This turned out absolutely stunning. Beautiful job!
I appreciate all the research and notes. I think we understand more about this period all the time, and the heavily boned separate pair of bodies is no longer considered an essential foundation item. However, it's worth pointing out that you are a slender lady, and I do wonder what kind of inner structure was built into petticoat bodies for the more heavily-endowed. The Tudor Tailor patterns include some boning and I remember having read references to both cording and paste for stiffening, but I am definitely not enough of a scholar on this subject to have any real answers.
The lack of extant sources for this period, compared to say, the mid-Victorian era, is quite aggravating!
and you're quite right. i think i could have written that a bit better, and i might go back and edit it (but it was already so exhausting to write and try to remember everything i wanted to say!). i try to be careful how i write, using lots of "most likelys" and "probablys" to allow for variations. while boning as we think of and use it today might not have been common, there are plenty of other forms of stiffening being used, like the ones you mentioned as well as bents (dried sea grasses). in the third link i posted, kimiko addresses support garments and what they might have been using for stiffening, and you might find some more answers there. i do think that there is a lot to be said for good fit, though, and i don't know that a lot of modern makers give it enough attention since we've gotten used to using boning. and most of us are not trained the way tailors of the period were trained.
bess is more endowed than i am, and through fit alone she obtains this stunning shape. different period, but same concept:
That dress you linked has an impressive amount of support! But the difference I see is it's very curved and rounded vs conical - much easier to achieve if you're, well, round up top! Again, I really don't know enough about this period to say, but I wonder about that severe conical shape - do we ever see it on fuller-figured working or middling women?
I know what you mean about speaking in "most likelys." There is only what we can infer, we can never truly know.
you bring up a very good distinction! for working and middling women, you probably won't see that severe, smooth, conical shape like you do in portraits of upper class women. the woman on the far right in this painting definitely has soft curves under her waistcoat: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/73465037647932948/... )
the way i interpret those ladies in that painting is an example of the bodies being a different color/fabric from the skirt portion, like in the flemish image of the spinners i included. of course there's really no way to be 100% sure!
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I appreciate all the research and notes. I think we understand more about this period all the time, and the heavily boned separate pair of bodies is no longer considered an essential foundation item. However, it's worth pointing out that you are a slender lady, and I do wonder what kind of inner structure was built into petticoat bodies for the more heavily-endowed. The Tudor Tailor patterns include some boning and I remember having read references to both cording and paste for stiffening, but I am definitely not enough of a scholar on this subject to have any real answers.
The lack of extant sources for this period, compared to say, the mid-Victorian era, is quite aggravating!
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and you're quite right. i think i could have written that a bit better, and i might go back and edit it (but it was already so exhausting to write and try to remember everything i wanted to say!). i try to be careful how i write, using lots of "most likelys" and "probablys" to allow for variations. while boning as we think of and use it today might not have been common, there are plenty of other forms of stiffening being used, like the ones you mentioned as well as bents (dried sea grasses). in the third link i posted, kimiko addresses support garments and what they might have been using for stiffening, and you might find some more answers there. i do think that there is a lot to be said for good fit, though, and i don't know that a lot of modern makers give it enough attention since we've gotten used to using boning. and most of us are not trained the way tailors of the period were trained.
bess is more endowed than i am, and through fit alone she obtains this stunning shape. different period, but same concept:
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I know what you mean about speaking in "most likelys." There is only what we can infer, we can never truly know.
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http://aneafiles.webs.com/renaissancegallery/stays.html <- She's talking specifically about the Italian style but she does have a lot of good information in there overall
https://userscontent2.emaze.com/images/1dc89132-7d96-473f-a062-211cde26750f/3328166e-97b1-434c-aadf-cc69e12b6cc4.png <- the Fete at bermondsey from 1569 shows ladies wearing what appear to be some sort of stays with skirt/petticoats.
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the way i interpret those ladies in that painting is an example of the bodies being a different color/fabric from the skirt portion, like in the flemish image of the spinners i included. of course there's really no way to be 100% sure!
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