues, stone relief carvings, frescoes, mosaics and many other forms of imagery. From these sources it is nigh impossible to know whether underwear was typically worn by our forebears. We can deduce that, perhaps, in hotter climates, such as Egypt and around the Mediterranean, underwear was forsaken to keep cool. Tastes Of History is all for “authenticity”, but “going commando” [1] in a school or at a public event might not be the wisest choice. So, if one wanted to create the most authentic look without breaking the law, what might you wear?

It is uncertain whether ancient underwear was a tailored garment or a more straightforward loincloth, also known as a breechcloth or breechclout. Regardless, throughout human history most societies, to one degree or another, have disapproved of genital nakedness [2]. Loincloths, therefore, have been an essential piece of men’s clothing for a long time. Essentially, a loincloth is a piece of material, bark-bast, leather, or cloth passed between the legs to cover the genitals, but not necessarily the buttocks. Despite its simple functionality, loincloths come in many different forms. Even today they remain one of the simplest forms of dress, and in some cases the only garment worn in societies where no other clothing is either needed or wanted.

The earliest evidence for underwear comes from the clothing Ötzi the Iceman was discovered wearing. His attire revealed that, in Europe around 2000 BC, some men wore leather breechcloths. In Ötzi’s case it was made from narrow strips of sheep hide stitched together to produce a garment, originally a 100 cm x 33 cm, that was worn between the legs and fastened with the belt (see above right). A very similar design was worn by ancient Inca men in Pre-Columbian South America. A strip of cloth passing between their legs was suspended by a string or tape belt, secured to the tapes at the back while the front portion hung in front as an apron.

From Ötzi’s simple loincloth developed more encompassing garments such as the one shown below left in a carved relief of ancient Egyptian farmers or labourers. This form of underwear, known as a shendyt, is relatively easy to recreate requiring a T-shaped piece of cloth. The width needs to be enough that it can be tied round the waist to form a “belt”. Likewise, a sufficiently long length of material, forming a “tail”, is drawn between the legs, from back to front, and looped through the “belt” to secure it in place. The result is somewhat like a pair of shorts with an apron of cloth at the front (see below right).

From the Vindolanda Tablets we know Romans wore a type of loincloth known as a subligaculum. While we cannot be certain of its design, it is highly likely that such garments were very similar to the Egyptian versions. The version pictured (right), however, was a type used by gladiators, but it gives a sense of how a subligaculum was worn. Indeed, around the world today, the styles in which breechcloths and loincloths can be arranged are myriad. Both the Bornean sirat and the Indian dhoti have fabric passing between the legs to support a man's genitals. Loincloths are commonly used as an undergarment or swimsuit by wrestlers and by farmers in paddy fields in both Sri Lanka and India, where it is called Kovanam in Tamil, amudaya in Sinhala and kaupinam or langot. A similar style of loincloth was also characteristic of ancient Mesoamerica, such as the Aztec maxtlatl. The male inhabitants of the area of modern Mexico wore a wound loincloth of woven fabric. One end of the loincloth was held up, the remainder passed between the thighs, wound about the waist, and secured in back by tucking.

Before World War II, the fundoshi (right) was the main form of underwear for Japanese men and women. It is a 35 cm wide (14”) piece of fabric, typically cotton or silk, passed between the thighs and secured to cover the genitals. The fundoshi quickly fell out of use after the war with the introduction to the Japanese market of new underwear such as briefs, boxer shorts and so on.

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Endnotes:

1. A euphemism for not wearing any underwear. It is also worth being aware that darker or coloured underwear can be visible beneath white or translucent garments. ▲

2. At time of writing, finding a more polite form of words was proving difficult. ▲