a tribute to the long-leg panty-girdle



It might seem odd to call a department store, however famous, a brand, however, Sears sold so many foundation garments (and still does) that the makes it sold were often forgotten and frequently carried the Sears name in any case. Their 'famous Gale' line of corsets was familiar to many matrons who shopped from the Sears catalogue. One has to remember that, even today, parts of the USA are nothing like as accessible as the regions of Europe and mail order, for many, was the only way to shop. But to catalogue all of Sears foundations would culminate in a volume as thick as one of their mail order brochures so I will concentrate on what may have been the most popular foundations of all time. Let us go back to 1965. Propelled by a terrible assassination and awaiting the promiscuous fall-out of another war, the world teeters on the edge of a social revolution. Beneath the smart suits and dresses of the era, the American woman was fundamentally different from her sister across the Atlantic. Consult the mail order catalogues of the day and you see that the girdle has all but died out. If you didn't wear a corset, you wore a panty-girdle, and you probably wore a Sears. In Britain (and Europe), women would keep their girdles until the end of the decade. Even then, the garments, with a few exceptions, were feeble imitations of the American variety.

The classic Sears 28497 long-leg panty -girdle


The advertisement, for once, didn't lie. This was an excellent, firm and stylish panty-girdle that, within its 20 inch length, controlled everything from waist to thigh. It was worn by mothers and daughters at least until the revolution of youth took a firm hold at the end of the decade. Latterly worn by mothers and grandmothers this garment would literally be the 'mainstay' of American women for three decades.