To achieve a fashionable shape and support the bust, the bodice was frequently stiffened with bents (a type of reed), or whalebone.
bodice |
For women, this consists of a Dirndl, a type of dress with a fitted bodice and full skirt.
Although the evening-dresses 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.