See how trends in lingerie and undergarments have changed and evolved over the years.
Women’s fashion is a complicated subject, but one doesn’t usually think of it as deadly. Leave it to the corset to bring the pain.
Select your style above, add to cart- Choose size and color in the next window Description- The Theodora is cut to emphasize the waist and the hips while compressing the rib cage. It flatters the late 19th century style of dress, enhancing peplums and slim fitting skirts. Cut long over the hip
The Countess of Castiglione was obsessed with her own beauty, and meticulously art directed hundreds of portraits of herself over the course of her life.
During the 19th century, there were many sources of information on motherhood and maternity
Olivia B. asks: Why do women always seem to be fainting in classic books? Dropping like flies (or at least as far as many stories indicate), it seems as if well-bred ladies in the 1800s struggled to maintain consciousness when faced with even the slightest emotional or physical shock. Over the years there have been several theories as to why [...]
The Design Museum has announced 99 contenders for the sixth annual Designs of the Year. They include the best designs from around the world in the last 12 months across seven categories: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Product and Transport. This picture gallery features a selection of the nominated designs; an exhibition featuring all the nominations runs from 20 March to 7 July 2013 at the Design Museum.
Europeana
For this post, I am focusing mainly on the Mid to Late Victorian Era (1855-1901). However, there are tricks for all eras and I will be covering them soon! Corsets are an essential part of almost an…
Corset, ca. 1835, English, cotton stiffened with cording and whalebone
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II-62606.1 Miss Leduc, Montreal, QC, 1881 Notman & Sandham 1881, 19th century Notman photographic Archives - McCord Museum II-62606.1 Mlle Leduc, Montréal, QC, 1881 Notman & Sandham 1881, 19e siècle Archives photographiques Notman - Musée McCord To see the image file on the McCord Museum website, click on the following link: www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/II-62606.1 Pour voir la fiche descriptive de cette photographie sur le site Web du Musée McCord, cliquer le lien suivant: www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/fr/collection/artefacts/II-62606.1
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Tales of domestic drudgery, rigid dress codes, and a regimented daily life create a bleak portrait of the 19th century woman: she sits tightly corseted in...
One of the things that was so scandalous about the chemise gown when it first debuted was that it required shockingly little in the way of underwear. Descriptions of lightly boned stays and pink or blue silk petticoats are plentiful in relation to the chemise gown. Comparing these light weight undergarments to the more sturdy and stiffly structured stays, bumrolls, panniers, and petticoats of the period, it must have seemed as though women were running around half naked when they adopted the fashion of the chemise a la reine. But what did these scanty undies actually look like? As luck would have it, the Manchester Gallery has two pairs of stays that are contemporary to the chemise gown, and I was able to study them closely. Both stays belong to the same acquisition lot, and are similar enough in size and construction to indicate that they probably were worm by the same woman. The top photo shows the more heavily boned of the pair. It is made from a pale pink linen, and is very stiff. A few stitches had popped on the lining, allowing me to see that the stiff material was likely a coarse woven linen buckram. Just thinking about hand stitching all those boning channels through that stuff made me want to lay down. The stays in the second photo are less rigid, having about half the overall boning in them as the pink pair. The outer fabric is a cream silk satin, and it does not appear that the same kind of stiff buckram was used in this pair, as was in the pink stays. Both stays, however, have the same partial lacing down the center front (functional), a thick band of baleen that shaped the front of the stays into a pronounced curve, and a sturdy baleen strip acting like a busk down the center front. Two curious things had me scratching my head, though. First, both sets of stays had these wide twill tape straps applied from the base of the armscyes and stitched to the front of the armscyes about 3" or so. At the opposite end of the straps were 5-6 worked eyelets. The straps appeared to coordinate with the position of small loops stitched to the back of the stays, as though they were intended to pass through the loops and be secured somehow. I thought at first that this must be some later alteration for mounting the stays on a mannequin, but the more I examined the straps, the more it looked like they were added as an element of functionality when being worn. Could it have been a DIY job of the woman who wore these originally, to help the stays stay in place while she wore them? There was no indication of built in straps having been removed... The stays looked as though both were intended to be strapless. The other oddity was what appeared to be two rust spots in the exact same position on either side of the center front on the pink stays. In all honesty, they looked to me like blood stains. I could find no indication of iron metal being used in this corset, but truly, it was hard to tell without taking apart the stays. On the left hand side of the stays, the stain looked as thought it was eating through the fabric from the outside in, and on the back of the stays, there were no corresponding stains to suggest that the anything had pierced the wearer's body. Perhaps the stains were left from some other thing, like iron hooks used to secure a pannier (a technique that was used in Victorian times, but which I have no evidence to support being used in the 1780s). At any rate, these stays are good examples of they type of stay worn beneath the chemise gown. Not something we would consider "scanty" but when compared to earlier stays, they do appear a great deal less heavy duty. And speaking of earlier stays, look what was on display in the 17th century gallery:
Jeune fille a sa toilette - Oskar Begas 19th century
