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Union suit
A union suit is a type of one-piece long underwear, most often associated with menswear in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Created in Utica, New York, United States, it originated as women's wear during the 19th-century United States clothing reform efforts, as an alternative to constricting garments, and soon gained popularity among men as well. The first union suit was patented in 1868 as "emancipation union under flannel". Its etymology is unclear. Possibilities include a "union" of top and bottom clothing, the Union Army, and an unknown older brand. The topic may have been considered taboo, limiting recordkeeping.
Traditionally made of red flannel with long arms and long legs, it buttoned up the front and had a button-up flap on the rear covering the buttocks (colloquially known as the "access hatch", "drop seat", "fireman's flap", "crap flap", and other names). Depending on the size, some union suits can have a dozen buttons on the front to be fastened through buttonholes from the neck down to the groin area.
In Britain, this garment has often been known as "combinations". When made from the traditional wool as recommended by Gustav Jäger, these are "woolly combinations"—sometimes abbreviated to "woolly coms". In the Western US, they are known as "long handles" or "long johns".
Union suits are still commercially available, and come in both summer weight (white) and thermal-wear winter weight (red), but because of their long association with "old fashioned" usage, and presumed "unsophisticated" rural wearers, they may also considered somewhat comical. The rear flap is particularly associated with humor, and in film and television the appearance of a red union suit, viewed from behind, is a form of mild toilet humor.
The union suit makes an appearance in Louisa May Alcott's 1875 book Eight Cousins, as a preferred alternative to corsetry under the name 'Liberty Suit'.
In Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon, private-eye Sam Spade "put(s) on a thin white union-suit".
Union suits are referred to several times in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books (1932-1971) about her family's pioneer life during the late 19th century in the United States.
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Union suit
A union suit is a type of one-piece long underwear, most often associated with menswear in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Created in Utica, New York, United States, it originated as women's wear during the 19th-century United States clothing reform efforts, as an alternative to constricting garments, and soon gained popularity among men as well. The first union suit was patented in 1868 as "emancipation union under flannel". Its etymology is unclear. Possibilities include a "union" of top and bottom clothing, the Union Army, and an unknown older brand. The topic may have been considered taboo, limiting recordkeeping.
Traditionally made of red flannel with long arms and long legs, it buttoned up the front and had a button-up flap on the rear covering the buttocks (colloquially known as the "access hatch", "drop seat", "fireman's flap", "crap flap", and other names). Depending on the size, some union suits can have a dozen buttons on the front to be fastened through buttonholes from the neck down to the groin area.
In Britain, this garment has often been known as "combinations". When made from the traditional wool as recommended by Gustav Jäger, these are "woolly combinations"—sometimes abbreviated to "woolly coms". In the Western US, they are known as "long handles" or "long johns".
Union suits are still commercially available, and come in both summer weight (white) and thermal-wear winter weight (red), but because of their long association with "old fashioned" usage, and presumed "unsophisticated" rural wearers, they may also considered somewhat comical. The rear flap is particularly associated with humor, and in film and television the appearance of a red union suit, viewed from behind, is a form of mild toilet humor.
The union suit makes an appearance in Louisa May Alcott's 1875 book Eight Cousins, as a preferred alternative to corsetry under the name 'Liberty Suit'.
In Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon, private-eye Sam Spade "put(s) on a thin white union-suit".
Union suits are referred to several times in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books (1932-1971) about her family's pioneer life during the late 19th century in the United States.