Drawers.....

[Kathyrn Ramsey]

this will sound strange and far from period but use stick deoderant between your thighs stops chafing... but if you sweat a lot reapply....

[Kathyrn Ramsey]

I found this information about ladies drawers on a web site i got from the Wenches Forum :

"From the Moors to the Spanish: "Unmentionables in our period were mentioned but not illustrated for the noble ladies of Spain. The Duchess of Alburquerque’s inventory (1479) includes linen drawers and their white silk cords, presumably for tying about the waist. There are also 9 white ribbons carrying white and gold aglets that had belonged to drawers. The Empress had drawers of yellow satin trimmed with strips of cloth of silver, together with blue and white silk stockings....The Fact that the Empress’s (Isabel of Portugal) zaraguelles were accompanied by stockings suggests that her drawers also reached to the knees, and that drawers and stockings may have been joined, perhaps with agleted laces as men’s upper - and netherstocks could be joined." Anderson also mentions an interesting titbit: Queen Juana's (1509-1555) drawers, "bluntly termed breeches, were lined with white fur"."

Here is the link there is also a good deal of information on womens garb...

http://realmofvenus.renaissancewoman.net/w...obe/drawers.htm

[kass]

And Englishwomen in Elizabeth's time though wearing drawer was sleezy because the Spanish and Italians wore them!

[JoshuaRed]

Makes one wonder how the Golden Age Pirate dealt with the inevitable chafing one would incur from weeks of wearing the same sweaty, greasy slops under the Caribbean sun all day. Yikes -- imagine the march to Panama!! Bet it wasn't fatigue or disease that dropped half of em, but critical code-red chafing!

[kass]

Stronger inner thighs?

[Kathyrn Ramsey]

"In Janet Arnold's Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, however, the longer legged pair (see left) has been identified as a woman's pair of drawers, and also photographed from the other side - a side which shows an embroidered opening from waistband to crotch.

Arnold describes them as "white linen drawers, or hose, embroidered with colored silks and gold and silver metal thread, possibly for a woman."

It is not certain which way the opening was intended to face. Speculation has it that the opening was to the back, but to me this makes no practical sense, unless we conjecture that it is just as easy (or difficult) to access and use the button closure at the back under long skirts as it is to access it at the front under long skirts. It also doesn't sound as plausible, to me, that an opening situated behind one's back should be embroidered. However, we don't really know anything for sure, so I could be completely off."

[kass]

The drawers are crotchless, meaning that the opening is equal front and back. They are basically two legs joined only at the waistband.

Upon closer inspection, Kathyrn, you will find those drawers in QEWU identified as Italian examples...

[Patrick Hand]

The drawers are crotchless

See I post my underthings... and the discussion goes out the window....

I always thought it was interesting that Victorian Women wore crotcheless underwear.... (OK I understand why they did...) I just think it's funny (yah.... I'm a dirty minded man...)

Anyway... I wish that at the time I haden't gotten so embaressed... but I saw a book that was about period underwear..... it went from the outter clothing then took (striped) off a layer.... ME modist.... well at the time I missed geting that book rats..... It was mostly Female info.... but I realy wish I'd have bought that book.... coulda passed on the info...... OH Well..............