![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Drawers, progress and some ideas
Feb. 9th, 2005 01:46 pmToday I have sewn most of my drawers, while playing a board game called A ticket to ride. I have 30 centimetres left on one of the open parts and also need to fell the seams on the legs as well as hemming them and applying some kind of decoration. Since I'm aiming for mid-century I'm not going to overdo it, that was something they did in the late 19th century. These drawers are made from half bleached fine thin cotton. I might buy some white cotton batiste or silk for more luxurious drawers later. They should be wider also so they puff more over the hips, these are rather slim. There should be no problem having them under the corset if I want to. I have however seen several pictures where they are worn outside and since bodices in the late 1850s are cut without a point they wouldn't disturb the line anyway.
And here's where I have a theory, based on too little evidence, but still:
In most pictures we see the drawers or petticoat inside the corset. Most of those pictures are corset advertisements where you really want to show the whole corset. (Some, like Manet's Nana are also clearly erotic and show the corset as a sexy garment, which may also provide some artistic license)Most of them are also from the 1880s and onward, when combinations were "invented" and when fashion, both "natural form" and the later bustle period followed the hips and thighs closely.
So I think that even if drawers were commonly worn outside the corset it would be seen more seldom because of the nature of our sources and the dominance of later sources. Even in later period drawings that are _not_ corset advertisements you see drawers outside the corset, like the cartoon with the temptation of St. anthony, which can be found on page 129 in Valerie Steele's The corset. A cultural history, which is as late as 1895.
This does not prove that drawers were worn outside corsets all the time, especially during the "natural form"-period they were probably worn inside. But it's a documented way and it would be interesting to examine the sources we have while having a critical view of their purpose.
You see! I can't even have an innocent hobby without applying source-criticism on it. An occupational hazard.
Apart from that Maja now has two more teeth which makes a grand total of four.
And here's where I have a theory, based on too little evidence, but still:
In most pictures we see the drawers or petticoat inside the corset. Most of those pictures are corset advertisements where you really want to show the whole corset. (Some, like Manet's Nana are also clearly erotic and show the corset as a sexy garment, which may also provide some artistic license)Most of them are also from the 1880s and onward, when combinations were "invented" and when fashion, both "natural form" and the later bustle period followed the hips and thighs closely.
So I think that even if drawers were commonly worn outside the corset it would be seen more seldom because of the nature of our sources and the dominance of later sources. Even in later period drawings that are _not_ corset advertisements you see drawers outside the corset, like the cartoon with the temptation of St. anthony, which can be found on page 129 in Valerie Steele's The corset. A cultural history, which is as late as 1895.
This does not prove that drawers were worn outside corsets all the time, especially during the "natural form"-period they were probably worn inside. But it's a documented way and it would be interesting to examine the sources we have while having a critical view of their purpose.
You see! I can't even have an innocent hobby without applying source-criticism on it. An occupational hazard.
Apart from that Maja now has two more teeth which makes a grand total of four.
