NYLON NOSTALGIA VINTAGE LINGERIE. MEMBER OF THE VINTAGE FASHION GUILD.

Whatever happened to the vintage bra-slip?  This morning I photographed a pretty little bra-slip prior to listing in my shop.  As I hit the shutter button on several different angles, I started thinking about the bra slip combination and why we just don’t really see them anymore these days.  Even as a seller of thousands of vintage slips, I don’t really seem to get that many bra slips coming my way and when I do get them they are usually from the period covering the late 1960’s to early 1970’s.  Odd really, because they are more often than not rather cute and irresistibly wearable. 

To be effective, bra slips are best worn under any dress that is clingy or sheer, or both.  Bra slips were not quite as bulky as when wearing a bra with a separate full slip over the top, so they didn't not show through a sheer or clingy dress.  By wearing a bra slip, any visible bra line is virtually eliminated.

A newspaper article written in 1960 sums up the purpose of the bra slip very well: "How often do we see the appearance of a really elegant gown spoiled because the wearer has not taken the trouble to study her undergarments with care. Wrinkles and bumps showing where her 'unmentionables' start and finish give the prettiest dress a ragged appearance.  Those lucky people who can wear a hugging sheath dress will find the bra slip a real boon. Because it is unnecessary to wear a separate bra under your slip there are no wrinkles to spoil the smooth line of the bodice".

Having an item of underwear that isn't visible through a thin, see-through dress is a good thing of course, but how often did women wear dresses like that?  Rarely, I'd say.  That is why the bra slip never really found it's intended place as an everyday lingerie item.

To find out more about bra slips a quick Google search for ‘bra slip meaning’ just shows how the fabulous idea of combining a full slip with a bra has almost totally faded away from memory.  After 6 pages I gave up looking for references to what I know to be a true bra slip.  Even the meaning seems to have changed into a modern distortion.  Urban Dictionary has ‘bra slip meaning’ as  “A bra slip is like a nip slip but only your bra shows. When u fix ur shirt and it goes up or down and ur bra awkwardly shows“.   What?  No it isn't.  Not only does their contributor struggle with the spelling of ‘you’ and ‘your’ but puts a whole new spin on the dictionary definition of a bra slip.   Most of the other Google results for ‘bra slip’, at least those that my waning attention span would allow, pointed to the 21st century manifestation of the original garment – essentially a figure-gripping tight body shaper with a bra attached.  All fine, of course, but that is not really what a bra-slip – or bra slip – started out as – a slip combined with a bra.  A slip with a bra built in.  Bra…..slip….. 

The late 1960s saw a resurgence of the bra slip.  Unlike earlier bra slips of the 1940s and 50s, these later designs were very much in the form of a conventional bra with a slip attached. What really happened to the relatively short-lived ‘true’ bra and slip combo then?  Well, back in the late 1960’s everything that was good was supposed to be ‘convenient’.  If you read the sales blurb on the ads shown below, the attraction of the bra slip was that you just slipped it on and that was it – bra and slip all in one go.  No need for a bra, no need for a slip.  Gain a minute a day by combining two garments into one!   The truth was different and women knew that the bra slip did neither function well in reality.

Bra-Slip Tip: the comfort and fit of your bra slip is so important for it to do it's job properly and you can test this by raising and then lowering your arms once or twice.  If you are wearing your bra-slip correctly fitted the bra band of your slip should stay where it is and shouldn't slide around (too big) or dig into your back (in which case it is too small).

The bra-slip was a compromise and was no substitute for wearing a bra and a slip per se.   Because the slip is attached directly to the bra, wearing a bra slip undermined the whole reason why a ‘normal’ full slip should be worn in the first place – to provide a soft, flexible and ‘fluid’ layer between the skin and a dress, preventing the dress from riding up when bending or stretching.  You’ll never achieve that when you attach a bra to a slip.  That said, bra slips are a snapshot in time – supposedly but debatably practical and yet so undoubtedly beautiful, collectible, and irresistibly wearable. 

By the way - unlike ordinary slips, bra slips tend to be sized just like a conventional bra, using the usual numbers for band circumference and letters for cup size.  

Article written by Emma Benitez. BA (Hons) in Fashion and Dress History, incurable vintage aficionado and owner of Nylon Nostalgia. 

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