Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
Undergarments are also called underwear, and the two terms cover the same ground: clothes worn next to the skin, usually under other clothes. Other names include undercrackers, intimate clothing, and lingerie for women's undergarments. Across the centuries, undergarments have also done shaping work — the hoop skirt and farthingale of the sixteenth century, panniers in the eighteenth, and the crinoline and bustle in the nineteenth all structured the silhouette from underneath.
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Undergarments are also called Underwear. The definition for underwear and undergarment are combined for one page. You can find the full definition on the underwear definition page. Partial Definition - Undergarments, also called "underwear", "undercrackers", "lingerie" (undergarments for women), or sometimes "intimate clothing", are clothes worn next to the skin, usually under other clothes.
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Every outfit starts with the layer nobody sees. Undergarments sit against the skin and take the friction, sweat and wear that would otherwise go straight into outer clothing, which is why they have always been made to be washed more often and replaced more cheaply than the garments over them. Cotton, linen and modern synthetic knits dominate because they are soft, absorbent or quick-drying, easy to launder and comfortable in direct contact with the body through a full day of movement.
The category is broad. It covers briefs, undershirts and thermal layers worn purely for function, sleepwear-adjacent pieces worn at home, and lingerie designed to be decorative as well as practical. What unites them is position, not appearance: if it is worn next to the skin under other clothes, it is an undergarment, whatever it looks like.
For much of fashion history the undergarment was the architecture of the outfit. The farthingale held sixteenth-century skirts out in a cone, panniers pushed eighteenth-century skirts wide at the hips, the crinoline ballooned nineteenth-century skirts with hoops or stiffened fabric, and the bustle threw the fullness to the back. Bloomers, named in the same era, moved in the opposite direction — a practical, loosely fitting undergarment-trouser that gave women freedom to cycle and move. Modern undergarments mostly serve the body rather than reshape it, but every padded, smoothing or supporting design today descends from that long shaping tradition.
Shape is only half the story, though. The everyday undergarments in this definition — the ones worn next to the skin under ordinary clothes — are bought on fit, fabric and washability, and they are replaced more often than any other part of the wardrobe.
Undergarments are clothes worn next to the skin, usually under other clothes. They are also called underwear or intimate clothing, and women's undergarments are often called lingerie.
Wearing a washable layer next to the skin lets outer garments be worn repeatedly without needing to be cleaned as often, and the underlayer adds warmth, comfort and hygiene.
The hoop skirt and farthingale shaped dress in the sixteenth century, panniers widened skirts in the eighteenth century, and the crinoline and bustle defined the nineteenth-century silhouette.