Did someone take my name in vain? Hello, Astrida! Our assistant registrar
Geni Ellerbee is on the list and called my attention to my being cited re:
corsets. Thought I'd weigh in--coming in the middle of a topic I don't know
how well I'll reply, but I'm happy to respond more specifically (preferably
to the list so as to avoid having to reply to many individual emails!).
For the period between 1790 and 1810, there appear to have been a lot of
experimental, transitional types of corsetry. Some were shorter versions of
the full or half boned 18th c. type of stays. The straps help keep the
shoulders back and keep the increasingly wide necklines and narrow shoulder
strips in place. Why bother to shorten? Well, I have worn my 1780s corset
under a late-90s gown, but the hip tabs do rather protrude when you're
wearing the slimmer silhouette and diaphanous fabrics. You might have better
luck if you're wearing a workdress in cotton, and are slimmer than I!
Shortening the stays, then, was sensible when waists got quite high and
skirts much narrower.
Short, boneless--corded or uncorded--corsets also appear. They have straps,
and are rib-length, and have gathered bosom inserts--don't offer much for a
C cup or more, I can tell you!
The longer, hiplength corsets appear about 1810. I theorize that the longer
style was a slimming/smoothing out design, rather like modern
"body-trimmers" or whatever those Lycra instruments of torture are called.
I've seen plenty with no cording, some even lack gores for hip and
bust--presumably for teens, in this case, with only minor amounts of
curves!--but I want to say (not however having my full file of pictures from
other collections to hand) that they always have a busk pocket.
I recently made up, and like a lot, the Mantuamaker company's 1810 corset
pattern. (5rivers.org carries it). Modern push-up bras, often used for early
19th c., don't get you up enough for the period. Mantuamaker gives
instructions for bones--which are not period but which really are necessary
to keep it from bunching up over the hips--you'll have to decide where you
fall in the accuracy debate--since I'm never showing my underwear at any
events I go to, I don't care if I have to add something like that to get the
right look. Accurate corset giving inaccurate look doesn't seem to make
sense.
As initially produced, the pattern had no cording. I'm told that the company
is re-working the pattern and will be offering cording instructions--this is
hearsay, ask Lorina at 5rivers what the scoop is. I added cording under the
bust because despite pretty good uplift from bust gores, my stiff jean
fabric still wasn't enough to hold me up properly. Next time I'll add
cording around the sides, where you see cording on the originals--Hard to
explain in print without a body to demonstrate, but your flesh tends to go
every which way, and the cords help contain you!
So I recommend the Mantuamaker pattern, but add cording. For a busk I got
two small (5x8 in . or so) bits of sheet metal from my hardware store, cut
them with wire cutters to 2" wide strips, masking-taped them together (and
bound sharp edges with same), and put them in the busk pocket--it was
malleable enough to curve as it should do, and almost stiff enough to stay
in that curve--next time I will get another sheet of a heavier weight--this
one bent too much at the waist when I did! Busks are supposed to curve to
the body--out over the tummy, in at the waist,out again as the bust begins
(we're traveling up here), and back in again at the top of the bust. I found
the busk critical to helping posture, and to keeping the line of the bust
right.
By the way, Thurs. June 13th in Riverdale MD--15 minutes from the U.S.
Capitol, that is, just barely outside Washington DC--Riversdale House, an
early 19th c. Federal period house, will host a day-long workshop on Federal
period clothing: Ideal and real. I'll be giving a talk on the ideal (fashion
plates and portraits) and the real (ie, how you can or sometimes cannot get
clothes to look that way, and what you really see in surviving garments);
Ann Wass will lecture on fashion in federal Washington; and Mary Doering,
premier private collector and historian, will bring many pieces from her fab
collection for people to view examples of "the real thing." There's also an
exhibit of federal period costume, and of repro's sent in for Riversdale's
costume contest. contact [log in to unmask] for a brochure about the program.
Cordially,
Alden O'Brien
[log in to unmask]
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