> If any lady is crazy enough to want a corset, the least
> expensive good one on-line is from Chivalry Sports.

WARNING: Pet peeve (not intended personally, just making a general point)

I made reproduction clothing for Strawbery Banke Museum in NH for seven
years, where I covered style changes from the late 1800s through WW II. I
still make clothing for a Renaissance dance ensemble where both corsetry and
hoops are necessary. And if I learned anything, it's that the correct
underpinnings and accessories (headwear, shoes) are what make the difference
between shabby dress-up costume (hee hee hee, look at me in my funny duds)
and a serious effort at looking like you stepped out of time (these are the
clothes in which I live and experience the events around me). Both the
public and the roleplayer react to that difference. It strikes me as
especially important for a museum to try for that authenticity of
impression. With proper corsetry, for example, a role-player moves
differently, holds herself differently. The clothes fit better (DON'T get me
started on Frontier House). I'm certainly not advocating tight-lacing--the
corsets should provide a correct, rigid shape, not try to make waists
smaller on a modern person unaccustomed to such constriction. And if the
roleplayer is portraying someone doing hard physical labor, the corset
should be loosened. But it should still be worn for the clothes to fit
correctly and to maintain the person's social authenticity in the context of
the period being shown.

Astrida (getting off her soap box now)

******************
Astrida Schaeffer, Assistant Director
The Art Gallery
University of New Hampshire
Paul Creative Arts Center
30 College Road
Durham, NH 03824
(603) 862-3712
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