Project: Polonaise- Part 3, The Stays

The next stage of the project was the stays, which is essentially the eighteenth century name for a corset. The Stays worn during this period were designed to elongate the wearer’s silhouette. The corsets typically had a low Scooped bust-line to accommodate the fashionable low necklines of the gowns and were pulled together at the shoulder blades to give the wearer a more upright posture. I decided to make my stays using the 1780's pattern from Nora Waugh's 'Corsets and Crinolines' and also took inspiration from the pair below which is from the V and A that I got to see personally during a visit. I will say this is definitely not the be all and end all of how to make a pair of stays. There are A LOT of things on this project that I would do differently given a second chance but I hope this post is helpful anyway.

Project: Polonaise Part 2, The Shift

A Shift or Chemise (They seem to have been used interchangeably) is the base layer of any pre-19th century European outfit. I chose to make mine out of linen, as the vast majority seem to have been at the time due to cotton still being a luxury item. The majority of this garment was stitched on the machine (as per our course guidelines) with finishing done by hand.

Project: Polonaise - Part 1, Reserch

So here's the beginnings of the details I promised about how I made my Polonaise Costume. As you can imagine I did a TON of research for this project but here's an overview of the important stuff from a cannibalised Statement of Intent and a Historical Fashion Overview from my degree folder.

  A Polonaise was a style of dress popular in the Eighteenth century as an informal style that grew from the habit many women had of tucking their expensive overskirts into their pocket slashes during walks to stop the fabric from trailing in the mud as you can see in the picture below which is from the Kyoto Costume Institute.