Knitting Lingerie Style: More Than 30 Basic and Lingerie-Inspired Designs

MORE THAN 30 BASIC AND

LINGERIE-INSPIRED DESIGNS

,

,

..

JOAN McGOWAN-MICHAEL

INTRODUCTION

4

THEBRA

6

THESLIP

32

THE CORSET

56

THE CAMISOLE

84

THES TOCKING

110

LOUNGE / NIGHT WEAR SPECIAL TECHNIQUES ABBREVIATIONS RESOURCES

158

159

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INDEX

,

160

156

159

132

Quite simply. lingerie is the very fir"t layer of clothinga woman pUison and the la~tla)'er she takes off. II holds and shapes a woman into whate\er (orm is dictated by the trends of the day and also symbolizes (emininity. eroticism. and the mysteries o( imimdC)'. A" per..onal as the items themselves. the names for a woman's undergarments have taken mallY fo rm.:; Ihrougholll history. U"mellliQllahles comes

10

mind,

ilS

do dailllies and

underpinnings. II was nOI umillhe mid-nineteenth cemury ,hat the collective term for them came to be known as lingen·e. a word derived from lin. the French word (or Hnen. HislOriL:ally, as fa.,hion eras have come and gone. lingerie has changed (orm as well. If the newot styles required a wasp \\'aiSI Or a high, pointed bust. lingerie designers (ollowed suil with new designs 10 mold the body accordingly. For example, nineleenlh-century fashion dictated dlata womarl have acurvy torso nnd a tiny waist. A,> a result. the body-squeezing cor;et. a ruanel of engineering. was inwnted. The )910.. drew away from this highly shaped look and moved IUward the modern. independent flapper girl and a boyish figure. The fir:;t brassieres appeared. not to suppon the breasts, but to bind and flallen them into the fashionable androgynous shape. As the fashion pendulum swung and breasts again became the focus uf fashion in the 1940s and 1950s. aircraft magnate Iloward Ilughcs applied his brilliant engineerin!!; mind to the task of '>upponing, and at the St. The result wa'; the invention of the fir'll undcrv.'ire bra. I came of age in the 1970... a time when feminifl 1°1 1°1 1°1'