About The Chemise
Chemise remains popular even five hundred years after it was introduced into the clothing scene. They have evolved from being objects of mere comfort to being the essential part of the lingerie ensemble to make a woman feel sexy and beautiful. The advent of movies and the visual portrayal of chemises have nurtured their romantic and sexy image. They have been shown in every aspect from the femme fatale image to the sweet and innocent baby doll idea. 
It is a French term (which today simply means shirt). This is a cognate of the Italian word camicia, and the Spanish / Portuguese word camisa (subsequently borrowed by Hindi / Urdu), all deriving ultimately from the Latin camisia. The English called the same shirt a smock and the Irish called it a léine (pronounced /ˈleɪnjə/).
They seem to have been developed from the Roman tunica and first became popular in the European Middle Ages. Women wore them or shifts underneath their gowns or robes; men wore them with their trousers, and covered the them with garments such as doublets, robes, etc. In those times, it was usually the only piece of clothing that was washed regularly. 
In Western countries, women's shifts did not fall out of fashion until the early 20th century, when they were generally replaced by brassieres, panties, girdles, and full slips.The men's style may be said to survive as the common T-shirt, which still serves as an undergarment. It also morphed into the smock-frock, a garment worn by English laborers until the early 20th century. Its loose cut and wide sleeves were well adapted to heavy labor. The name smock is nowadays still used for military combat jackets in the UK, whereas in the Belgian army the term has been corrupted to smoke-vest.
There is a similar type of lingerie/sleepwear known as the babydoll. Both terms describe short, loose-fitting, sleeveless fashions. Typically, though, babydolls are more loose-fitting at the hips and are generally designed to more resemble a young girl's nightgown (although many modern varieties only vaguely follow this definition adding various sexualizing features which, of course, would only be appropriate for an adult).
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