Bring Up The Bodies

No, not part 2 of Mantel's Tudor Thomas Cromwell Trilogy [which I greatly enjoyed] I wish to make a comment about clothing. In Tudor times, women often wore a garment made of two attached pieces of fabric, covering the chest and the back, known as 'a pair of bodies' and subsequently this term was contracted to bodies whi ch became our word bodice. Move on 500 years, and Wonderwoman* & Co graced our screens

 Their all-in-one leotard/swimsuit garment was referred to as a body. By the late 1980s these were everywhere as a fashion garment - a tee-shirt or vest type top which fastened at the crotch with poppers, buttons or Velcro. The idea was that the top stayed tucked in to the waistband, and gave a smooth line under jeans or slim fitting skirts.

We all had them - M&S sold them, so they were quite respectable!

Obviously we didn't wear them without a skirt or trousers on our lower regions. They were initially very popular. And now I understand they are the must-have garment for Autumn/Winter 22. Strolling round the Trafford Centre with Steph, I noticed a number of shops selling bodysuits as we are now meant to call them. Primark, Next, Matalan, M&S and more have racks of them. 

My girls have often said to me "if you wore a fashion first time round, think hard before you wear it again". They have a point. Last time I discovered that although you may get a smooth line and good fit at first, beware when you wash a body. Either it will stretch, and you'll have wrinkling, baggy surplus fabric, or it will shrink, and the discomfort of the row of poppers pulling hard, attempting to bisect your torso will cause inelegant squirming. 

Worst of all - you may return from the loo having failed to "tuck and pop" in everything closed, and although you look fine at the front, you will have a "tail" flapping behind. And once you realise this you will be covered in embarrassment. 

Look again, Ang! I for one will not be rushing to buy another body. In the mid 1990s I took the ones I did have, and cut off the flaps and poppers, turning them into regular tee shirts. 

*I shall never forget the 11 year old pupil, back in the 1970s who announced to the class that in his family they did not watch Wonderwoman "because my Dad says you can never trust a girl who tucks her vest into her knickers" Maybe he had a point...