Whether it's a special occasion or you're simply looking to treat yourself, we have dozens of styles to get your heart racing. We'll star things off with a catchy tune courtesy of Ernst Lubitsch's 1931 film, The Smiling Lieutenant. Today, these lovely longer length knickers are perfect for vintage photoshoots and fashion events, and for me, there’s nothing nicer to wear under full skirts and dresses, especially for dancing (or in case of a Marilyn moment on a breezy day! While I love their graphic, architectural aesthetic, this is definitely a luxury brand and one of the more expensive labels on this list.

Start with a retro 50s bullet bra or classic shaped cone bra and add a pair of waist cinching high rise 50s panties / knickers, a girdle, or a corset waist cincher. Note: our underbust girdle is not designed to cinch your waist like a waist cincher does, instead it’s designed to flatten your tummy and smooth your hips. It's a cultural treasure full of vintage lingerie, vintage burlesque, and some awesome hair and makeup. It's our goal to make you feel even more confident in your skin - that's why we travel thousands of miles to source some of the most exquisite and seductive intimates made by European brands.A life-long collector of all things old and glamorous, Susie started her own vintage clothing business Wake Up Little Susie in 2010. While they will tame your curves a little, their main job is to provide a smooth foundation for your outerwear. and also in the form of the frothiest, frilliest knickers and pants in all the colourful shades you could imagine, as opposed to the basic whites, pinks, and popular peach shades of previous decades. The traditional silhouette of long-line bras with French Knickers really does conjure up a 1940s ideal of glamour and sexuality with an over-riding elegance, and there are many “pin-up” images of models and starlets of the day posing in this kind of lingerie, a look that modern-day vintage style pin-up girls also aspire to.

VPL - VPL is a name that's been around since 2003, but has only really begun to take off in the last few years. This truly was the Mid-Century wonder fabric, a good example of scientific developments influencing fashion, and exploded into the 1950s in the form of full wide petticoats to go under the “New Look” style dresses (thank you to Christian Dior for introducing the flattering, feminine shape using obscenely generous amounts of fabric to twirl away the deprivation of the war years! If you only have time to watch one scene right now though, make it the striptease with both Bettie Page and Tempest Storm, starting around the 6:00 minute mark. It’s designed to meet the bottom of your bra band to give smooth shaping for your whole torso and is an ideal alternative to our Corselettes if we don’t currently make your bra size.Sexuality (just like lingerie) can be playful-the joy of playing infuses her better imagery and sets it apart from the stiff, mannequin-like expressions of her photo below and both the GQ and V editorials. The short film with a new invention (for 1929), the camiknickers…a precursor to more contemporary teddies, bodysuits, and rompers.

Whilst smaller “panties” started to become popular into the 1950s and 1960s, the French Knicker style still prevailed and I currently have an amazing collection of 1960s nylon knickers from iconic lingerie label “Vanity Fair” in the traditional wide-legged “shorts” style, in eye-popping bright citrus shades. By the 1930s there was a vogue for bias-cut clothes and material cut like this tended to elongate the figure and lingerie became slinkier and more figure-hugging. The French Knicker shape may have tailed off into the ‘50s and ‘60s, but in the 1970s there came a fabulous resurgence of the romantic lace and frills of bygone eras with designers such as Janet Reger introducing a new generation of women to the feminine joys of French Knickers and Camisoles, and our Camiknickers evolved into Teddies.I definitely view this article as just as a starting point to the conversation, so if you have more brands or advice or suggestions, please do give them in the comments. Girdles are designed to flatten your tummy and smooth your hips and derierre eliminating any lumps and bumps so your clothing drapes beautifully giving it that 1950s polished look (or in modern fashion, a couture finish).