Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/19/18th-century-women-wore-secret.html
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You, too, can own skirt pockets! Just $14 at Townsends, the internet’s most coolest store for reproduction 18th century kit.
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I’ve got my grandmother’s. 50+ years of historical re-enacting; she’s gotten rid of pretty much all of it so I begged her for these.
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I love that embroidery!
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who dressed the assistants, do they have assistants too?
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Yep. It’s assistants all the way down.
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@jilly does it count as a dress with pockets if the pockets are removable?
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OMG, I gained 10 lbs just watching them layer all that fabric on that poor woman.
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That’s brilliant! These 18th C pockets are much more roomy than my little bra-strap pocket!
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Isn’t a removable pocket a purse?
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It took an amazing amount time, money and enforced drudgery to keep a small number of people in enforced idleness.
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It’s a purse worn under your clothes.
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It’s a fanny pack. On the inside.
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The pockets are very nice, but the bright white linen slip is my favourite.
It’d be altogether much more comfortable without the stays, but interesting how they help in an engineering sense, for attaching and distributing the rest of the fabric’s weight.
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What is the wooden thing she put down the front?
A busk. It’s a stabilizer for the corset. Nowadays, they’re metal with a hook-and-eye sort of thing, so you don’t have to do up the entire lacing process every time.
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It’d be altogether much more comfortable without the stays, but interesting how they help in an engineering sense, for attaching and distributing the rest of the fabric’s weight.
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Mostly stays weren’t laced super-tight like we tend to think of corsets now. They’re incredibly supportive and comfortable when worn “normally”. You get bust and back support, and the straps aren’t cutting grooves in your shoulders like a bra.
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You’re right, modern elastic is so strong and lightweight, now the structures and fastenings are reduced, and put pressure on smaller points of the body.
Maybe it’s nice that we have the trend for bras showing, and extra bondage-y straps. For the moment, you see a decent offering of straps and support (supposing they do actually function).
The video makes a good point too about adding in a warmer quilted/wadded layer > silk > linen. There were some practical reasons why no English lady could go around in just the linen slip (like we do in Australia).
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