negligee
Sign in to savethumb|A négligée on a mannequin. The negligee or négligée ( ; ), also known in French as (; ), is a form of see-through clothing for women consisting of a sheer, usually long, dressing gown. It is a form of nightgown intended to be worn in the bedroom. It was introduced in France in the 18th century, where it mimicked the heavy head-to-toe style of women's day dresses of the time.
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thumb|A négligée on a mannequin. The negligee or négligée ( ; ), also known in French as (; ), is a form of see-through clothing for women consisting of a sheer, usually long, dressing gown. It is a form of nightgown intended to be worn in the bedroom. It was introduced in France in the 18th century, where it mimicked the heavy head-to-toe style of women's day dresses of the time.
By the 1920s, the negligee began to mimic women's satin single-layer evening dress of the period. The term "negligee" was used on a Royal Doulton run of ceramic figurines in 1927, showing women wearing what appears to be a one-piece knee-length slip made of silk or rayon, trimmed with lace. Although the evening-dress style of nightwear made moves towards the modern negligee style—translucent bodices, lace trimming, bows, exemplified in 1941 by a photo of Rita Hayworth in Life—it was only after World War II that nightwear changed from being primarily utilitarian to being primarily sensual or even erotic; the negligee emerged strongly as a form of lingerie.