Medieval Female Underwear

What did medieval female underwear look like? Did they wear a bra? What about underpants? How about strays or a corset? I try to answer these questions and more about medieval female underwear in this post.

This is a post about my research about female undergarments during the middle ages and renaissance. It is mostly a photo reference post. At the end there is a list of neat links.

Women wore a number of layers of clothing nearest the skin was the chemise or shift. She would also wear stocking. Some new sources show that at least some women wore clothing with sown breast support, though not a bra as we know it today. Medieval woman did not wear corsets or strays. Corsets didn’t become popular until the very late middelages or renaissance period. In England the Tudor clothing do have some kind of stays.

Updated: December 12th 2017

The shift, chemise or smock

Women would wear chemise or shift (særk), which could have long sleeves, short sleeves or shoulder straps. The length could vary. More often than not the chemise was made from uncolored and unbleached linen. As time goes by the simple shifts become quite elaborate chemises.

Shifts with shoulder strips or short sleeves

It would seem that the shifts with shoulder strips are used for bathing or by bathing assistances as well as for underwear. Some of them are very sheer, while others looks like supportive clothing.

Women in a shift c. 1376. Here I notice that it is two parts with a waistline just under the breast.

Bathing attendens in shifts and head wrappings, late 1300’s

Woman with bath equipment. 1390-1400 No I don’t know what the beast is

Women in her very see though shift c. 1390

Bath assistent in shift, c. 1400

Bath, c. 1360-1410

Fancy lady in her shift c. 1450

Schachzabelbuch–Cod.poet.et.phil.fol.2. Konrad van Ammenhausen, Hagenau, 1467, 203r.

A woman working in her shift. Second half 1400’s

Woman in a shift, possibly bathing wearing a little hat, 1514

bathmaid in shift with narrow shoulder strips and weird hat, 1585.

Long sleeved shifts and chemises

France, Paris, ca. 1244-1254 MS M.638 fol. 42v

Inconstancy Giotto, 1306

Chemise, 1378 Note center core and inside and outside sleeve seams.

Lady in her shift, 1400’s

Woman in bed wearing her chemise, early 1400

Royal 20 C V c. 1400-1425, French

Lady in her smock, c. 1420–1468

Dionysius I humiliates the women of Locri (fol. 98v) in De casibus (BNF Fr. 226), first quarter of the 15th century

Petrus Christus (ca.1410- 1472 or 1473) – De bewening/The Lamentation, detail

Albrechtsmeister – Tafel des Albrechtsaltars 1438-1440 Klosterneuburg

Bathsheba In The Bath Hans Memling Date: 1480

Young women in shifts 1485

Notice the women’s smock; linen head coverings, c 1500

Meister des Pfullendorfer Altars, Birth of Mary, ca 1500

Geburt Mariens 1515-1525 Dieses Bild: 015601. German Medieval clothing. Early Renaissance

Woman at a Window Italian, North probably 1510-30.

Bathing woman some in shifts, c. 1525

Long sleeved shift c. 1550’s

Very thin shifts and chemises

While bathing or in situations where the woman are in their underwear without their consent the woman are often shown in see though chemies.

lphonso X’s Book of Games (In Spanish: “Libro de los Juegos” or “Libros del Axedrez, Dados et Tablas”) commissioned between 1251 and 1282 A.D. by Alphonso X, King of Leon and Castile.

Fountain of Life fresco painted from 1418-1430 by Giacomo Jaquiero at Castello della Manta.

Basel, Universitätsbibliothek

Very thin shift c. 1494

Smocks of the 1500’s

Beautiful smocks with tons of fabric gathered at the neckline seems to have become fashion among some woman after 1500.

Hans Fries, Birth of Mary. Oil on Panel, German 1512. Kunstmuseum, Basel. Photo: Hans Hinz/Artothek

Vincenzo Catena – “Judith”, c. 1520-1525

Stockings – short hose

Women also wore stockings or short hose (korthoser) – normally the short version that ends under the knee and is kept up with a garter – either made from leather or woven tape.