Hand Stitched Bobbinet Tulle & Silk Ribbon Girdle By Gladys Neal

Hand Stitched Bobbinet Tulle & Silk Ribbon Girdle By Gladys Neal, c. 1920s, USA. The Underpinnings Museum. Photography by Tigz Rice.

Date: c. 1920s

Origin: USA

Fabric: Cotton bobbinet, silk ribbon

Brand: Gladys Neal

 

A delicate girdle crafted from a fine cotton bobbinet tulle and trimmed with silk satin ribbon. The garment is entirely hand stitched. There are keyhole cutouts at the sides of the lower hips, with a channel of silk ribbon encasing small pieces of elastic that would have presumably offered some extra flexibility of movement. The hem is trimmed with a tulle ruffle, and there are four garter straps made of silk ribbon and elastic. The girdle fastens at the centre back, with a row of of shell buttons and loops hidden beneath a silk ribbon placket, and the garment is embellished with hand embroidered leaf motifs at the waist and hip lines.

Shorter girdle styles like these were a dramatic departure from the extra long corsets that dominated the the early 1910s. These shorter corsets offered the wearers a much greater flexibility in movement, in line with the shifting womenswear fashions and move to shorter hemlines and less restrictive cuts.

 

From the collection of Karolina Laskowska

Museum number: KL-2022-013

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