I think one could be forgiven for assuming that knickers, or underpants as we know them today, have been around in a similar form since the dawn of time but not so! Up until relatively recently really, women didn’t wear covered in “pants” but rather their nether regions through the ages would have been uncovered but obscured beneath layers of voluminous petticoats, floor-length skirts, long shifts, and chemises, not to mention corsets, bustles, and hoops. So, what’s in a name? I also discovered a while ago that undies of this style are generally referred to as “Tap Pants” in the States when I first spotted this term in a vintage Facebook group (and believe me, people in vintage Facebook groups know their stuff!) I thought it was perhaps me getting my names muddled (or my knickers in a twist, so to speak) but it turns out that Americans (like the French) don’t call them French Knickers, but use their own name derived from the little silky shorts that tap dancers wore in the 1930s for ease of movement when rehearsing routines.
As to the name, by all accounts, it seems that they’re not called French Knickers in France… there seems to be no definitive origin to the name other than at the time of their evolution, it was assumed that anything from France was a little bit saucy and exotic, and some sources throw up the idea of the name being inspired by the frilly undergarments of the risqué Can Can dancers that proliferated in the clubs and theatres of Paris, notably the Moulin Rouge, whilst others simply suggest that there was a time when anything a little sexy was assumed to have come from the continent.
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