More menstrual and everyday underpants
Japanese, early 20th century - "Sanitary Bloomers," 1922 (ad from Sears, Roebuck
catalog, U.S.A.) - various underpants, 1928
(page from Sears, Roebuck catalog) - step-in, Hickory,
1928 (ad from Vanity Fair magazine, U.S.A.) - first Sears everyday
underpants (nonmenstrual), 1935 (ad from Sears, Roebuck catalog) - various
underpants (and belts), 1946-47 (page from
Sears, Roebuck catalog) - various underpants,
1960s (part of Personal Digest, Modess, U.S.A.) - Modess
Sanitary Shield (1972)
Ads for teens (see also introductory page
for teenage advertising): Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and Quest napkin powder, 1948, U.S.A.),
Are you in the know? (Kotex
napkins, 1953, U.S.A.), Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and belts, 1964, U.S.A.), Freedom (1990, Germany),
Kotex (1992, U.S.A.),
Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.),
Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.),
Saba (1975, Denmark)
More ads for teens: See a Modess True or False? ad in The American Girl magazine, January
1947, and actress Carol Lynley in "How Shall
I Tell My Daughter" booklet ad (1955) - Modess
. . . . because ads (many dates).
 
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SheShells underpants (1970s; U.S.A.)
I don't know if SheShells ever had a big market, but it was another
in a long line of devices to overcome the limitations of pads and tampons,
such as their ability to hold pads in place and to contain leakage from
the tampon or pad. It seems to be from a company not associated with a pad
manufacturer.
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SheShells appeared in several colors and sizes (this is a yellow size
7 - large) and showed up in small ads in at least one women's magazine,
Seventeen. Although the label (one section is below) indicates it's useful
for menstruation, the crotch is the usual double cotton
layer with no special protection for blood leakage, such as plastic
or rubber; I suspect this was its limitation.
Its virtue was that a woman could take it off by unhitching
the sides so that she could keep her pants or pantyhose on.
Betraying its post-belt-era origins is the lack of
a special attachment for a pad in the crotch, such as the bands in
the Modess Sanitary Shield, which
was also from the 'Seventies. Pads at this time, and today, stick to the
bottom of the panty, a great invention.
Although the bikini bathing suit got its name
in 1946 from the island where an atomic bomb test occurred (a Paris
designer named it so because of the suit's "explosive" effect),
bikini-like clothing - low-lying bottoms having only a narrow band of material
at the sides - has been around for a long time, appearing in a Sicilian
mural almost two thousand years ago. Bathing suits since the last
century had been getting smaller and smaller; this culminated in Rudi Gernreich's
topless suit in 1964, which had a very high-cut bottom; so much for the
bikini.
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This is one of two identical color flap labels attached to
the underpants. I quibble, but I think the stylized lettering is too complicated
- and maybe the sea horses should be shells.
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First Sears everyday underpants (nonmenstrual),
1935 (ad from Sears, Roebuck catalog)
More menstrual and everyday underpants
Japanese, early 20th century - "Sanitary Bloomers," 1922 (ad from Sears, Roebuck
catalog, U.S.A.) - various underpants, 1928
(page from Sears, Roebuck catalog) - step-in, Hickory,
1928 (ad from Vanity Fair magazine, U.S.A.) - first Sears everyday
underpants (nonmenstrual), 1935 (ad from Sears, Roebuck catalog) - various
underpants (and belts), 1946-47 (page from
Sears, Roebuck catalog) - various underpants,
1960s (part of Personal Digest, Modess, U.S.A.) - Modess
Sanitary Shield (1972)
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