Not really. Yes, it’s underclothing, but it’s an entirely different category of underclothing than a bra or panties. Bras and panties cover your private parts–slips cover your bra and panties. Even in the days when nobody left the house without a slip (and girdle, and hose, and gloves, and a hat) your slip showing wasn’t an “OMG, I CAN SEE WHAT’S COVERING HER TITS AND ASS” event like someone seeing your bra or panties would have been.
And add me to the pile of folks who have never heard the phrase used in a metaphorical manner. I’d understand it to mean you’re revealing more than you’d intended or than might be advisable, but I’d also think it was very odd, old-fashioned thing to say. Even people my mother’s age (early 60’s) don’t wear slips any more.
It’s not a suggestive phrase. The purpose of slips was to smooth out the shape of clothes that were made without a lining.
In an era when it’s not uncommon for women’s bra straps to be exposed as either sloppiness or a fashion statement, I can’t imagine any one taking offense at a ‘slip is showing remark’.
However, since women of the LDS do wear religious undergarments, there might be an issue there that I’m unaware of.
Growing up in a post-slip world, I’ve only ever taken it for a reference to a gaffe, recognizing its roots in a time that there would have been another meaning one could entendre.
Okay, after all the people saying women don’t wear slips any more, I’m compelled to state that I sometimes wear a half-slip. I favor very thin cotton dresses and skirts. And if I don’t wear a slip, in a strong light I’ll look like that infamous photo of Diana when she was still Lady Di. For me, embarrassment would be if my slip was not showing, because other things would be showing.
I realize I’m pretty much alone in thinking this but for some reason I think slips are endearingly sexy, almost to the point that I’d rather see a woman in a slip than in lingerie. My wife sometimes wears one to spark interesting times, as did a former girlfriend. So…maybe there is a little to it.
I guess I’m just terminally behind the times, but I had no idea that “your slip is showing” had any meaning other than “pardon me, but your undergarment can be seen sticking out from beneath the hem of your skirt; you might want to correct that so as not to look unkempt”.
This sounds like the Nantucket edition of an Emily Post manners book circa 1952.
Sailboat Captain (in a Thurston Howell accent): Madam, pardon me but your slip is showing.
Wealthy Madam: Well I never!
Captain: Shall I say you never will!
(The madam faints and has to be revived with smelling salts)
I can see how such a thing might be considered mildly uncouth in certain polite society but I am certain it isn’t a grave insult to the younger ladies of today. Most of the finishing schools have adapted their curriculum to accommodate the fact that not all vague allusions to undergarments are grounds for a blacklisting on the Social Register let alone proper grounds to involve the barristers.
You can take my half slips out of my cold dead hands. Especially because clothing manufacturers are trying to keep costs down and often don’t line skirts/dresses these days.
There was a code for “Your slip is showing” when I was growing up: “I hear it’s snowing down south.”
This avoided the awkward embarrassment of a gentleman mentioning a lady’s undergarment to her face, and her having to acknowledge in public that she wore anything so salacious as undergarments.
Times have changed. Now it’s, “Hey, your thong is showing above your jeans.”
For me personally, I didn’t even know what a slip was until embarrassingly late in life.
For that I blame the cartoons.
I remember a Looney Tunes episode where Yosemite Sam is prancing about in the desert wearing clothing suitable for the location and Bugs remarks to him, “Your slip is showing” at which point, Sam quickly pulls down his under garment and slinks away red-faced.
Problem was, as a kid I heard it as “Your slippers’ showing” which fit the context of the scene and made sense to my juvenile mind.
Flash forward many years later, I’m with my college-age girlfriend we are in the audience for some presentation and one of the seated participants drew the attention of my girlfriend who noted to me that the lady’s slip is showing.
I looked at the woman’s feet and said, “Are you crazy? She’s not wearing slippers.”
Her: What?
Me: Huh?
Her: What are you *talking *about?
Me: What are YOU talking about?
My girlfriend then had to educate me on other aspects of women’s under garments of which I had been blissfully unaware up until that point.
I was thinking the same thing as I read everyone’s responses. In addition to preventing thin dresses from being see through, I wear them in the winter to keep my dress from sticking to my tights.
For the record, I would want someone to tell me that my slip was showing and I wouldn’t be turned on not offended.
I have heard it, but only is a very smarmy way, like the person thinks it’s the funniest thing in the world. “Looks like your slip is showing! Ha ha ha ha ha!”
