Episode #21-'History, Bitches' Gets Undressed, Part 2 (Show Notes)

Bodies, stays, and busk points, OH MY! This week, for ‘History Bitches Gets Undressed, Part 2,’ I speak to guest co-host Sarah Bendall about the predecessors to the corset. Tune-in to hear about Catherine de' Medici’s rumored connection to the stay’s invention, how busks and busk points were exchanged as love tokens, and how little views about women’s bodies have changed from the 17th century! For visual references to the garments discussed in the podcast, check-out the show notes!

Bodies & Stays

Bodies’ or corset of ivory silk worn by
Pfalzgräfin Dorothea Sabin von Neuberg, c. 1598.
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (You can see the channel that the
busk would have slid into running down the front of the bodies.)

Bodies of Dame Elizabeth Filmer, c. 1620-1640.
Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester.

Stays of silk damask, lined with linen, reinforced with whalebone,
hand-sewn, English 1770-1790. Victorian and Albert Museum, London

Corset, 1883. British. Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Busks

For more about historical women's fashion, visit Sarah's blog:

Fashioning Nostalgia

Sarah has also written a piece on the history of corset for the Powerhouse Museum. Check it out here:

From Bodies to Corsets: A Brief Overview of the Corset

Episode #20-'History, Bitches' Gets Undressed, Part 1 (Show Notes)

Centuries before the Victoria’s Secret Angels were raising eyebrows on the cat-walk, European noblewomen set fingers wagging and hearts racing with their voluminous skirts! For this week’s episode of ‘History, Bitches,’ I chat with Sarah Bendall, a Phd candidate researching women’s history through the lens of underwear. For the first in a two-part series, we discuss the farthingale, a structural garment worn under the skirt to increase its diameter. For visual reference, Sarah has provided the following pictures:

Spanish Farthingale: c. 1540s-1580s

       

French Farthingale: c. 1570s-1620s

Wheel Farthingale: c. 1580s-1620s

Mantua, from the Museum of London c. 1750s

Check-out more historical fashions on Sarah’s blog:

Fashioning Nostalgia