This exhibition is split into chapters, which can either be navigated page by page or through your area of interest with a full list of links at the bottom of each page. Clicking on images will take you to their dedicated object page, where you can learn about the individual piece in detail.
Curation and extended essay by Summer Anne Lee
All photography by Tigz Rice Studios
Additional descriptions and editing by Karolina Laskowska
The colour red is found in nature: in flowers, fruit, gemstones, fire, and blood. It is symbolically associated with a multitude of meanings, from lust and love to power, danger, and death. Scientists and psychologists have correlated red with male dominance, aggression, and victory. The symbology expert Michel Pastoureau wrote in his 2016 book, Red: The History of a Color (translated from the French): “Red is the archetypal color, the first color humans mastered, fabricated, reproduced, and broke down into different shades … This has given it primacy over all other colors through the millennia.”
When used to colour women’s lingerie, red’s poignant symbolism engages with societal perceptions of feminine sexuality and empowerment. During some parts of the nineteenth century, fashionable shades of red in women’s dress included scarlet, crimson, cardinal, garnet, ruby, poppy, and even a “dull deep hue” called “antique red” (Harper’s Bazaar, 1868). Yet opinions of brightly-coloured undergarments were vexed, variously considered abhorrent and improper, or stylish and inflammatory. New associations were formed by the middle of the twentieth century. Lingerie was marketed to women in countless shades of red, including flame, bright rose, spice, cherry, firecracker, and siren. These were considered fun and bold hues to enliven one’s wardrobe and were often combined with black for a “dramatic look” (Women’s Wear Daily, 1952). Since the sexual liberation movement of the 1960s, red lingerie has developed more romantic and seductive associations, gaining a reputation for being “sexy,” “red-hot,” “smouldering,” and “incendiary.”
Incendiary: A History of Red Lingerie tells this story through thirty objects, dating from circa the 1860s to 2017. Twenty-six of these are included in the Underpinnings Museum’s free and accessible digital collection which has been photographed by Tigz Rice Studios.
Red was a fashionable colour in European and American women’s dress during the mid-to-late nineteenth century, but was not always seen as suitable for undergarments.
During this period, layers worn directly next to the skin were typically white. This was in part because frequent laundering and lack of visibility rendered colourful dyes impractical. While undergarments such as the chemise and drawers may have been adorned with embroidery or ribbons, “faint” hues were generally considered most “ladylike” (Ladies’ Home Journal, 1894).
In the same vein, corsets were most commonly undyed or dyed in colours considered practical like grey and black. Red could also be considered a forgiving colour, as Godey’s Lady’s Book reported in 1870: “Many ladies who objected to gay red corsets, a few years ago, wear them now in preference to all others, as they retain their fresh, warm look all winter, and do not show soil.”
However, for much of the nineteenth century, brightly-coloured corsets were considered vain and indecent. This sentiment is reflected in the following warning, quoted from British magazine Vanity Fair in 1875: “Do not imitate those who love coloured corsets. A lady should wear only a white corset.” This disapproving attitude eventually shifted by the end of the century, corresponding to the popularity of novel synthetic dyes. In the early 1900s, English magazine The Lady’s Realm reassured readers that, “The most virtuous of us are now allowed to possess pretty undergarments, without being looked upon as suspicious characters.”
Date: c. 1860s
Origin: Great Britain
Fabric: Wool and cotton
This red corset was constructed in the 1860s, the same decade in which the chemically synthesized alizarin red dye was first produced.
The quest for vibrant and colourfast red dye dates as far back as the Neolithic period. Insect-based kermes and plant-based madder were prevalent in red dyes used in ancient civilizations. Madder root was utilized in the long, meticulous, and secretive “Turkey red” process of dyeing, originating in ancient India or Turkey.
In 1858, English chemist William Henry Perkin discovered the first synthetic dye: a bright purple colour called mauve. The dye industry was further revolutionized in 1869 when German chemists synthetically produced alizarin, the red colorant in madder. While this was not considered a synthetic dye, like Perkin’s mauve, the red dye could now be produced artificially at a much smaller cost.
Date: c. 1890s
Origin: Unknown
Fabric: Cotton coutil, silk fur
White remained a popular choice for women’s undergarments throughout the nineteenth century, due to the colour’s practicality for washing and associations with virtue. White corsets were especially symbolic of a woman’s modesty and purity.
According to fashion historian Valerie Steele in the 2014 book Exposed: A History of Lingerie, “most soft lingerie and most corsets were made of white fabric, with perhaps a little decoration in the form of lace or embroidery.”
This white cotton corset measures approximately 20 cm (8 in.) down the centre-front and 18 cm (7.25 in.) across the waist. Its small size indicates that it was a salesman’s product sample, used to demonstrate corset styles and construction techniques. As Steele noted, it is embellished with light red trimmings along the top and bottom, as well as red lacing at the back.
Date: c. 1890s
Origin: United States
Fabric: Cotton
In 1871, an issue of Harper’s Bazaar asserted: “Drab is not in itself holier than scarlet one whit, and the subdued colours are no more favourable to virtue than they are to artistic beauty.”
This statement encouraged readers to adopt bright colours like scarlet in their dress, rather than subdued “drab.” Yet this dull, greyish-brown colour was popular in nineteenth-century corsetry.
The maker of this 1890s corset enlivened it with red stitches. The body of the corset and boning channels were sewn in red thread, contrasting the drab-coloured cotton material. Most eye-catching is the red embroidery that adorns both bosom gores. The embroidery style and placement are comparable to that of a red 1880s corset at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (C.I.48.48a, b).
Date: c. 1890s
Origin: Great Britain
Fabric: Cotton sateen
This sturdy black corset dates to the 1890s and features a decorative band of red woven trim.
Black was a relatively common corset colour during the late nineteenth century and was considered the most appropriate option to wear underneath dark dresses. This included mourning dress, or the act of wearing black in observance of a person’s death.
Interestingly, American women’s magazines including Harper’s Bazaar and Godey’s Lady’s Book encouraged readers to sew their black corsets with red silk thread. This is demonstrated in another corset held in the Underpinnings Museum collection, from the 1860s (KL-2017-013). The tradition of decorating black lingerie with contrasting red embellishments was continued into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Date: c. 1885
Origin: 39 Principe, Madrid, Spain
Fabric: Silk
Brand: La Huri
During the 1870s, European and American women’s magazines occasionally warned readers not to wear coloured satin corsets; they were often considered unacceptable because of their difficulty when laundering but also because they were viewed as vain and lacking in virtue.
Although their cost and impracticality remained prohibitive for most women, the moral barrier to coloured satin corsets shifted during the 1880s. This red silk satin maternity corset dates to circa 1885, the same year that American publication Peterson’s Magazine claimed that “Very stylish ladies now have a corset in satin to match each of their dresses.” Perhaps this corset was intended to match a red satin maternity dress like this one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1985.363.9).
Date: c. 1870s
Origin: Great Britain
Fabric: Cotton tape, metal wires, metal buckle
Supportive under-skirts were required to maintain the fashionable skirt shapes of the mid-to-late nineteenth century including bell shapes and prominent bustles. It was not unusual for these skirt supports to be made in fashionable colours like red as they might be glimpsed under the hem. This late 1870s red cage crinolette, in combination with the grouping of red bustles and crinolines above, shows how fashionable the colour was even in mostly unseen support garments.
Still, several nineteenth-century sources perpetuated the notion that a bright red underskirt was “flaunting” at best and “coquettish” at worst (Belle Brittan on Tour, 1858). In 1858, a rumour circulated across the Atlantic that England’s Queen Victoria wore a red petticoat “to reawaken the dormant conjugal susceptibility of [her husband] Prince Albert.”
Colourful petticoats still carried an inviting connotation in 1902, when Marian Pritchard wrote The Cult of Chiffon. Pritchard warned married British women that wearing drab, grey petticoats could ruin their marriage and cause their husbands to seek a “petticoat of aspirations.”
