Spirella and Sport

 

Spirella 1938

 

I do believe that the daughters of today would find it hard to understand that women actually wore foundation garments to play sports, but they did. By the standards of the times, women often possessed a more flexible garment for sporting activities, but in the 1940's (when the picture on the right was taken), it was regarded that a women who indulged in athletics without proper 'support', would suffer in later life from a whole list of unpleasant ailments.

 

Spirella went to great lengths, as these publicity shots reveal, to convince the modern, sporting girl, that their garments were flexible. This had been a fundamental part of Spirella's philosophy, ever since 'Pa' Beaman invented the flexible stay. 

 

Britain's famous Olympic athlete of the 1960's, Mary Rand, featured several times in Spirella's publicity, mainly in an attempt to dissociate Spirella from the infamous perception that the younger generation tended to foster:-

 

“To the uninitiated, the word Spirella all too often conjures up a vision of unyielding strong satin, rows of hooks and eyes, yards of lacing, and bones, bones, and more bones”

 

Spirella Magazine January 1958

 

 

Right from the beginning of Spirella, the flexibility of their patented spiral stay was used whenever possible in advertising. The Edwardian tennis player (left) has been well corseted by the artist, yet is still able to deliver a cracking serve. 

 

The photographs of the sporting girls (below), show that the high-waisted girdle was as flexible on the tennis court or golf links, as on the dance floor. The lady on the right appears to be grasping the handle of a wooden tennis racquet, however, it might just be a croquet mallet. "How dare you photograph me in my girdle. Take that, you bounder!" My husband adds that some of the women currently playing at his local golf club might benefit from a decent foundation. He also remembers that his mother used to play tennis (well and vigorously I might add), whilst wearing a firm girdle, although it was from Marks and Spencer, not Spirella.

 

Mind you, it wasn't just Spirella that grabbed the golf club. Spencer had a go as well (bottom).

 

Even canoeing gets a look in!

 

Not that different as Spencer (right) shows!

Golf seems to be the sport of choice for these ladies. Possibly the marketing department realised that a golf swing requires a certain degree of freedom that potential customers might associate with their garments.

As famed Olympian and golfer, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, once commented "It's not just enough to swing at the ball," she replied. "You've got to loosen your girdle and really let the ball have it!"

  

There is one sporting arena where the corset and girdle might be expected to make its appearance, and that is, of course, bowls. The lawns of Britain come alive in summer with the elderly practitioners of this sport. The bending of the torso as the ball is released tightens the blouse and skirt of the player embossing the details of her foundations in embarrassingly candid relief to the spectators.

Even swimming in one's foundations was endorsed by Playtex wearer June Earing (US champion swimmer). I presume the latex was easy to dry. In fact, if you consider some swimsuits of the 1960's, especially those made by Spirella, the structure is basically a coloured corselette complete with bones and a back zip!

Just to complete this section on sports, horse-riding is one activity where protection and support of the spine does NOT require flexibity. From girls to grandmothers, tightly buckled lumbo-sacral supports have provided many women with that classical erect posture of the equestrienne.

 

Other Brands

It wasn't just Spirella and Spencer that extolled the sporting virtues of their foundations. In an age where the unsupported female form was believed to be in imminent danger of collapse, partaking in any sport  required special attention to one's underwear, or more frequently, a solicitous mother's concern for her daughter's well-being.

 

It seemed that archery was popular although I never realised that it was performed on the move; not since Ancient Grecian times anyway. Golf, of course features strongly. This is very cunning marketing. Golf was still something of a novelty for many women and more than anything it expressed freedom and equality; and you could still wear your girdle! How many women of the period declined sporting activity fearing that to do so would mean abandoning one's foundations, and hadn't Mummy warned of the evil consequences of such depravity.

 

One of the pictures above uses the subtle addition of the ladies two son's looking on in admiration. Whether they are admiring her 200 yard drive or her undoubtedly elegant style is a matter for conjecture. Athletes feature (we have already mentioned Britain's Olympic athlete Mary Rand above) and there is a French cycliste, two daring surfers, and bizarrely, a trumpet playing lady. No doubt the flexibility of her stays allowed her to arch back and nail that top C. As an aside, a colleague of mine played a trumpet in the Salvation Army and found that without a seriously firm girdle, she got backache from standing up too long! Exactly what the French lass on the right is doing, I am not certain. It appears that in the act of hurling a bowling ball down the alley, she has tripped.