Friday, May 13, 2011

in search of Mennonite underwear

If you are not interested in the undergarments of a modest woman, you can just skip right along to the next blog.

I started wearing pettipants about fifteen years ago, around the time I stopped wearing teenage hoochie clothing and started wearing skirts that hit my knees.  Pettipants are like a slip, but they are shorts.  They act as another layer under skirts, and keep your thighs from chafing together. If you are skinny enough that your thighs don't touch, well, goody for you.  For the rest of us, these slips are fantastic. I love them, especially in the summer, because they are light and airy and keep me from getting sweaty.

They look like this:



Notice that they are NOT form-fitting.  They are not the "shapers" sold by most undergarment stores.  I detest those Spanx-type items that are designed to give you a smoother, slimmer shape---they make me feel like a 10 lb sausage stuffed into a 5 lb casing. If I have to yank and tug an article of clothing to get it on or off and it shoots to my ankles like a rubberband, its not going to be in my daily rotation.

When I was pregnant with the Princess, I bought some pettipants in an XL, but they just didn't fit right over the bump.  My mother took my regular size medium pettipants and snipped the elastic in the sides.  As I got bigger, I kept snipping the elastic.  That worked fine. 

Princess is now two years old and I am finally back down to my pre-pregnancy weight, and the XLs are far too big on me.  Out of desperation I have been wearing the old size mediums that I snipped, but obviously, those have logistical problems.  

These pettipant slips aren't easy to find, but usually, if you go to a Maidenform outlet store, or a department store frequented by old ladies, you can find them.

Until now.

Over the past few weeks, I have been to every purveyor of underwear in Bergen County and beyond, and NO ONE has them.  Furthermore, most employees working in the underwear department don't even have a clue what I'm talking about.  If they do sell slips, they have ONE model.  One.  There are rows upon rows of sausage casing shapers, but a plain old slip?  Just one.  Pettipants?  Don't exist.

Turning to the google, searches for pettipants or culotte slips bring up products in two general camps:  "exotic" lingerie or Mennonite wear.   This is a family blog, so I'll skip the pictures of the exotic lingerie products.

Under Mennonite wear, there are descriptions like "the perfect finishing touch for your Victorian outfit!"

The "also sold with" category on Amazon for the one above includes a shephard's staff. Which might be helpful in corralling my kids, although a whip and a chair would probably be more useful.

I found a website called ModestClothes.com, which has many categories, one of which is "old fashioned goodies" such as muumuus, caftans, dickies and culotte slips.  Aha, now we are getting somewhere. There are four companies that sell culotte slips, most of them catering to women who are over the age of 75.  Also, all of the culotte slips sold by these companies are longer than 24 inches, so they are designed to be worn by Laura Ingalls under a prairie skirt.  (It did say "old fashioned goodies.")

I stopped at the Bali's outlet in the Jersey Gardens Mall, which is where I have bought my pettipants for the last ten years, and it was there that a salesperson told me they no longer sell ANY slips at all, because they have been discontinued.  Apparently women in American no longer wear slips under dresses anymore.

I feel like this a sign, much like the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and what the hell are these youngsters coming to these days?  The world is going to hell in a handbasket.  But the saleswoman pointed me towards the Vanity Fair store, and lo and behold, in the veryyyyyyyy back corner of the store, on a bottom rack, hiding behind some sausage casing shapers, were my pettipants.  None in the 18 inch length, but I bought 8 pairs in the 20 and 24 length, figuring I could cut them down to size if need be.

Victory is mine! I will postpone that trip to the Amish country.

7 comments:

  1. I know this might sound weird, but I wear men's boxers under my skirts. I started doing this when I was running after four kids and wearing dresses and skirts, slips were hard to find and these provide coverage because my skirts and dresses weren't knee length, just above.

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  2. This is a FABULOUS idea! I had no idea that pettipants (used to) exist!
    I had a terrible time finding a slip a couple of years ago. Fortunately, Goodwill Outlet has plenty to spare, so I'm developing a collection as the old ladies of Richmond die off. ;)

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  3. anon--I used to wear boxer under my Catholic school uniform, but I like pettipants better--they are a smoother line and don't bunch up on me as much.

    Mrs. 5C--ha! I should have thought of Goodwill. I usually stick to the home department when I am there. I'll add it to my list.

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  4. I can't believe (1) that I am excited about culotte slips and (2) you got me excited about culotte slips only to tell me they can't be found.

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  5. They are available at JC Penny online now.

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  6. Erica, that's great info, thanks for letting me know!

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  7. Thanks for reminding me of pettipants. I loved mine, way back when. They came in handy in Wyoming where the wind often tried to blow your skirt and "cancan" up over your head so your audience didn't see everything else. :)

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