Several manufacturers have sold latex girdles over the years, but the most successful was Playtex. Unlike the seamed latex girdles made in the fashion industry today, the original Playtex living girdle range of latex girdles employed moulded rubber with extensions for the garter clips. The first latex girdle in the Platex range was a pantie girdle made in 1940. This latex girdle had ventilation holes in the crotch for personal comfort. The latex pantie girdle was followed with an open girdle in 1941. There was a hiatus in production between 1942 and 1946 due to latex shortages as noted below. These moulded latex girdles were unlined and like most latex clothing were prone to tearing. Latex rubber has amazing stretch properties, but very poor tear resistance. In 1949 Playtex released the Pink Ice girdle. This was made from a translucent girdle with a pink tinge. Unfortunately the pink ice had extremely poor tear resistance and was only sold for a year.
Despite the use of crotch ventilation holes and open girdles, latex girdles always suffered from trapped perspiration. To help overcome this problem, Playtex latex girdles were perfumed with a sweet smelling scent. This smell was quite strong and was easily perceived by passersby. Platex responded in the 1950s with a new range of latex girdles. These new latex girdles were perforated over their entire surface and they were lined with a cotton flock called fabricon to absorb perspiration and transfer the moisture towards the ventilation holes. At this time Platex also produced a latex bra to compliment their latex girdles.
The living girdle then evolved into the magic controller girdle. These were also made from latex lined with fabricon, but had added support over the stomach to increase stomach compression. The latex garter clip extensions were also replaced with more conventional elasticated suspender drops. In the 1960s Playtex developed the 18 Hour girdle. The rationale for the name was that these latex girdles could be worn comfortably for 18 hours. The 18 hour girdle retained the same perforated latex shell as previous latex girdles, but with the addition of a rigid front panel to improve body shaping. The latex was lined with fabricon, but also had an external fabricon veneer to eliminate the latex feel if not the smell. The external fabricon layer was patterned with a floral design using tiny holes. These holes facilitated ventilation of the latex girdle. The 18 hour latex girdle was available in a wide range of styles from simple control pants to long leg full torso body shapers. Many of these designs incorporated an open crotch. A further development of the 18 hour girdle appeared in the 1980s as the Playtex Lite. These latex girdles dispensed with the floral design and were less rigid offering reduced figure shaping, but greater comfort.
Playtex began to deviate from the latex girdle with the introduction of lycra in the early 1960s. Their first non-latex girdle employed a fabric called tweave. This was a lightweight blend with a high lycra content. These lycra based girdles were firmer than their latex girdle counterparts, but probably more comfortable. The I Can't Believe it's a Girdle range (ICB) initially employed a rigid stomach panel with a narrow semi-transparent window along the centre line and lace leg cuffs.
For the new millennium Playtex introduced a long legged pantie girdle that avoided the name girdle altogether. The Second Skin pantie girdle employs seamless lycra fabric knitted sections for additional figure shaping. The second skin girdles look like simple lycra shorts.
Essentially latex girdles are an elasticated underwear garment that compresses the hips, buttocks, thighs and stomach to achieve a more desirable body shape below the waist. The design and construction of girdles has varied considerably over the years, but the different incarnations of the girdle are always clearly recognisable. The term girdle was actually in use before they were invented. Many people referred to the corset as a girdle. The first use of the term for a recognisable girdle was made in 1910. Girdles became increasingly more popular over the next twenty years, especially as they suited the dress fashion of the era. Simple, straight dresses were all the rage and these did not fit the waist cinching corsets that had been the primary body control under garment up to that point.
Early girdles were quite expansive items that reached from just below the bust to just above the knee. They made use of boning and tight lacing to create the necessary compression for body shape modification. Increasing use was rapidly made of latex in girdle design. Latex is a naturally occurring elastic material that is extracted from the rubber tree Hevea Brasiliensis. Until the accidental discovery of rubber vulcanisation in 1839 by Charles Goodyear latex was little more than a novelty as it was too unstable for most applications. Early attempts to employ latex in girdles mainly took the form of latex panels to impart some stretch to the garment. However, the introduction of synthetic rubbers allowed for increasingly more sophisticated uses of rubber which culminated in the introduction of lycra in the 1960s. This allowed for the removal of boning from girdle design.
The main aberration in the evolution of girdle design was caused by the second world war. The lack of access to rubber plantations caused significant shortages of latex rubber. Consequently, girdle designers reverted to the use of heavy boning and tight lacing. There are also significant differences in girdle length. Many early girdles were full torso garments extending from above the bust to below the thighs. Today these full length girdles are generally referred to as corselettes - although there exist many homophonic variations in spelling. In the 1950s Warner produced a variation on the corselette called the Merry Widow. Today the term is used to describe almost any item of lingerie with suspender drops, but the original garment was essentially a boned corselette which extended to just below the waist line and with long suspender drops extending down to the upper thigh. Early merry widows used fabric tape to create a waist cinching affect, demi cups for breast support and a zip opening.
The final main variation on girdle design was the waspie. The waspie was very popular in the 1950s with a minor resurgence of the hour glass figure from the corset era. Most waist cinchers were little more than wide belts, but many designs extended up toward the bust or down toward the pubic region. Many waspies also sported garter clips.
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