I’ve been working a lot on my edwardian wordrobe latley. If you got tired of it, I can tell you this will be the last one in a while (I do whoever have some post on this era planed for later).
But before we skip backward a few centuries I want to show the complexity in which the edwardian lady dressed. When dressing for the recent photoshoot my sister/photagrapher exclaimed: Omg, and to think they wore all this every day.
She is not far from wrong. Acctually, the “finer” lady would change into several different dresses in one day (morning, walking, dinner ect.), something that would have taken both time and help from a handmaid/dresses. The women of lesser meens would have to settle for one dress a day (week, month…). And she would not have worn all the extra layers, accessories and padding except perhaps for sundays.
But enough about that. Here is my Edwardian Lady undressed.
As usual we start fully dressed, in: Gown and appropirate accessories like hat, belt/swiss waist, fan, glowes and juwelry.
Once the accessories are removed we find a much softer looking style, wearing only the gown – even though she would never have walked outside this “naked”. Lets do another layer.
Beneth we find the corset cover/brassiere who both keeps the sharp edges from the corset from showing through the dress, and helps create the fashionable “pigeon bust” of the period. We also find the petticoat, which in this period could be very decorative with lots of lace and ruching, but in this case is simply a white cotton one.
When we remove the brassiere, we can se parts of the corset.
And without the petticoat the bum-enhansor/bumpad is visible. I’ve haven’t had the time to make a proper edwardian one yet, but uses my 18th century purple one instead. The bumpads obvious purpose is to enhance the bum and to give a more distinkt S-bend shape.
And then we are down to the unmentionables: The corset with its garter and S-shape, the petticoat, stockings, separate under bodice and shoes. I wear an regular tank-top beneth he corset since I have’nt gotten around to make the proper edwardian combinations yet.
And that was all for this time.
Omg, and to think they wore all this every day.
how would they keep all the things in place? they must be moving around in a mechanical way. Omg
Ha ha , yes they must have been a bit more stiff then we in our sweats…
I’ve seen both comercials and books on “how to move effortles” and “to walk elegant with a train”. But I guess they also where pretty used to it.