Two Wemale women from Seram wearing rattan girdles
Egyptian clothing included girdles/belts for both men and women:
Woman with medieval girdle.
Historically and in anthropology, the girdle can be a scanty belt-shaped textile for men and/or women, worn on its own, not holding a larger garment in place, and less revealing than the loin-cloth, as was used by Minoan pugilists.
Traditionally the women of the Wemale ethnic group of Seram Island, Indonesia wore rattan girdles around their waist.[1]
Constructed of elasticized fabric and sometimes fastened with hook and eye closures, the modern girdle is designed to enhance a woman's figure. Most open-bottom girdles extend from the waist to the upper thighs. In the 1960s, these models fell from favor and were to a great extent replaced by the panty girdle. The panty girdle resembles a tight pair of athletic shorts. Both models of girdles usually include suspender clips to hold up stockings.
Girdles were considered essential garments by many women from about 1920 to the late 1960s. They created a rigid, controlled figure that was seen as eminently respectable and modest. They were also crucial to the couturier Christian Dior's 1947 New Look, which featured a voluminous skirt and a narrow, nipped-in waistline, also known as a wasp waist.
As mentioned in Diaries of Dionysus, the God wore a girdle as well as a leopard's skin across his shoulder.
by Rita Jean Moran
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