Panty line
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A prominent, visible panty line or VPL occurs when the outline of one's underpants becomes visible through one's clothes.[1] There may be a ridge or depression in the clothes, or the clothes may be slightly see-through.
[edit] Culture
The taboo in many cultures against showing one's underwear means that panty lines are generally considered undesirable and embarrassing. At the same time, this also makes VPL an attribute of erotic clothing. Its erotic value leads to women and fashion designers paying a lot of attention to lingerie that will be worn under a see-through garment.
[edit] Origin
The origin of the term is probably traced to barracks humor, the term VPL for 'visible panty line' as a mockery of overused bureaucratic initialisms, coined in an analogy with water line.[2] The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English claims that the phrase was popularized by Woody Allen's 1977 comedy film Annie Hall.
[edit] References
- ^ Valerie Steele (2005) Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion vol. 2, ISBN 0684313960, p.121
- ^ David Halberstam, a reporter, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his reports on the Vietnam War, in his 1967 novel about the war One Very Hot Day writes: "They all wore white dresses, that was the prescribed legal uniform, but they wore hem so short and tight, that was almost obscene. (So tight that the panty lines could always be seen, and the helicopter pilots, who were insane for military abbreviations, had invented the phrase VPL, for Visible Panty Line)."
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