Jerkin, ca. 1580Spanish
Brown silk voided velvet trimmed with metallic bobbin lace
Corset, late 1760sFrench
Silk, linen, leather, wood, baleen
(Baleen! Cool!)
Robe de style, 1924–25Jeanne Lanvin (French, 1867–1946)
Ivory and black silk taffeta trimmed with pink and black silk velvet rosettes
Coat, ca. 1919Paul Poiret (French, 1879–1944)
Black silk and wool blend with white leather appliqués and white fur trim
Evening dress, ca. 1884–86American or European
Silk
Pagode: Costumes Parisiennes, 1914Étienne Drian (French, 1885–1961)
Ensemble, late 19th–early 20th century
Slovakian
That last one is my favorite, I think.
A lot of corsetry from Victorian times and before was made from whale bones and baleen and such. Busks (the flat things that were stuck in the front of a corset to make your front all flat and compressed) were sometimes made with ivory and I think it was, like, a romantical thing to have someone carve stuff on your busks? i could be making that one up. I wrote a paper on the history of male corestry when i took a history of fashion class at smith my second year of college.
ReplyDeletealso: Those victorians sure loved them a nice badonka-donk, didn't they? whenever i see a bustle like that, that's all i can think of.
my favorite is the dress from 1925. so pretty!
i know whalebone was common (i assume that's why they still call it boning. haha.) but i didn't know they used baleen, too. neat! and yes, the victorians sure loved their asses. how do you sit down in something like that?
ReplyDeleteOh my god! This is amazing... I have now officially found a new favorite way to waste time...
ReplyDeleteI posted some of my favorites at Gaycondo, though they are more modern than yours I think you will still enjoy them...