A Study on the Use of Underwear as Outerwear

As foundation wear, underwear is the starting point where a woman shapes her figure and constructs a female identity. In the late twentieth century, the use of underwear as outerwear was extensively adapted, so underwear as outerwear is the latest thing today. Based on literature review, this study aimed to examine how underwear was adopted for use as outerwear extensively in the late twentieth century. The result of this study can be summarized as follows. First, originally there was no border between underwear and outerwear at the start. With the change of female social and political status, the function of underwear and its design has been changed diversely. Also, its revealing and decoration has been linked with female sexual attraction. Second, by some precursor fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier, underwear was redefined as outerwear with erotic but powerful meaning in the Twentieth century. Their idea had an enormous influence on contemporary fashion culture, and consequently has become popularized like lingerie look today. Third, the change of female social status led a big change in view on the female sexuality and the ideas of femininity in fashion culture in the Twentieth century. Dressed by Gaultier, Madonna's performance wearing corset costume played a role in redefining contemporary femininity in relation to sexuality and power, even though it is still under the controversy.