[Ansteorra] hoop petticoat

[Elisabeth B. Zakes]

On 1/30/08, Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
>
> How are the Spanish farthingales done, the ones that look like you
> are standing inside a round, flat table? I assume they aren't stiff
> enough to set your drink down on, although that could be handy.:-)


No, they are not parallel to the floor, so setting a drink down on one would
be ... messy. :)

The one I have, usually referred to as a wheel farthingale, is thin
rattan-type reeds sewn into oval channels on a drawstring underskirt, per
Janet Arnold's -Patterns of Fashion-. The rest of the skirt that hangs down
from that is unboned at all; it merely gives a bit of support to the skirt
itself, which is cartridge pleated. The front of my corset is pointed, and
the point rests on the outside of the farthingale, which tilts the front
down a bit. Various paintings from the Elizabethan period shows the skirt
higher in the back than in the front (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Elizabethditchley.jpg). And to help
support the back, I wear a bum roll just on my hips that is about 8 inches
in diameter at the centre back, and tapers to ties at the sides so there is
no padding on the entire front half. The whole idea was to give an illusion
of a very tiny waist.

And yes, I prefer to sit on a stool than a backed chair when wearing this
contraption. :)

Also, unless I am mistaken, a Spanish farthingale was conical, where the
"tabletop" look is usually labelled French, though the French tended towards
padding rather than boning (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ball_Henri_III_detail.jpg), and the
Elizabethans used more boning than padding (
http://elizabethangeek.com/costumereview/images/18.jpg). But I have not
studied those in depth and could be remembering wrong.

Aethelyan Moondragon
Bryn Gwlad