Figure 1.-- This is a vintage nainsook suit from the 1930s.

We have only limited underwear items in our vintage clothing archive. One readers has sent us an image of a nainsook suit which was worn by American children in the 1930s. Nainsook was a fine, soft-finished cotton fabric, commonly done in white because it was often used for women's lingerie and infants' wear. The term was adopted from the Hindi meaning something like eye pleasure. Note the buttons at the waist. These were used to button on other garments, especially pants. This nainsook waist might be classified as an abbreviated union suit. It has waist buttons for attaching outer clothing such as shorts or skirts or bloomers. It may also have garter tabs for supporters at the sides, but I don't see any indication of that feature from the illustration. I guess we can assume that it is a very young child's waist union suit, which probably means that it functions also as a garter waist or at least could function as one if supporters were attached.