Reenactment musings: Corsets - what they are for?

I promised this blogpost more than a year ago, when many tagged me at a post, where in a well-known Internet magazine, someone put up an article about how she wore a corset for a certain time period, and what an awful experience it was.

I did write down my thoughts at that time, but I just cannot find that file on my computer, so I kept putting off writing about corsets.

But then, a couple of weeks ago, I was at an lecture about how people shaped their bodies through history, and of course, stays and corsets came up again, and once again, I was screaming inside when I heard, how oppressive they were, how women suffered, their bodies were distorted, tight-laced, and on and on.  

Those, who ever met with me at an event know, that this is a topic I can get passionate about (another is when I hear that people in old ages – practically any time before the late 20th century were dirty and smelly, however, that is a topic for another post).

I for one, regularly wear stays or corsets, and as one, I have pretty strong opinion about them… and no, they are NOT the paternal society’s tool to oppress women.  In my experience, a well-made, made to the body’s measurements stays/corsets can be (or often are) better than a pair of bad (or even a pair of average) bra.

When I ask people “what is a corset’s main task?”, “why women wore corsets?”, the first answer is always: “to make them look thinner”.  Well, a corset has several task/role, and making women (look) thinner is the last one, more like a happy side effect than a main task.

So what are those “tasks”?

1). Shaping. Yes, that seems like the opposite of what I said above, but… Every period has its fashionable shape (think of the modern age's Twiggy, Cindy Crawford or J.Lo). Like

a) the 18^th century, rococo is an upturned pyramid shape, no real curves, the breast is pushed up.

b) the Napoleonic/regency era is a column with the emphasis on the column head, I mean the breast, that were pushed up as far as possible. Those dresses had high waistline, nobody ever saw the actual waist of women. So, when you see Mama Fetherington pulling the laces tight and the girl crying out “I cannot breath”, that is stupid. Partly, because the way those stays were made would not allow tight-lacing (they would tear), partly, because it would have been utterly unnecessary.

c) the Victorian era brought the hourglass shaped corsets most people are familiar with.

Every body, even the thinnest ones have - if not fat, but muscle to be pushed away a bit here and there, to give the wearer that fashionable shape. It does not have to “size down”, for a while, when I teared my corset last year while skating, I wore one that was a size bigger than me, still, it did all the shaping I needed.

2) Foundation. Giving a “massive”, stable foundation to clothes. For example, my early Victorian gown was made of a very light printed cotton from India, much like a viscose fabric, and still, when I had it on, it looked like it had lining, horsehair and/or boning in it… because I had corset underneath.

3) Holding one’s breasts. We like to forget that the first bras were made in the 1910’s, though women did have breasts for thousands of years. Corsets can hold them just as well, if not better than bra’s.

4) Managing/distributing the weight of the dress. Even though less than many people would think (we are NOt talking about tens of kilograms), these dresses, or let’s say outfits have a considerable weight, especially compared to our modern clothes. In one march 15^th event we calculated, and my early Victorian dress, with the appropriate underwear, and petticoats have 22 meters of fabric, and that is the minimum: a corded petticoat a ruffled one and a plain one. Now, the really fashionable ones, who wanted even wider skirts, wore even more petticoats, in some cases 5 or 6 of them, which weighed even more. Later, with the cage crinoline, it was a freeing experience to these women, that they could get away only with two petticoats, but still the crinoline also have some weight. So, when one wears them over stays/corsets, takes over the load, helps distribute the weight. If I wear these dresses without corsets/stays, by the end of the day, there is crying, and I am begging Norbert for a back-massage. With corset/stays: no problem.

So, if after all this, it can make someone a bit thinner… that is a happy side-effect.

Of course, everything can be overdone. Today, we have tiny, short skirts, or extreme high heels, so there were people, who overdid thightlacing, but that was NOT generally done.

Women are not stupid. They would not wear something for HUNDREDS of years, if it wasn’t good for them on some level.

And no, women did had ribs taken out (did you ever read about Victorian hospitals? They avoided them, like they avoided the plague), and no, it did not distorted inner organs either. Oh, that everybody saw the drawings printed in period magazines? They are DRAWINGS. (Not Xrays,, CT or US pictures, but DRAWINGS).

És nem, nem vetették ki a bordájukat (olvastatok már a viktoriánus kórházakról? Olyan messzire kerülték el őket, amennyire csak lehet), és nem nem torzította el a belső szerveket sem. Ja, hogy mindenki látta a korabeli magazinokban megjelenő rajzokat? RAJZOKAT láttunk. (Nem röntgen, CT, UH felvételeket. RAJZOKAT.)

What is the secret if we are talking about comfort and corsets/stays?

As I said above: well made, and made to the person’s measurements should not be uncomfortable.

I can bend, sit, walk, lift things, dance in corsets/stays. I CAN tie my shoelaces. Yes, there is the saying “Boots before corsets” but not because it is impossible to tie them… But, surely they are easier to take on when you do not have corsets on.

After a day-long event, when we take off our corsets/stays, and we breathe a sigh of relief, we often joke, that nobody, I just talked to about how corsets are not uncomfortable should hear us… But then, we should remember that we are NOT used to wear them all day, every day, and we do not wear them enough to really get used to them. Historical women started to wear some kind of stays in their young age (“training corsets” were just as different from grown up corsets than training bras are from push-up bras).

And also, there is a misconception, that we stopped wearing corsets… Oh, we do wear them. We just call them differently. We call them shapewear these days.

Again (17th century kirtle)

 I've already written about my adventures in sewing a 17th century kirtle (HERE), where I finally made a new one to replace the very first one I made back in 2017.

It had issues as it was (the post linked above details those), and I also lost weight, it did not fit me anymore at all. However, I liked the blue and orange combo, and I also wanted to make a wearable "mock up" for a project I am planning for later this year. 

I had the petticoat (orange), and I had the leftover decoartions. So I thought, I might get away having to do it as a stashbusting project... Dug through my stash, and though I do have lots of linen, I only found some leftover pieces I made the original one, but I would not use it, because it was running color, like nobody's business. Everytime I wore it, not only my underwear, but even my hands were blue at the end of the day. 

What kind of stash is the one that does not have about 4,5 meters of dark blue linen? Mine seemed like one, because the piece I found was like 3,8 meter - not enough. 

I already started to dig through the online resorurces I had (Natalie, Bubulákovo, Allegro, and all the rest), but I simply did not have the money to buy one.

Further digging ensued, that meant I had to dismantle the barricade I had at the front of my fabric cabinet (don't even ask about it... it is a constant point of disagreement in the house), which was my last hope... And that cabinet delievered, offering me not one but two piece of dark blue linen, in the size I needed, YAYYY. 

I started with cutting the skirt, and I already knew from the previous version, that if I add a slight A line, it will look so much better. This time, I went further ahead, I turned the piece I cut, and added it as a godet.

For the bodice, I knew that the lining and adding some kind of boning is working really nicely, however, there was two things I wanted to change (aside from correcting the fit issues). I added an extra layer of stiff fabric between the boning and the fashion fabric, because in the previous version I could see the lines

Also, next to the lacing instead of the plastic, I used metal boning. Furthermore, instead of the lacing rings, I used handsewn eyelets:

 and placed them in a way, so I can spiral-lace, the historically accurate way.

All the trimming I used on the bodice is sewn by hand. I kind of felt sorry, I did not had enough for the three rows of silk and three rows of velvet decoration on the bottom, only two and two, but this way this dress was completely out of my stash.

I made two side-by side comparisons, and hopefully not only the 15 kg minus that can be seen, but that somewhat small changes can me so much in fit.

Blue linen fabric: I Love Textil

Pictures: Bodeszphoto

Weekly SO

  Strong Opinion that is.

And this week there are two things I strongly dislike about taking/making photographs:

One:

You think up a picture, get together the people, set it up, and then, when you would shoot the pic, another photographer stands right next to you, takes the same picture, then publishes it as his/hers. 

Two:

You think up a picture, find a nice spot, nice pose, etc, ask your photographer friend to make the shot. Then comes around someone else, me too, me too, me too, and wants the same setting. 

I might be selfish, and I might have too strong ego, but still. Think up your pictures yourself.

Weekend program: The age of Napoleon in Győr

 Over the weekend, there will be the reenactment of the battle of Győr.

We will be there in or full regency finery.

The Mare Temporis Time Travel Agency bring our (fashion) advices to time travellers,

we will have period dancing, and we can talk about everyday life, fashion, etiquett, games, and all that fun. 

Come and see us, if you can. 

The event's link is here, but you will find us in dowtown, in the central square. 

Weekly patternmuster (knitting)

We already had a Star Wars themed sweater here, but I admit, I was (I am) a Star Wars fun, since I first saw the movies, when it was first running in Hungary (according to Google it was in 1979). A couple of years later (according to google it was 1982), the theaters run The Empire strikes back, and I so wanted to have a sleevless (quilted) west, like Leia had in the snow-planet.

I bet, if I'd knew there is a pattern for it, I would have asked my mom to knit it for me. Now, I will have to do it myself.

Princess Leia's Hoth Snow Vest

The many lives of a blue dress (and a weekend program)

 Back, when I started with historical dresses and reenactment, aside from a trial piece, the first gown I made was a TARDIS blue dress with Roses.  If you know me, I always loved no only to compose my outfits -even the modern, civilian ones- carefully (up to the point, when my shoelaces go well with my hairpins), also hide - or put them in plain side) references. 

It was ever so fitting that my first "time travelling" dress was the color it was and decorated with roses. 

I dearly love that dress, and used it to the point I though, if I see another picture of myself in that blue blob, I am going to puke. 

I made other historical clothes since, a lot of them, but that firts one is still dear to my hear. However, when COVID came I gained so much weight it did not fit me anymore, and I also wanted to do something new, so when I we did a program for the Vígadó, I made a Hungarian ("court") bodice for the skirt. 

When I first bought the fabric, I didn't really know, just how much I will need, and I bought a lot of it, so I had enough leftover for at least two more bodice. Thus, it was still *that* blue and I managed to hide some roses in the decorations. 

Next Christmas I decided, that I had enough of feeling cold in the Gödölő castle, and I made a jacket to wear with the skirt, which also seemed a succesful solution, and I used that combination many times.

But then I started to loose weight, and by last Christmas, that weightloss was enough for all my previous bodices to hang on my. Literally to fall of my shoulders, and crumpling above my boobs. Something needed to be done. 

Back, after the first couple of years, when I started to get bored of the blue dress, I bought some tulle, decorated with roses (just to keep on the theme), with the intention, of renewing the dress sometimes in the future. I felt that point in time arrived last december, so I dug it out of the stash, and I made a new overskirt, and using the very last bits of the taffeta, combined with the tulle a new bodice.

The overskirt was made without a pattern, I just made it up, and at the points, where I pulled it up, I added some roses from the cutoffs. 

For the bodice this time I used the truly Victorian pattern, which time and again proved to be a really good one. By now I used it a number of time, in wastly different sizes, and always needed only minimal fitting. In place of a proper Bertha (the wide collar like of thingie around the shoulders) I added a wide ruffle, just to repeat the fabric used in the overskirt, and I added a puffed oversleeve.

Now, the sleeve could have been a cm or two longer to properly cover my tattoos, but as I said, it was the last bit of fabric I had left and I used every available cm's of it. It actually covers the tats, which only shows, if I am not careful to raise my arm. On the other hand, I do have a bit left over from the tulle, so I might just ad a narrow ruffle to the sleeves to completely hide the ink. 

This weekend I will take out this dress again, and use it in the coronation weekend, an event in the Gödöllő Castle, commemorating the coronation of empress Sisi, who was also the queen of Hungary.

Come and see us there, if you can. 

Long story even longer (historic thigh high stockings)

 It goes back to a couple of years, when a reenacting friend in Italy bought some knee high stocking from me, then last year asked me to knit him a thigh high one, which I posted in a few reenactment group, from where a guy from the US found me, asking me to knit him not one but two pairs, from pure wool. 

Then I started searching for proper yarn, that is not to thin (as I knew the knitting will be loooong and boring enough), and not to thick. I found some New Zealand wool on Etsy that seemed okay, and were available in the colors I got asked for, I ordered them and waited. 

A few weeks later the yarn arrived and I started knitting, but as we already agreed, knitting these stocking are incredibly boring, as all you knit is stocking stitch, around and around, with some shaping thrown in. 

I started with the black ones, and I knitted them on trips (we did had quite a few events last year that required travelling), but sometimes bordeom got the better of me, and put them aside... 

I finished the first pair in November, and then asked a friend to modell them for me, for some pictures. 

He is a reenactor, quite tall, and smewhat thinner (younger and more muscular) than my customer, but pictures we had. 

And then I started again with the dark, brick red yarn. Seeing that the black pair almost reached up to the crotch of the tall friend, I knitted the reddish one a few rows shorter.

Then we started to investigate shipping options, but each and every one was worst than the other. 

By then it was about a year, since I received the advanced payment, so I just threw up my hand and said, lets just ship the safest possible way and be done with it. Of course, it cost me and arm and a leg, but I just received the confirmation that the package arrived safe and sound, the recepient is happy with them, so that is one thing off my list.