thumb|American petticoat, 1855–1865

thumb|Modern petticoat|alt=Modern petticoat

A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing, a type of undergarment worn under a skirt or a dress. Its precise meaning varies over centuries and between countries.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in current British English, a petticoat is "a light loose undergarment ... hanging from the shoulders or waist". In modern American usage, "petticoat" refers only to a garment hanging from the waist. They are most often made of cotton, silk or tulle. Without petticoats, skirts of the 1850s would not have the volume they were known for. In historical contexts (16th to mid-19th centuries), petticoat refers to any separate skirt worn with a gown, bedgown, bodice or jacket; these petticoats are not, strictly speaking, underwear, as they were made to be seen. In both historical and modern contexts, petticoat refers to skirt-like undergarments worn for warmth or to give the skirt or dress the desired attractive shape.

Terminology

Sometimes a petticoat may be called a waist slip or underskirt (UK) or half slip (US), with petticoat restricted to extremely full garments. A chemise hangs from the shoulders. Petticoat can also refer to a full-length slip in the UK, although this usage is somewhat old-fashioned.

History

thumb|Silk [[embroidery on petticoat, Portugal, ]]

thumb|Washer woman petticoat inspired skirt and jacket by Sybil Connolly

In the 14th century, both men and women wore undercoats called "petticotes". The word "petticoat" came from Middle English or , meaning "a small coat/cote". Petticoat is also sometimes spelled "petty coat". The original petticoat was meant to be seen and was worn with an open gown.

The petticoat in western men’s dress, what would become known in later years develop into the waistcoat, was from the mid-15th century to around the 17th century an under-doublet. The garment was worn in cooler months under a shirt for warmth, and was usually padded or quilted. Also in the American colonies, working women wore shortgowns (bedgowns) over petticoats that normally matched in color. The hem length of a petticoat in the 18th century depended on what was fashionable in dress at the time. Often, petticoats had slits or holes for women to reach pockets inside. Petticoats were worn by all classes of women throughout the 18th century. The style known as polonaise revealed much of the petticoat intentionally. Bloomers were also touted as a replacement for petticoats when working and by fashion reformers.

After World War I, silk petticoats were in fashion. She had travelled to Connemara for inspiration, where she saw a woman wearing a traditional red flannel petticoat. She bought a bolt of the same fabric from the local shop and made it into a quilted evening skirt, which was a huge success at the fashion show. or inskirts.

In Japan, similar to a petticoat, a (commonly referred to simply as a ; a is sometimes worn underneath a ) is worn under the kimono as a form of underwear similar in function to the petticoat. The resembles a shorter kimono, typically without two half-size front panels (the ) and with sleeves only marginally sewn up along the wrist-end. are commonly made of white silk, though historically were typically made of red silk; as the collar of the shows underneath the kimono and is worn against the skin, a half-collar (a ) is often sewn to the collar as a protector, and also for decoration. The is sometimes worn underneath the , and resembles a tube-sleeved kimono-shaped top, without a collar, and an accompanying skirt slip.

The early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft was disparaged by Horace Walpole as a "hyena in petticoats". Florentia Sale was dubbed "the Grenadier in Petticoats" for travelling with her military husband Sir Robert Henry Sale around the British Empire.

The phrase "petticoat government" has referred to women running government or domestic affairs. The phrase is usually applied in a positive tone welcoming female governance of society and home, but occasionally is used to imply a threat to "appropriate" government by males, as was mentioned in several of Henry Fielding's plays. An Irish pamphlet Petticoat Government, Exemplified in a Late Case in Ireland was published in 1780. The American writer Washington Irving used the phrase in Rip Van Winkle (1819). Frances Trollope wrote Petticoat Government: A Novel in 1850. Emma Orczy wrote Petticoat Government, another novel, in 1911. G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) mentions petticoat in a positive manner; to the idea of female dignity and power in his book What's Wrong With the World (1910) he states:

President Andrew Jackson's administration was beset by a scandal called the "Petticoat affair", dramatized in the 1936 film The Gorgeous Hussy. A 1943 comedy film called Petticoat Larceny (cf. petty larceny) depicted a young girl being kidnapped by grifters. In 1955, Iron Curtain politics were satirized in a Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn film The Iron Petticoat. In the same year Western author Chester William Harrison wrote a short story "Petticoat Brigade" that was turned into the film The Guns of Fort Petticoat in 1957. Blake Edwards filmed a story of an American submarine filled with nurses from the Battle of the Philippines called Operation Petticoat (1959). Petticoat Junction was a CBS TV series that aired in 1963. CBS had another series in the 1966–67 season called Pistols 'n' Petticoats.

See also

  • Breeching (boys), a historical practice involving the change of dress from petticoat-like garments to trouser-like ones
  • Crinolines and hoop skirts, stiff petticoats made of sturdy material used to extend skirts into a fashionable shape
  • Peshgeer

References

Citations