Petticoat

A petticoat is a skirt worn under another skirt, or, in the eighteenth century, the visible skirt worn under an open gown.

In eighteenth-century dress the petticoat was often meant to be seen: an open gown such as the robe à la française showed a matching or contrasting petticoat at the front. Later, petticoats became purely underskirts, starched or layered to give volume before the crinoline.