What are stays in clothing?
Stays, sometimes called a pair of stays, were a common woman’s garment in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Rather like a corset, stays were commonly worn under a dress to support and shape a woman’s figure. They could also be worn like a bodice as outer clothing over a blouse and skirt.
What fabric is used for stays?
The form of the stay was created from three layers of fabric, with wool on the outside as a “facing fabric,” baleen, linen or canvas behind the whalebone, and linen lining on the inside. Additional whalebone was sometimes used in the top of the stay, shaping the wearer’s bust (placement can be seen in Fig.
How should 18th century stays fit?
The proper fit for stays should have the tabs “breaking” right at your natural waistline. The very top of those cuts/splits for the tabs should be at your waist – too high and you don’t get a nice shape; too low and you’ll have pinching.
What age did girls start wearing stays?
Most well-bred European children, girls and boys alike, also wore stays from the age of three months onward. By the time boys were ready for breeching at about age five, they put aside stays along with the rest of their uni-sex baby clothes, and began to dress like miniature men.
When did stays go out of style?
Stays, was the term used for the fully boned laces bodices worn under clothes from the late 16th or early 17th century, until the end of the 18th century.
What was the purpose of wearing stays?
The primary purpose of 18th-century stays was to raise and shape the breasts, tighten the midriff, support the back, improve posture to help a woman stand straight, with the shoulders down and back, and only slightly narrow the waist, creating a “V” shaped upper torso over which the outer garment would be worn; however …
When did stays become popular?
By the middle of the 18th century, stays had become their own garment and they were being constructed in worsted wools, linens and leather for common people as well as the beautiful silk preferred by the wealthy. In the 1730’s, back-lacing stays with a front-laced stomacher became popular.
What is a 1717th century stay?
17th century stays is a rather neglected subject in fashion history and little have been written about it. There are also very few remaining examples of stays and boned bodices and even fewer of those have been properly analyzed.
What was the fashion like in the 17th century?
In the early 17th century women’s fashion were rigid and very formal. The bodice had a long narrow waist, large ruffs were still worn and so was the cumbersome farthingale. Around 1620 fashion grew less formal, and the waist crept up above its natural place.
What were boned undergarments in the 18th century?
When we start our tour of boned, supportive undergarments in the middle of the 18th century, the predominant garment was the fully boned, tabbed stays, with a long torso, and with or without straps: Vertical or angled channels are sewn all ’round the stays, and slim ‘bones’ of reed or whalebone are slipped into every channel.
How did the dress change in the 18th century?
As the 18th century drew to a close, the waistline of dresses rose along with the shortened length of stays, and the emphasis on the forward-thrust of the bust became more pronounced, as did (for this first time in centuries) the emphasis on the breasts as two individual shapes, rather than one single bust mass.