Historic Costuming as Research

When I was a younger person, I made myself the Doctor Who scarf. I soon found myself striding purporsely around. To keep those loops away from tripping your feet, you have to walk with a strength and and bounce, and the forcefulness of your stride makes the scarf sway out of the way. I understood: the Tom Baker stride isn't just a character choice. It's a costume choice.

I'm starting to understand "making historic costumes" is a kind of historic research; by using the same technology and test wearing things, you get a window into how people lived. Such as:

1. How comfortable historic fabrics are

I still hate working with linen, but I can honestly say my linen shirt is the most comfortable summer garment I've ever owned. And I hate summer. It's breathable, I guess, and it does something cooling with sweat, and it's soft against the skin. 

Suddenly, I understand how historic women and men could stand to be out in the sun with so many layers on. Indeed, I think having layer after layer of swooshy linen around your legs is probably very cooling indeed. 

Today I'm out in a thin polyester top, and a velvet fashion corset, and I hate all my life choices. 

2. How much of corseted waists are actually about illusion

I am approx 99% crush for this woman

The more I study undergarments, the more I understand that the corset is only one part of the silhouette. A huge skirt, huge hair, huge sleeves, and an enhanced bust all create the illusion of a smaller waist by comparison. Those tight-corseted waists are probably not as small as they look.

3. Corsets are just a kind of bra

When people talk about corsets it's always about how they shape your waist. They do that too. But mostly, they give your boobs something to do. They're a structure garment, designed for support and comfort. I think as a small boobed human, I have less of an appreciation for the importance of bras than my larger boobed friends.

Women have been wearing them for hundreds of years, and like usual all the history we have comes from rich women: who could do fashion-forward tightlacing, faint, and who were photographed/drawn with the ideal silhouette. But most other women historically worked, in mills or factories or farms, suggesting the corset must be a functionally practical garment. 

Now, I do think that as a society, it's good that we are past corsets. You can wear them dangerously, and people did. All the same: incorrect wearing of bras causes shoulder problems, and the existence of computers/phones wrecks the back and is a not inconsiderable argument in favour of the corset's virtues. 

4. How technological limitations impacted what people wore

The possible width of fabric was narrower than now, and pattern designs were often limited or influenced by how big a sheet could be. Tightlacing required metal grommets, meaning the more silly corset shapes didn't come in until they were invented in the Victorian era.

I've read that pre-regency shirts were so simple because things like plackets are more labour intensive to produce before the sewing machine. But my friend pointed out, persuasively I think, that Georgian gowns and coats and embroidery were hardly simple things. 

All the same, I'm constantly discovering technological details about machinery or materials, which limited and influenced what clothes were worn.