Underwear. Comfy apple catchers, snaggy thongs or reassuring Y-fronts? In this gallery from Robert E. Jackson’s photograph collection, we see some of the vast range of undies – those designed to be seen and other ‘unmentionables’ Victoria really should keep secret.
“Made you look, made you starre, made you lose hyour underwear”
– British children rhyme
“I like dogs better than men and cats better than dogs and myself best of all, drunk in my underwear looking out the window.”
― Bukowski, Charles
“You shall also make for them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; they shall extend from the hips to the thighs.”
– YHWH to Moses on how Jewish priests should dress in the Promised Land , Exodus 28:42
You stopped us from killing each other
Tom Jones, Tom Jones
You’ll never know but you saved our lives
Tom Jones, Tom Jones
I could never throw my knickers at you
And I don’t come from Wales– The Ballad of Tom Jones, Space
“As a general rule. it’s a comfort issue, literally and metaphorically. And intimacy issue. It’s a big step, putting on foreign underwear. Like betrayal, or emigration.”
― Lee Child, A Wanted Man
“I remembered my mother’s insistence that I always wear clean underwear because I might get knocked down by a car on the way to or from school and I and the family would be disgraced even beyond the grave, presumably, if my underwear was dirty. And I began to worry, in fact, as the doctor sniffed and prodded, about the state of the shorts I was wearing. This made me want to laugh. But I could not breathe.”
― James Baldwin, Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone
“The woman in charge of costuming assigned us our outfits and gave us a lecture on keeping things clean. She held up a calendar and said, “Ladies, you know what this is. Use it. I have scraped enough blood out from the crotches of elf knickers to last me the rest of my life. And don’t tell me, ‘I don’t wear underpants, I’m a dancer.’ You’re not a dancer. If you were a real dancer you wouldn’t be here. You’re an elf and you’re going to wear panties like an elf.”
— David Sedaris, SantaLand Diaries
“Had his brain been constructed of silk, he would have been hard put to it to find sufficient material to make a canary a pair of cami-knickers.”
— P.G. Wodehouse, Mr. Mulliner Speaking
Would you like to support Flashbak?
Please consider making a donation to our site. We don't want to rely on ads to bring you the best of visual culture. You can also support us by signing up to our Mailing List. And you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For great art and culture delivered to your door, visit our shop.
