YOU can learn all you ever wanted to know – and perhaps a little bit more besides – about our underpinnings when The Knicker Lady comes to Dorchester.

Vicar’s wife and mother-of-seven, Rosemary Hawthorne has become a national institution thanks to her witty talks, which go under the covers and examine social history through fashion and pants.

“I think there is something very English about knickers, something very Joyce Grenfell about them,” said Rosemary, whose husband John is a former rector of St Andrew’s at Preston near Weymouth.

“I don’t think the French are interested in them in the same way, even though they have some gorgeous ones. We treat knickers like a saucy postcard, something naughty but nice.”

Rosemary’s fascination with fashion stems from her mother, who worked for a couturier not too dissimilar to the BBC’s House of Elliott.

“It instilled me with a fascination for fashion and clothing because I would go along and watch them preparing for he shows,” she said.

“Unfortunately, that sort of business had finished by the 1960s because it could not keep up with mass manufacture of modern clothing.”

She started giving talks to WIs and other groups about the social side of clothing before deciding to diversify into underwear.

“People love to see old knickers, they find them fascinating, I started off doing WIs and then Derby and Joan clubs too because the men were interested as well.”

Rosemary takes to the stage with a dressmaker’s dummy, which she dresses in different clothes to denote the passing of time.

“You know, we didn’t start wearing knickers until quite late,” said Rosemary. “It wasn’t really until the 1840s they came into general circulation.

“Before that it was just the upper classes while the rural folk made do with lots of petticoats.”

Catch The Knicker Lady at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Friday, July 16 at 8pm. Tickets are £12 from Dorchester TIC in Antelope Arcade on 01305 267992.