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Undressing Your Heroine
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Stays, chemise, and hoops.
c. 1760
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Stays, chemise, and patalettes.
c. 1830
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PART I
Corsets Were Normal
When writing an historical novel of any kind, it is helpful to posses a basic understanding of the clothing of the period. It is especially important when writing romance, as there is usually at least one scene in which your characters disrobe. Unfortunately, this is not the kind of thing you can pick up by watching Hollywood films (though if you pick the right ones, they can be helpful), or even by surfing the web (a lot of stuff out there is just plain wrong, or hard to understand if you’re a period fashion novice).
For nearly every period of history there are groups of reenactors out there who are extremely knowledgeable, and who would be overjoyed to share their obsession with you. We’re particularly lucky here in the Bay Area in this aspect. Hunt them down on the web. Contact them. Ask them for specifics. Ask if you can attend an event and examine their costumes. These people are an invaluable resource. Play your cards right, and you might even finagle your way into costume for the day . . . then you’ll understand how the clothes feel to wear, and nothing can top that!
Many of the novels I’ve encountered over the years have something in common beside a dark brooding hero: the clothing the heroine is wearing . . . or not wearing as is frequently the case. Most specifically the corset (and sometimes the other undergarments too).
There is a common misconception that corsets are uncomfortable, and that independent, forward thinking women of “insert your time period here” wouldn’t have worn them. This is rubbish. Just as the independent, forward thinking women of today wear their Manolo Blahnick stilettos, women of the past wore what was fashionable then.
Another problem that frequently crops up is that writers who do go the extra mile and put their characters in period clothing don’t know how that clothing worked. I’ve read novels where corsets were pulled off over the hips (physically impossible), unhooked down the front (not until the Victorian era, and even then not until you’ve loosened the laces at the back), or yanked off over the head (again, impossible). Knowing how period clothing was put on and taken off is almost as important as knowing what that clothing was.
There also seems to be an impulse to create heroes who are vocally glad their women don’t wear corsets or who outright forbid their lady to do so. These are both cases of modern sensibilities being projected onto people with quite different experiences and expectations. Much like having a modern suitor forbid his girlfriend from wearing jeans (ok, Arnold doesn’t let Maria wear pants in public when she’s with him, but I personally find that strange, not normal).
Corsets were normal, and that’s what’s getting lost.
Part II
Corset Myths
The comfort myth:
A corset that is made for you, and you alone, is very comfortable. They don’t pinch (it’s impossible), they don’t poke (unless the boning is working its way out), and they don’t make it impossible to breathe (unless for some unknown reason, you’re trying to lace it up tighter than you normally wear it). With the exception of the mid to late 1800’s, corsets were not even designed to give you a small waist, but to lift the breasts, and to give you a smooth base for your clothes to sit on top of. In fact, until the introduction of the metal grommet in 1828, tightening a corset enough to dramatically change one’s figure was nearly impossible (the fabric would have given out first). The corset merely provided the right silhouette.
The rebel without underwear myth:
Ladies (the class about which most authors choose to write) would NOT have gone about without their corsets, anymore than women today would go around without their bras (barring when one is a college student and still possesses gravity defying breasts). Those of us who don’t wear bras simply because social standards tell us we’re supposed to, wear them because the “bounce” of an unrestrained breast can be downright painful if we don’t. Your heroines are not going to feel constrained or put upon by their stays. Quite the contrary, they’d feel naked without them! And for you Regency authors, remember: the scandalous ladies are not the ones who are naked from the waist down, but the ones who are wearing pantalettes!
True discomfort factors:
Although rare, there are documented cases of whalebones snapping and puncturing the body. In some cases this even resulted in death (the bone punctured the lung). Less seriously, you may have tiny welts from where the shift has creased your skin (like the creases from bed sheets). These itch for a few minutes. Rubbing them helps. If you lose weight, your corset can become quite uncomfortable (more so than if you gain a bit), as your breasts may slide down and get “squashed” in a very unpleasant way. Plus, if it’s loose, it may rub (and if you’ve ever spent all day with something rubbing your nipples, you know how painful this can be). If the boning works out of the channel at the top or bottom, it can really jab you.
Why Women Wore Corsets:
The corset’s main job has always been to provide the correct silhouette. You simply can’t look like Lady Jane Grey, Marie Antoinette, the Duchess of Devonshire, or Madame X without one. If you make the attempt, the most you’ll achieve is the look of a Halloween costume: A lumpy and ill-fitting mess. It’s impossible to achieve the lines of an Elizabethan gown without a corset (as well as a host of other “underpinnings” such as bumrolls and farthingales). Likewise, Georgian ladies need their stays and pannier, Regency ladies their stays, and Victorian ladies their corsets, crinolines and bustles. If your heroine doesn’t wear stays, she’s not going to be able to wear the clothes of her era, or she’s going to look extremely frumpy and odd in them. Even if she chooses to wear them loosely laced, she should still be wearing them.
PART III
Notes on Actually Wearing a Corset
To add true verisimilitude to your writing, you need to know a bit about what wearing these garments feels like (plus knowing this kind of stuff can provide plot points, if employed properly). Stays can get you into all kinds of trouble. You also need to know the basic parts of a corset.
While corsets are not uncomfortable, they do restrict the wearer in ways you may, and may not, expect. If it has shoulder straps your heroine is going to have a limited range of arm motion. Her elbows will most likely not be able to move past parallel with one another (she could cross her arms, as though angry, but not tightly hug herself). She also won’t be able to reach up above her head completely. The most she’ll be able to achieve is the elegant “O” of a ballet dancer. Because of the busk she’s not going to be able to bend freely at the waist, but will do so from the hip. The busk also encouraged excellent posture. The rule about a lady’s back never touching the back of her chair is essentially superfluous. Lounging is not really an option in a corset.
When you loosen your corset, the first “free” breath is glorious. In the reenactment community it is called “an out of bodice experience." It’s almost like a lightening fast nitrous or nicotine buzz. You get a little lightheaded for a moment. Most people I know hold their breath until the corset is unlaced enough for them to draw a deep breath. I also I feel compelled to let you in on the dirty little secret of the corset: Any kind of corset (even the un-boned Regency ones) will slightly restrict breathing, and move the “bellows” action from the chest to the belly (think, deep abdominal breathing). Even slight breathing restriction will cause mild auto-erotic asphyxiation, which heightens the sexual response. Sex in a corset is intense! Any heroine game enough to try this is going to be in for a revelation.
All corsets have certain things in common. They all have laces, and almost all (with the exception of one extant example) laced up the back. They may also have laced up the front, but that lace would have been for adjusting the fit, not getting in and out of the thing. Most corsets had bones of some kind, or were channel stitched to provide support (Regency era). Channel stitching means quilting in tiny parallel rows. All corsets have “eyes” through which the lace is laced. Before 1828 these eyes would have been created by pushing the threads apart with an awl and then whipstitching the resulting opening. After 1828 the eyes might have been created with metal grommets, and most certainly would have been by the 1840s. Most corsets have a busk, which is a piece of wood or ivory that was inserted into a center-front pocket to provide support (about the shape and size of a wooden ruler, and of whatever length the corset front was). After 1829 they might have had a 2-part metal busk that could be popped open once the corset had been loosened.
PART IV
Rational Dress & Other Corset-less Movements
For those of you who just can’t bear the idea of putting your heroine in a corset, but still want to write a historical novel, never fear, there are a few periods in which stays were left off. You can set your book in one of those!
Firstly, during an EXTREMELY short period of time in Directoire France (roughly the 1790s). During this decade French fashion adopted a Grecian ideal, and some (not all) women abandoned their stays. But this fashion trend did not really leave the French shores, and probably didn’t make it much out of Paris. An Englishwoman visiting Paris during this period may have joined in, but she would just have likely put her stays back on before coming home. Society was not known to be forgiving of any kind of fast behavior. The revolution in France gives you all kinds of scope for your story though (just think of the adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel, or better yet, watch the wonderful BBC miniseries starting Richard E. Grant for inspiration).
The Rational Dress movement of the 1850s (which was strongly aligned with the suffragette movement) called for an end to women wearing 10-14 pounds of petticoats in favor of Turkish-style bloomers (as well as an end to corsets). It didn’t last. Even the great Amelia Bloomer herself (from whence we get the term bloomers) was back in skirts by the end of the decade (having declared that with the advent of the crinoline the issue was essentially moot). This was mostly and American movement, and was mocked loudly in both the States and England (and was the subject of many rude cartoons). Be prepared for your heroine to take a lot of guff, and to wear some truly ugly clothing (think of the kinds of things we put toddlers in now: loose tunics over bloomers).
In the 1870s there was a movement (again, it was American in origin) to reform undergarments which resulted in the Emancipation Waist (a boneless support garment not all that different in function from the light stays of the Regency, they laced up the back, and some of them buttoned up the front). These stuck around for the next several decades for middle class, working women, who needed greater freedom of movement, but were never fashionable, or adopted by the upper class. Still, it gives you an option.
For more information on specific eras, please explore the pages devoted to Tudor, Georgian, Regency, and Victorian undergarments.
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Handout for my workshop
Undressing Your Heroine
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