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Impressions of undergarments

Published by The Dreamstress

Impressionism is famous for capturing the mood of scenes, and the nuances of everyday life, so it’s no surprise that many impressionist artists were inspired by the most ordinary, but intimate moments of life: the act of getting dressed.

The most famous Impressionist painting depicting underwear doesn’t show quite such an ordinary scene.  Manet’s Nana looks sweet enough, but subtle clues in the painting reveal her identity as a courtesan.

Nana, Edouard Manet, 1877

I love how you see the rounded stomach, and the flesh of her thighs bumping up below the corset.  It’s so realistic, despite the glamour of the setting.

Edouard Manet, Before the Mirror, 1876

I wonder if ‘Before the Mirror’ shows the same model, and the same corset, as Nana?  It’s certainly a possibility.

Edouard Manet, Woman fastening her garter, 1878-9

I love how this one echoes the garter tying in Boucher’s La Toilette  

Femme au Corset Rouge, 1880, Adrien de Witte

De Witte’s painting does a good job of showing an underbust corset, and the way the bust sits above it.

Edgar Degas, Femme debout et vue de face, agrafant son corset, 1883

Degas work is a great illustration of how you put on a corset.  The model must have had someone to help her with her shoes, as it’s hard to put them on after a corset!

Edgar Degas, Woman in a Corset, 1883

What a lovely charcoal sketch.  But what is the model doing!?!

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Girl in a Blue Corset, 1883-1885

I just love how Renoir sketch of a girl in a corset does such a good job of indicating the boning and stitching of the corset with just a few lines.  It’s a great inspiration piece for Dr Sketchy!

My last two images aren’t actually impressionist paintings, but they are such lovely late Victorian paintings of corsets that I couldn’t resist including them.

Woman With Silk Corset, 1891, Mor Than, from the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest

Young woman adjusting her corset, 1893, Pierre Carrier-Belleuse.

 

Rate the Dress: Pierre Carrier Belleuse & a cinched waist

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week’s 1873ish mourning dress did extremely well, coming in at 8.5 out of 10, despite many of you expressing that there was something not quite perfect about it.  Of course, you all thought that different things weren’t perfect: fringe, apron, train, belt, waist, asymmetry, symmetry, dags…everyone had their own complaint!

Since this is basically ‘Corset Week’ on the blog (like Shark Week, only with whale teeth, not shark teeth!) I thought I should present a corset heavy (or at least heavily corseted) frock for your consideration.

What about a corset worn on the outside?  Pierre Carrier Belleuse painted this intriguing image of a group of woman with the central woman showing off her tightly cinched waist and blue-trimmed blouse.

Pierre Carrier Belleuse, Woman in a blue-trimmed blouse, 1895-1900

The painting documents such an interesting moment: the act of removing a coat, as well as an interesting time in fashion as styles transitioned from the tightly bodiced and high-shouldered 1890s to the drooping pigeon breasts of the 20th century, and from formal, coordinated bodices and skirts to blouses with interchangeable jackets and skirts.

Has our lady done a good job of mixing formality and spontaneity, and of matching her simple black skirt with an ornamented waist cincher, a blouse trimmed with blue satin ribbons, a buff coat and a front heavy black hat?  Or is it all too much of a mis-match?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10  

 

The 1890s black silk corded corset – progress

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve been making good progress on the 1890s black silk corded corset.

I got all the evil cording done.

The back bones and back cording

I chose to use black threads for the topstitching and bobbin stitching, so there are black cording seam lines all over the pink lining.

Black stitching lines

They are a tiny bit irregular, but I’m letting go of the perfectionism and embracing the organic wobbliness and the graphic pattern they make.  It looks like art.  Perfect would just look like stitching lines.

With the cording done, I needed to make sure the pattern pieces were still accurate, and hand’t changed too much with the cording.  You can see how there is white lining fabric showing around all the black pieces: this is because of how the cording ‘shrunk’ the pieces.  I trimmed all the white away and checked each piece against the pattern piece.  It turned out a little smaller than I had planned, but still fits perfectly (yay!)

Busk in, bust pieces sewn on, all the other pieces laid out & ready to go.

With all the pieces corded & checked, I sewed them together.

The pieces get sewed wrong sides together, with the seam allowances facing out.  The seam allowances then get pressed down, topstitched down, trimmed, and then covered with bias binding.      The great thing about this corset is that you can do a fitting with it all sewn together, but before you sew on the channels.

The seam allowances facing out.

In the photo above you can see how the side-front seam has been stitched down and trimmed, and the side seam still needs topstitching and trimming.

A topstitched but untrimmed seam.

I was really worried about cutting and making the bias binding strips, and then topstitching them evenly, but it went beautifully and evenly, and they even look good from the back.

And the corset is looking amazing (if I do say so myself, and Madame Ornata agreed, so it has to be true!).  Even the whole weird bust thing has worked itself out, though I did fiddle with the pattern so much that I’m not sure if it was my fiddling that made it work, or if it actually would have worked as it was shown in the original pattern.

Ta da!

Look at the topstitched boning channels and the topstitched band beneath the bust:

I am so in love!

All I need to do to finish it is to sew a band on the inside under the bust, and bind the top and bottom.  I’m so excited!

The badly-laced back

Oh, and re-lace the back, because I laced the back pieces before I put it together, and then realised that I had got the pieces wrong-side up, so had laced them upside down, with the tightening ties halfway up the back instead of at the waist.  D’oh!

It's so pretty!

But by Saturday that will be all done, and it will look amazing on the model, and I will be very pleased with myself!