#UPMTC: Our first ever Twitter conference
On Friday 12th January 2018, the Underpinnings Museum held an academic conference 100% online as part of our ongoing quest to bring the history of underwear to a wider audience, making collections and research freely accessible. Organised and run by the museum’s researcher, Lorraine Smith, the day was split into two sessions (morning and afternoon by UK time, but we had speakers and attendees join us from further afield) and there were a total of ten presentations on a variety of aspects of underwear history.
As social media can be a rather fleeting medium, in order to keep a permanent record of the conference proceedings we will be sharing a series of blog posts with the presentation tweets embedded in them. In this post, the museum’s Director, Karolina Laskowska, begins the conference by reminding us of the importance of underwear history.
1 #UPMTC A collection can be a lonely thing; The Underpinnings Museum was born of my desire to share my lingerie collection with the world… to use it to inspire and educate, rather than let it languish in storage.
— Karolina Laskowska (@KarolinaZL) January 12, 2018
2 #UPMTC Written history tends to give a biased view of how things were & rarely gives insight into the lives of ordinary people. Underwear is often seen as mundane and unimportant but the study of these objects can reveal much that would otherwise be lost to the passage of time.
— Karolina Laskowska (@KarolinaZL) January 12, 2018
3 #UPMTC This is especially relevant when it comes to areas that are so often considered taboo. For example, pregnancy and menstruation. Yet this 1880s pregnancy corset, this 1930s maternity bra and this 1940s sanitary belt give us a hint of what life might have been like. pic.twitter.com/djKz1OB6c0
— Karolina Laskowska (@KarolinaZL) January 12, 2018
4 #UPMTC We also learn how social expectations and values change. Before the 1920s, crotchless undergarments were considered modest and proper… Yet that kind of cut in a contemporary pair of knickers won’t fail to raise eyebrows.
— Karolina Laskowska (@KarolinaZL) January 12, 2018
5 #UPMTC This 1960s bra was cut to accentuate the nipple of the bust under clothing and achieve the fashionable pointed silhouette. It bears a striking similarity to this 1990s @themissAP bra, which has an entirely different purpose behind its design. pic.twitter.com/t2osUnP6yF
— Karolina Laskowska (@KarolinaZL) January 12, 2018
6 #UPMTC Lingerie is linked to craftsmanship like no other area of clothing. It requires a specialist level of accuracy & detail. Historical examples remind us of skills & techniques that may be lost in the modern age of fast fashion, like these 100% hand sewn 1930s tap pants. pic.twitter.com/B1gP1j4zHV
— Karolina Laskowska (@KarolinaZL) January 12, 2018
7 #UPMTC Historical design influences modern design in more ways than you may realise. The underwire bra as we know it has changed very little since the 1950s, and the current strappy trend can be traced back to the 1920s. pic.twitter.com/pNEsdlh7qo
— Karolina Laskowska (@KarolinaZL) January 12, 2018
8 #UPMTC Some of the most beautiful contemporary design draws from silhouettes and trends of bygone eras: see @Evgenialingerie’s interpretation of the classic 1930s Kestos bra and tap pant styles, @Sparklewren’s Edwardian-silhouette corsetry or @Layneau_’s bias cut silk gown. pic.twitter.com/lflv3Ulthf
— Karolina Laskowska (@KarolinaZL) January 12, 2018
#UPMTC If you’d like to learn more about the objects shown in this presentation, you can explore them in detail in our online collection: https://t.co/1Jv2jSo8gA
— Karolina Laskowska (@KarolinaZL) January 12, 2018
We will share each of the conference presentations via its own blog post over the coming weeks. If you’re on Twitter, you can join the discussion via the Underpinnings Museum’s account and the conference hashtag #UPMTC
The header image for this post is a quilted nylon sling-style bra by Rose Marie (c. late 1950s, early 1960s) from the Underpinnings Museum collections. Photography by Tigz Rice.