Fashionable young men in early 16th century Germany showed a lot of fine linen in a studied negligence. This unidentified gentleman has a band of "smocking" round the collar of his shift. (Portrait by Ambrosius Holbein, 1518, at the Hermitage Museum)

The term chemise can refer to the classic smock or shift, or else can refer to certain modern types of women's undergarments and dresses. In the classical usage it is a simple garment worn next to the skin to protect clothing from sweat and body oils, the precursor to the modern shirts commonly worn in Western nations. Chemise is the French term (which today simply means shirt). This is a cognate of the Italian word camicia, and the Spanish and Portuguese as well as Hindi and Urdu word camisa, all deriving from the Late Latin camisia / Medieval Greek kamision. The English called the same shirt a smock and the Irish called it a léine (IPA: /'leɪnjə/). Image File history File links Size of this preview: 432 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (2024 × 2807 pixel, file size: 412 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Portrait of a Young Man by Ambrosius Holbein 1518 Oil on wood, 43 x 32 cm The Hermitage, St. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 432 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (2024 × 2807 pixel, file size: 412 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Portrait of a Young Man by Ambrosius Holbein 1518 Oil on wood, 43 x 32 cm The Hermitage, St. ... Portrait of a Young Man 1518 Oil on wood 43 x 32 cm Hermitage Museum Ambrosius Holbein (1494 - 1519) was a German painter. ... The State Hermitage Museum (Russian: ) in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of the largest, oldest, most important and famous art galleries and museums of human history and culture in the world. ... Girls wearing formal attire for dancing, an example of one of the many modern forms of clothing. ... SWEAT is an OLN/TSN show hosted by Julie Zwillich that aired in 2003-2004. ... The term Western World or the West (also on rare occasions called the Occident) can have multiple meanings depending on its context (i. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Hindi (Devanagari: हिन्दी or हिंदी; IPA: ), an Indo-European language spoken mainly in northern and central India, is one of the official languages of the Union government of India [1][2]. It is part of a dialect continuum of the Indic family, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu... (اردو), historically spelled Ordu, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to Indo-European family of languages. ... Vulgar Latin (in Latin, sermo vulgaris) is a blanket term covering the vernacular dialects of the Latin language spoken mostly in the western provinces of the Roman Empire until those dialects, diverging still further, evolved into the early Romance languages — a distinction usually assigned to about the ninth century. ... Medieval Greek (Μεσαιωνική Ελληνική) is a linguistic term that describes the third period in the history of the Greek language. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ...

The history of the chemise

The chemise seems to have been developed from the Roman tunica and first became popular in the European Middle Ages. Women wore shifts or chemises underneath their gowns or robes; men wore chemises with their trousers or braies, and covered the chemises with garments such as doublets, robes, etc. In those times, it was usually the only piece of clothing that was washed regularly. Tupa Inca tunic The tunic was the common masculine garment of Roman civilization. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Wedding - Bridesmaid in long gown A gown or evening gown is a womans evening wear, corresponding to mens formal wear for white tie and black tie events. ... A dragon robe from Qing Dynasty of China A robe is a loose-fitting outer garment. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Pants. ... The unidentified tailor in Giovanni Battista Moronis famous portrait of ca 1570 is in doublet and lined and stuffed (bombasted) breeches. ... A dragon robe from Qing Dynasty of China A robe is a loose-fitting outer garment. ...

In Western countries, women's shifts did not fall out of fashion until the early 20th century, when they were generally replaced by brassieres, panties, girdles, and full slips. Bra - front Bra - back A brassiere ( ; , commonly referred to as a bra, ) is an article of clothing that covers, supports, and elevates the breasts. ... Womens panties or knickers Panties are female undergarments. ... A girdle is a piece of womens underwear that replaced the corset in popularity and usage. ... A silky pink half slip Light blue half slip with lacy hem A slip is a womans undergarment worn beneath a dress or skirt to help it hang smoothly and to prevent chafing of the skin from coarse fabrics such as wool. ...

Men's chemises may be said to still survive, as the common shirt. However, the shirt is now an outer garment, and is often protected from skin oil and perspiration by an undershirt or T-shirt worn next to the skin. The chemise also morphed into the smock-frock, a garment worn by English laborers until the early 20th century. Its loose cut and wide sleeves were well adapted to heavy labor. The name smock is nowadays still used for military combat jackets in the UK, whereas in the Belgian army the term has been corrupted to smoke-vest. Business shirt A shirt is a piece of clothing for the trunk of the body. ... Sweating (also called perspiration or sometimes transpiration) is the loss of a watery fluid, consisting mainly of sodium chloride and urea in solution, that is secreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals. ... A vest is a type of mens garment. ... T-Shirt A T-shirt (or tee shirt) is a shirt with short or long sleeves, a round neck, put on over the head, without pockets. ... A nineteenth-century shepherd in a smock-frock. ...

Historical construction of the chemise

Chemise or shift of the 1830s has elbow-length sleeves and is worn under a corset and petticoats.

A chemise, shift, or smock was usually sewn at home, by the women of a household. It was assembled from rectangles and triangles cut from one piece of cloth so as to leave no waste. The poor would wear skimpy chemises pieced from a narrow piece of rough cloth; the rich might have voluminous chemises pieced from thin, smooth fine linen. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... An ordinary hourglass corset from around 1890. ... Madame de Pompadour in an elaborately embroidered gown with matching petticoat, 1760s A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing for women; specifically an undergarment to be worn under a skirt, dress or sari. ...

Modern usage of the term

In modern usage the term chemise generally refers to women's fashions that vaguely resemble the older shifts but are typically more delicate, and usually provocative. Most commonly the term refers to a loose-fitting, sleeveless, shirt-like undergarment or piece of lingerie. It can also refer to a short, sleeveless dress that hangs straight from the shoulders and fits loosely at the waist. For the types and styles of womens undergarments, see lingerie. ... Assorted lingerie styles. ...

There is a similar type of lingerie/sleepwear known as the babydoll. Both terms describe short, loose-fitting, sleeveless fashions. Typically, though, babydolls are more loose-fitting at the hips and are generally designed to more resemble a young girl's nightgown (although many modern varieties only vaguely follow this definition adding various sexualizing features which, of course, would only be appropriate for an adult). This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

See also

• Lingerie
• Undergarments
• Hosiery

Assorted lingerie styles. ... A pair of mens briefs Undergarments, also called underwear or sometimes intimate clothing, are clothes worn next to the skin, usually under other clothes. ... Hosiery describes undergarments worn directly on the feet and legs. ...

References

• Cut My Cote, by Dorothy Burnham, Royal Ontario Museum, 1973. A survey of shirt patterns over the ages, with diagrams.

• "A Plain Linen Shift: Plain Sewing Makes the Most of Your Fabric", by Kathleen R. Smith, Threads Magazine, Feb/Mar 1987.

External links

• La Couturière Parisienne Historical pictures and patterns.

Compare

• Camisards: after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, a revolt by the guerilla Protestant "Camisards" (Occitan camisa, 'smock' or 'shirtsleeves') broke out in 1702, in the rugged and isolated Cevennes region of south-central France.