Slips and Stuff

Last weeks post "Now for the Rant" was an accidental hit and all because of the mention of underwear. I might as well milk it for all I can so today we're going to have a bit of a wander through my brain's underwear synapses.

A slip, Muser, is as you said, a kind of underdress. It's like a lining but not attached to the dress. It stops people from seeing the outline of your legs when backlit (who remembers that pic of Diana Spencer, about the time she was engaged to Charles? She had this flimsy skirt on and you could see right through it....most inappropriate for an up and coming royal :)

A slip stops your dress from sticking to your stockings because of static. (Do I have to explain stockings?) and it helps the dress to fall nicely.

A slip is similar to a negligee (nightie) but I don't think the two are used interchangeably. They can both be form fitting with thin straps and lace but slips are often made of awful non-sexy nylon (and for real passion killing, "skin" coloured)

When a slip or a negligee are made from silk and coloured black or maybe white, that's when the two become almost indistinguishable from each other.

Phew, slips are complicated.

I remember my Mum wearing a full length, skin coloured slip on a regular basis, I thought it was a vast improvement when she down-graded to a half slip. Funny thing is, now I would prefer the full length. Go figure.

Oh, and the other thing about slips is that they went terribly out of fashion for a very long time, about 15 years I'd think. Now they're back as "underdresses". These days they're made of high-tech lycra or some such and used to assist in creating a smooth silhouette. It's the "control slip", just another way of saying corset, really. The days of a bra and undies being the total of most women's underwear and letting everything else hang out seem to be going.

Talking of control underwear, after my babies were born the muscles of my tummy were really very badly separated and I was told to wear control briefs to help them knit back together. Control briefs? at 23? No, No, NO, NOOOOO!

I was mortified and could just manage to do it if, and only if, I wore "normal" knickers under them. That way I still felt like me, wearing my undies.

Control briefs have got a bit nicer to look at since those days but I expect that I would still be mortified.