SCHIESSER Children's Undergarment, 1917

Rare undergarment for children, ca. 1917, made by Schiesser. German Reich patent with the number 302724. This patent number was issued in 1917. The manufacturer's label describes it as a knotted jersey. The bodysuit belongs to the so-called health underwear for children. It fastens at the front with buttons. A button on the back and buttons on the sides show that the jersey was buttoned into other children's clothing. In very good condition. Two buttons replaced on the side. Rare to find.

Around the turn of the century 1900, the underwear market experienced a new trend: health underwear. As the “underwear of the future”, it was intended to prevent illness and was explicitly recommended by doctors. The first advertisements were placed, talking about a “highly porous, air-permeable” material that prevented the skin from ‘overheating’, created a “comfortable feeling of warmth” and avoided “an annoying feeling of perspiration”. Further advantages of the hardening underwear were a “calm, even, energetic friction of the skin, which led to the stimulation and revitalization of the metabolism as well as the resistance and hardening of the wearer.” 

The first health products of this kind were still made from the Indian, linen-like nettle fiber ramie and were knitted. In 1898, hardening underwear underwent a further innovation when Wilhelm Huber invented the knotted jersey for Schiesser. The master craftsman, whom Jacques Schiesser met in Switzerland, developed the knitting process for the circular loom in Radolfzell on Lake Constance. From then on, it was possible to knot wide, maximum air-permeable stitches together, which had the great advantage that the undergarments no longer opened up during washing. The knotted jersey was born and Jacques Schiesser even won the “Grand Prix” for innovation at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 with this “triumph of technology”. (from: https://www.schiesser.com/magazin/das-knuepftrikot-ein-triumph-der-technik/)

Waist/chest: ~ 54 cm
Length: ~ 16 cm