History of Nighties

In Frances Paget’s article on the Paris Automobile Exhibition of 1928, she claims that “the Haute Couture has paid increased attention to negligees for the last year or so,..” It was definitely a trend building up over time.

The word negligee (also French for negligent or unprepared) was acquired in English for gauzy undergarments in the early 19th century.  A    chemise, also called a smock, was a long standing night dress or undergarment in which women often slept. 

I could find camisoles mentioned for sale in newspapers in the 1880s.  Described as made of silk and dressy, they were appreciated as fashionable, even during Victorian times in which showing an ankle to a stranger, would have been scandalous.

Teddys or camiknickers, so called because they combined camisoles with short trousers, became popular as skirts became shorter, beginning in the Teens. At the same time the word “nighty” was reserved for children’s nightwear. (Hold onto this thought.)

Bustier was only used as a surname in the early papers. Corsets, however, came in many different styles. Some of which were considered flattering to bustier women. Being “busty” was considered more troublesome than a compliment.

The word “sexy” was first used in a California newspaper in 1917 and for several years later it is regularly placed within quotes—something reserved for words readers might not be familiar with. The use of “sexy” rather than to be synonymous with the word “attractive” was more about the idea “dealing with a person’s gender”  The first time the words “sexy negligee” were used in a California newspaper wasn’t until May 1945.

The silent film star, Lila Lee, was born, Augusta Wilhelmena Fredericka Appel, in 1901. In 1925 she starred in a play called The Bride Retires according to the October 1925 issue of Theater Magazine. In the description, Lee’s costumes include knee length camisoles made to match the various colors of the sheets in her boudoir in which most of the play takes place.  The author, Anne Archbald, refers to these camisoles as nighties and she exclaims that in these costumes, Lee looks just like a babydoll. Which did seem to be the point of the costume designer.

I suspect that prior to the 1920s, appearing like a toddler in the boudoir would not have been considered sexy to most men; toddlers would be more troublesome than a compliment.