[Ansteorra] Ansteorra Digest, Vol 5, Issue 55

[Jennifer Carlson]

Lady Penelope wrote:

>The book I read was Support and Seduction:  the history of corsets and bras 
>by Beatrice Fontanel.
>   I cannot remember whether it was the 14th or 15th century, but women 
>would bear one breast.  Also, the silhouette in the 13th or 14th century 
>was very small breasts and big stomachs.  Women would add padding around 
>the middle to obtain the silhouette.

I'll confess right off that I'm not familiar with this book, and will check 
it out at the first opportunity.  But I have tol say that padding is not 
necessary to obtain the 13th-14th century silhouette.

If you ever get the opportunity to attend a gothic gown (sometimes called 
the cotehardie) class by Robin Netherton, who is THE expert on this 
particular fashion, do so.  She's frighteningly informative and funny.  And 
she also does a magnificent class/slideshow that illustrates how we can do 
careful research and make perfectly reasoned conclusions that are ultimately 
dead wrong, because of a tiny misinterpretation by someone up the research 
chain we used.

The gothic gown, so popular in the 13-15th centuries, starts at the 
beginning of that era fitted only around the bust, and as time progresses, 
becomes more fitted down the torso, until it is so fitted that it starts to 
reform the silhouette.  This results in the pouter-pigeon mono-bosom up top, 
and what appears to be a sway-back and big belly below.

What's really happening with the back and abdomen is that the close fitting 
down the back and at the sides forms the garment into the small of the back, 
and at the same time emphasizes all the curves in front down to about the 
navel.  These are curves that today you won't see displayed on a woman very 
often.  One of the comments Ms. Netherton gets again and again is that the 
women who wear this style have men staring at their backs, and that they 
never realized how sexy the curve of a woman's back can be.

The reason the stomach can appear to pooch out is not a result of padding or 
even, as I've heard some assert, a desire to look pregnant (though some of 
the depicted women might have been so, certainly).  Iif you've ever worn one 
of these garments, properly fitted, this is the way you will want to stand.  
The construction of the back and sides supports you well enough that you 
naturally relax into this stance, which is the opposite of the 
stand-up-straight-and-hold-in-your-stomach training most of us grew up with.

And if you want to know what some of us think the real inspiration for this 
posture is, take a look at any gaggle of teenage girls, SCA or mundane, and 
notice how they stand: shoulders back, tummies forward.

Now, as for padding the bosom - well, "gay deceivers" have probably been 
around as long as girls (and boys) have realized that some girls got more.  
But this style of gown, fitted properly in the chest, will put cleavage on 
an ironing board.

In servicio,

Talana