A látható és láthatatlan divat. A modern fehérnemű magyarországi elterjedése
Fashion Visible and Invisible. Modern Underwear in Hungary

Summary/Abstract: The study examines the adoption of modern underwear fashion in Hungary as well as its impact on urban and rural lifestyle. The main focus is the influence of the large-scale social and cultural changes on certain types of ladies’ underwear in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The new feminine ideals and the revolution of underwear is closely related to Art Nouveau, which completely reinterpreted the female body. These ‘revolutionary’ ideas, albeit somewhat delayed, eventually reached Hungary and were first embraced by a narrow aristocratic elite in the 1920s, and later, in the 1930s, by the middle classes as well. However, in the meantime, nearly none of the new ideas penetrated the Hungarian rural society. The underwear fashion of the peasantry caught up with the new trends adopted by the bourgeoisie with a significant delay. The eventual adoption of certain elements of the underwear styles of urban middle classes worn with traditional folk garments brought about one of the most momentous transformations of traditional rural culture. Domestic help, which was an important transmitter of culture in general, played a significant role in the gradual spread of new fashion in the decades between the world wars.

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