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Slips -- a thing of the past?

post #1 of 32
7/21/11 at 2:14am
Thread Starter 
Recently rummaging through my closet, trying to remove items that no longer fit, I found what used to be my absolute favorite slip. White, almost blue-white really, satin, with kind of a lacy thing in the front. Lovely! I had many slips, but that one was my absolute favorite. I often daydreamed if I could get a part as Maggie in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," *this* would be the slip to wear.

But anyway, I pondered how I used to have all sorts of slips. Full length slips. Half slips. White slips. Black slips. And now, I never see slips in the stores. At all. I see nighties and things. But not slips.

And certainly, I've not seen any slips anything like the one I found in my closet.

Okay, I have seen one designer in another country who has pictures of her handmade nightgowns, but she doesn't call them "slips."

Do people just not wear them anymore?

Granted, I hardly ever wear dresses anymore, myself. Jeans when I'm off duty. Slacks when I'm on. But maybe, just maybe I'd wear more dresses if there were better slips!

Do you wear slips?
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post #2 of 32
7/21/11 at 3:24am
l haven't worn a slip since l was a little girl, when we used to call them pettitcoats. (No, l'm not THAT old, l think my Mum was just a bit old-fashioned!) l do wear dresses & skirts quite a bit, but never anything see-through. l just find that extra layer a bit uncomfortable & fussy for me.
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post #3 of 32
7/21/11 at 10:38am
I wore a half slip under my wedding dress. Otherwise I haven't worn one since I was a little girl, either. I hated them then and I don't miss them now. I'm sure that makes me very much a part of a shifted paradigm, but I'm totally okay with that. My mom insisted on them as being ladylike and the height of modesty, but I find them restricting and unnecessary. I haven't owned a really structured dress since my early teens, though. Now I have a lot of maxi dresses or dresses on which any undergarment additional to bra and panties would show through.
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post #4 of 32
7/21/11 at 4:12pm
Yes, I still have one or two half-slips to wear under the thin cotton "peasant-y"skirts which don't come with some form of lining already sewn into them.

A full slip with lace used to be an undergarment of real beauty back in the day before polyester and spandex became the norm.
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post #5 of 32
7/21/11 at 4:15pm
Lace slips are gorgeous and slips in general do still have function , I feel. I like wearing dresses and sometimes a slip helps the fit of a dress especially an unlined dress.
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post #6 of 32
7/21/11 at 7:58pm
I don't own a slip and haven't for many years. I never really liked full slips, they never seemed to fit correctly and they were always too long. I did have some half slips and I would need to roll the waistband over several times to make them short enough ... I guess I liked my dresses really short back then.

I find a camisole more of a necessity than a slip these days.
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post #7 of 32
7/26/11 at 9:05am
I always like the "pettipants" slips to wear under skirts. Makes you feel like an antebellum belle! LOL!

http://www.amazon.com/Pettipants-Cul.../dp/B0002U39FG
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post #8 of 32
1/28/12 at 12:48pm
I think slips are less common due to "control" garments, like Spanx. There is little need for a slip when wearing a full length Spanx item.
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post #9 of 32
1/30/12 at 1:14pm
I think it is tasteless to see printed panty underwear through a light cotton dress. A generation of women have been raised ignorant of the uses of a slip.
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post #10 of 32
1/31/12 at 8:20am
I had a nice collection of slips when I wore skirts and dresses more often. I never thought about the impact they had on my pantiline before. I was stuck on avoiding the horrified expressions of others as they beheld my form when it was backlit by the sun.
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post #11 of 32
1/31/12 at 3:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Primrose View Post

I think it is tasteless to see printed panty underwear through a light cotton dress.

I agree, Primrose. That's why all my undies come in solid colors.
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post #12 of 32
1/31/12 at 7:43pm
I still have a few slips, and as knit at nite mentioned, some of the older full slips are gorgeous besides being useful. I don't wear dresses as often either, but still, some of the skirts and dresses I do wear look much better worn with a slip, if they aren't lined.
And as an added bonus, you can't see through them! ( unless of course, that is a person's intention! but that's another subject...)
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post #13 of 32
1/31/12 at 7:54pm
I'm actually starting to see half slips sold in places like Ross again.
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post #14 of 32
1/31/12 at 8:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by knit at nite View Post

I'm actually starting to see half slips sold in places like Ross again.

Places like Walmart also carries some half-slips and camisoles. Very cheap and useful.
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post #15 of 32
2/1/12 at 8:40am
When my Wife and Mother wear a dress they do wear a slip.....With Women wearing pants more than dresses the need for a slip has diminished that's for sure!
Gary
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post #16 of 32
2/1/12 at 1:27pm
I always remember as a teenager buying my mom a black half slip as one of her gifts for Christmas because that's what she always requested and wore, which I thought was always such a boring gift to buy someone.
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post #17 of 32
2/1/12 at 2:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Primrose View Post

I think it is tasteless to see printed panty underwear through a light cotton dress. A generation of women have been raised ignorant of the uses of a slip.

See, that is why one shouldn't wear any underwear! lol!!! j/k...

Seriously though, I am rather fond of underwear, but I haven't worn a slip in ages! I do have a few, including a beautiful lacy, vintage one from my mother, but I rarely wear them unless an item is unusually sheer. I would guess that most dresses and skirts are lined now, perhaps due to the combined effects of: 1) more efficient, thereby economical, fabric production, 2) cheaper labor to produce :/ and, 3) desirability to the consumer. If you think of the wasted resources, it is kind of disconcerting...
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post #18 of 32
2/29/12 at 9:27pm
I'll quickly weigh in as a man: slips are damn sexy! Wish they'd come back - and wish my wife would wear one -
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post #19 of 32
3/1/12 at 12:34pm
A younger female member of the family I counseled on this now owns one!
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post #20 of 32
3/22/12 at 3:47am
Only ever wore a 'half slip'. Very rarely do now, but do find it useful when wearing a skirt over opaque tights, when the alternative means having your skirt creep up your thigh with every step. Not a good look.
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post #21 of 32
3/22/12 at 4:13am
  • kbe
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Unfortunately for the most part slips have been left in the past. They were a strong symbol of femininity to me. Films where an attractive, slip-clad woman graced the screen, seductively draped in clinging silk, riveted my teenage attention and tantalized my imagination. Like the strap undershirt for men they mostly live now in memory.
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post #22 of 32
5/27/12 at 11:55am
A topic close to my heart!

As posted above, by another member, slips have generally been replaced by "shapewear" - because our population is either so obese (all those muffin tops at the mall on those young kids is totally alarming!) or so body critical (the size 4 needing to smooth her saddlbags to fit into the size 2). I've never used control top hose, let alone shapewear. I frankly don't need it or want it. If the dress doesn't fit, I simply get the larger size. It's healthier for my ego!

However, I love wearing dresses - they are almost all I wear, even on weekends, and therefore I like slips and they are incredibly difficult to find - the functional ones, that is. The last one I purchased has a somewhat prominent leather lace up in back and is bright coral - very beautiful, but limited functionality. I needed the color for a specific, revealing on-top dress, so my options were limited.

At this point, I have collected camisoles and half slips to approximate a real slip. The Perivian Connection catalog carries two styles and two colors of lightweight slips: nude and black, shorter and longer. They're alright, but not beautiful, by any stretch. If anyone knows of another source, please let us know!
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post #23 of 32
5/27/12 at 1:05pm
I think that slips are a thing of the past ... but I wish they would come back !!

Some slips would make sexy nighties !!

Just yesterday, I watched a video documentary about the designer Valentino, and wow, what gorgeous dresses he designed. This whole feeling of femininity ... it get lost sometimes because we are so rushed ... but

I wish

a whole line of designs would come back and re-invent some of this glamour - for the moments of leisure.
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post #24 of 32
5/28/12 at 12:49am
Our shops are still offering plenty of slips, full or half. I have a half slip made to measure, which goes together with made to measure chiffone dress.
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post #25 of 32
6/10/12 at 5:25am
I have full slips, half slips, and camisoles in black and in white and some other colors and used to wear them a lot. I find that I now mostly wear a split half slip with my wide variety of skirts. You can get a cotton/poly kind that is very comfortable on ebay. Dressing up used to mean wearing a dress with slip, hose and heels. And I'm old enough to remember when it meant gloves and a hat for church, too. I always wore control top pantyhose so I wouldn't have to have the major shape wear bulges and that worked for me. I don't really wear pantyhose any more, so my dressing up like I used to is limited. In the summer I wear open-toed sandals all the time so no need for hose. In the cooler weather I usually wear tights and tall boots with my dresses and skirts so no need for hose, but I still wear a slip-it's a must. I have one of those fancy slips like mentioned above and sometimes wear it to bed or just around the house after a shower, my husband loves it.
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post #26 of 32
6/10/12 at 4:31pm
I liked slips when I lived in a colder climate. The extra layer of warmth was snuggly and I liked wearing this very feminine thing under wool sweaters and long skirts with boots. I can't remember the last time I wore a slip. I have this dream sometimes in which I am rummaging through an old armoire of vintage lingerie, peach satin slips and all kinds of beautiful things. I often find a cache of old fragrances, too. I love that dream.
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post #27 of 32
8/21/12 at 7:06pm
I see them in the consignment shops, and weirdly, i saw an Etam one, a couple of weeks ago, very out of place in Alaska, it's not a common brand over here. Memories of my mother and my nana came flooding bag, at the full slips, with the boobs. I'd probably wear one. Under the right kind of dress of course.
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post #28 of 32
11/4/12 at 3:59am
I like wearing a slip (I wear skirts or dresses, very rarely pants/jeans), but they have to be the right size, shape and material. I am petite, so many slips are too large for me, and I prefer silk or a silk/cotton mix. And I like them pretty, with lace decorations Not easy to find these days though. Have three slips I love and nine (including two half slips) which I think are ok. Always on the lookout for lovely slips, so recommendations are welcome.
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post #29 of 32
11/4/12 at 4:34am
Another guy chiming in-- sounds like slips are out because dresses are out. Reminds me of how rare it is to see a woman in a lady's business suit wearing hosiery. I love to see the Duchess of Cambridge wearing stockings. She looks so elegant. My general observation is that as men become less and less well dressed, women also have a "what the heck" attitude. Women still have more of a sense of an occasion than many men do, do as a whole both have only one style, and that is careless casual, and the basic colors are black and gray. BORING!
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post #30 of 32
11/4/12 at 4:56pm
I was going to say I've never owned a slip, but realized that isn't true. Once I had a very scratchy wool skirt that I liked and got a slip to go under it so that it wouldn't tear up my legs.

But I don't wear anything that a slip would be useful under, really. Pants and a few dresses of jersey fabric.

In FL you don't even see pantyhose anymore. I am glad about that, truthfully. It is one thing to look good, but quite another to cling to uncomfortable styles just to conform to some standard that was developed in another time, in a colder place. And they really made my feet stink!
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post #31 of 32
11/16/12 at 11:52am
I've been sewing lately, and have recently realized that all of these skirt patterns that call for a lining wouldn't need a lining if I just made one or two linings that are separate from the skirt...

...and then I realized that I was talking about a half slip. So I'll be making and wearing a couple of half slips.
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post #32 of 32
12/5/12 at 4:14pm
There are still plenty of slips available. Jones New York makes a whole line, and they're available here at The Bay, and I've also seen full slips from Spanx which are shapewear on top and and flared at the bottom. Commando makes some nice full and half slips, too.

Personally, I hate slips. I remember being forced into them when I was a child, and every now and then I've had a dress that "required" one. I've never found that they reduced cling and static; they seem to amplify it, and boy, there's just nothing like having TWO layers fighting between your thighs over your tights as you walk!

I've found it easier to take any clothes with special static issues to the consignment shop and let them become someone else's problem.

I do currently have in my front hall a box of vintage clothing given me by a friend. It's full of amazing dresses from the 40s and 50s, loaded with detail -- and six or seven vintage, shaped, lovely full slips, in colours -- navy, red, brown, a blue I think. I don't know why I'm hanging onto any of it; even the dresses are not my style of vintage -- but they are SO well made. The box has been in someone's attic since the 70s, which means that compared to the current picked-clean vintage market, all this stuff is really high-quality hand-tailored daywear -- and in a real size, fitting me and my "average medium". (Most vintage you find these days is either tiny tiny or enormous.)
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