Underwear Over the Years Trivia Quiz

Answer: 145

You would have thought seven was probably plenty, but then I guess you never know what the laundry facilities are going to be like in the next realm.

Though Egyptian Pharaohs are sometimes depicted wearing rich ceremonial garments, the climate generally kept clothing to a minimum, and children often wore nothing at all. Female slaves would sometimes wear nothing other than a type of very brief 'underpants', whereas male slaves and labourers would wear either just a loincloth, or a brief, wide skirt. The status of the loincloth at this point was still ambiguous, obviously only classed as 'underwear' when those of higher class wore something over it!

Answer: Codpiece

Though it's difficult to think of codpieces without sniggering (well, it is for me, anyway) they once did have a thoroughly practical function. That is, to cover and protect, while still making it possible to go to the toilet without stripping down entirely - you could even use your codpiece as a bit of a pocket or a handbag! It was good old Henry VIII who started the fashion of stuffing the item, leading to increasingly large and eventually ridiculously oversized codpieces by the end of the 16th century.

There are some obvious jokes to be made as to just why Henry thought it necessary to accentuate or emphasise his 'manliness', but one serious line of speculation suggests that he may have been suffering from syphilis, and so was hiding a bandage coated with a soothing salve down his front.

Answer: The 'pair of bodies' which made up the bodice

From the "Online Etymology Dictionary", "Bodice: 1566, pl. of body or notion of a pair of bodies, a tight-fitting garment covering the torso; plural because the Elizabethan body came in two parts which fastened in the middle." The early bodices - also known as 'stays' from the early 1600s - were part of the dress itself - by the late 1700s, a separate garment was worn. Usually made out of whalebone, this item became known as a corset, from the Old French 'cors', again meaning 'body'.

Answer: Adam and Eve

Okay, apart from being chronologically impossible, images of the claymated Wallace and Gromit, or of David and Victoria 'Posh Spice' Beckham, would be more straight-out funny than ironic. And putting Romeo and Juliet on there - while they might just have scraped in time-wise - would be just plain mean. If Anne of Austria did indeed wear a chastity belt, it either didn't work or she didn't wear it often, as she managed to give birth to Louis XIV, France's Sun King, in 1638, and another son several years later.

Popular culture would have us believe that chastity belts were used by the Crusaders to keep their ladies faithful in their absence. It is more likely that their limited use was as a kind of anti-rape device, and that the wearer held the key (presumably somewhere other than on the body...). They were still in 'medical' use till around 1930 to curb 'self-pleasure' (also known as 'the solitary vice') - which was widely considered to be a sure route to insanity, blindness and all kinds of other horrors.

Answer: Because they are an all-in-one under-garment, a 'union' of shirt and pants

Yes, I always thought it was something to do with the American Civil War too, but I'm happy enough with the real answer! Union suits were first developed for women in the late 19th century, as an alternative to heavy petticoats, crinolines and corsets, but were quickly taken up by men for their warmth and convenience. One of the first patents was filed in 1868, under the description of "emancipation union under flannel"*, with Susan Taylor Converse, of Wisconsin, designing the improved Emancipation Suit for women in 1875. A certain Horace Greely Johnson, born in Canada but living in Kenosha, Wisconsin, had a eureka moment late one night in 1910, and woke his wife up to set her sewing. Thus was born the revolution that was Kenosha Klosed Krotch underwear, a simpler, less bulky, non-chafing union suit "[featuring] two knit pieces that formed an overlapped X which could be drawn apart when required [...] Its opening was diagonal from a point above the crotch on the left side to a point below it, down on the right leg. It resulted in a single thickness of cloth through the sensitive area."** This innovation led to its inventor becoming known as 'Klosed Krotch' Johnson, or, delightfully, as the "Edison of underwear".**

Greely's employer, Cooper's Union Suit Company, Kenosha, went on to become the underwear giant Jockey International.

The Kenosha Klosed Krotch was also the first underwear to feature in advertising, with oil paintings (!) of the garments featured in the "Saturday Evening Post" newspaper in 1911.

Quotes from http://costume.osu.edu/exhibitions/reformingfashion/#underwear (*), and the brilliantly informative Vintageskivvies.com (**).

Answer: New York garment maker Otto Titzling

In 1971, one Wallace Reyburn published a book entitled "Bust-Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling and the Development of the Bra". The book gives a detailed account of Titzling who, in 1912, whilst living in a New York boarding house, developed a garment to support the generous proportions of his opera-singer neighbour, Swanhilda Olafson. Then, so the story goes, in the early 1930s, Titzling sued Frenchman Phillip de Brassiere, who was producing a similar garment. Obviously the Frenchman won, which is why the item in question is now called a 'brassiere' and not a 'titzling' (and we'll leave any mention of possible abbreviations for another time and place). It's a great story, but, like so many other great stories, it is pure fabrication ... But it was good enough as a story for such august authorities as Trivial Pursuit to give Titzling as the inventor of the bra! Supposedly, Reyburn wrote the book as a satire, though on quite what nobody seems sure. Interestingly, another of Reyburn's works, the biographical "Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper", is widely thought to be a hoax on the invention of flush toilets, whereas it is actually based in some level of fact, though lacking in historical accuracy.

Herminie Cadolle, Mary Jacob and Olivia Flynt all have legitimate claims as the 'mother of the bra', but it is generally held that the gong goes to Cadolle. In 1889, the Frenchwoman came up with a two-part invention, the upper part of which was "designed to sustain the bosom and [was] supported by the shoulders",* the lower being a covering for the waist and bottom. This she named 'le bien-être' ('the well-being'), which eventually separated into two distinct garments, one of which developed into the modern bra. Olivia Flynt's 1876 "bust supporter" was more like a sort of corset-cum-shirt, whereas Mary Jacob's 1913 innovation of tying handkerchiefs together with tape led to the first American patent (1914), but not the first international patent.

Interestingly, although Jacob's design was wildly popular, she could not make a commercial success of it, and so sold the patent for $15,000 - to Warner Bros.

* http://www.snopes.com/business/origins/bra.asp

Answer: "Marines Come First"

I think I missed my calling, "Underwear for Over There" is a piece of pure advertising genius!

Obviously, it was a delicate balance to maintain morale for those who, for whatever reason, weren't in the armed forces, whilst ensuring the fighting men had a line of much-needed supplies. Another slogan declared "Uncle Sam needs us, too!", while manufacturers had to go back to using buttons, side-ties, and other patented fastening methods to save precious rubber.

For the boys int the Pacific theatre, a problem of a different kind occurred. When they'd wash and hang out their clothes, or even just go for a swim, their white underpants stood out against tropical foliage and sands like the proverbial bump on a log, and of course made them easy targets for the enemy. With this in mind, the ever-vigilant manufacturers declared war on white ("Target: White Underwear", another gem from Jockey) and the soldiers were issued with OD (olive drab) knickers instead.

Answer: Jean-Paul Gaultier

The 'bullet bra' had enjoyed success in the 1950s, and this was Gaultier's inspiration (I use the word advisedly) for the near-lethal spikes he decked Mads out in for the 1990 tour. He also created out-there underwear outfits for her 2006 Confessions Tour.

Seeing as I seem to be stuck on bras, here's another interesting bra-fact: the first sports bra was developed in 1977 by American costume designer Hinda Miller and her jogging partner Lisa Lindahl, when they sewed two jock-straps together (!) and called it a 'Jogbra'. My, they've come a long way since then - the bras I mean, not sure about the designers, or the jock-straps for that matter!

Answer: Sagging

While you are probably keepin' it real if you show the world your knickers - not to mention showing respec' and dissing tha belt - the specific term is sagging. Kinda tame, really, when you consider the reputed origins of the practice. One school points to the necessity of jail inmates having their belts removed because of their possible use as weapons or means of suicide.

Another takes it a step further by insisting it was a sign of 'availability' amongst homosexuals. Either way, this old woman can only hope that the high (or should that be low?) point of sagging has already come and gone - it is, to use language the kids might understand, 'not a good look' ...

Answer: Smart underwear

Some designs for smart underwear incorporate micro-sensors into the actual fabric of the garment, while others employ more or less bulky add-ons (or add-ins in the case of the temperature controller). One of the most promising areas is, of course, the medical world.

A Canadian team has done some work on sensors which would stimulate muscle contraction for spinal-injury or other bed-ridden/wheelchair-bound patients to reduce pressure-related skin ulcers. Other uses include monitoring heart-rate in the elderly, providing feedback in sports-science, and even monitoring glucose levels in diabetics.