Project: Polonaise- Part 7, The Wig

As my model had dyed, bright coloured hair making a wig for the costume was very important as a way to keep the authenticity. I had made a wig in a previous Year of my course which I actually felt ended up looking much nicer.

The Second Year Wig

The Third Year Wig on my model

Project: Polonaise- Part 6, The Petticoat

During the 1700's women would wear quilted petticoats in order to smooth out their silhouette over the false rump or panniers. This was also a sign of status, earlier in the century rich, fashionable women would sometimes wear their gowns with a visible petticoat (as in the picture below) and so they were often made of silk. As the character for my polonaise costume was a rich lady I decided that I too had to make the petticoat out of silk.

Project: Polonaise- Part 5, The False Rump

In the 1770's and 80's the emphasis moved backwards from the hips and the panniers that everyone associates with Marie Antoinette were discarded in favour of false rumps. These 'rumps' would be stuffed with horsehair of made from cork and came in various shapes and sizes as can be seen in the caricature 'The Bum Shop' (R.Rushworth 1785).

Project: Polonaise- Part 4, The Pockets and Garters

This part of the underpinnings was one of my favourite to construct. During the eighteenth century women would wear sort of bag shaped pockets around their waists and the other layers of clothing would have slits cut into them so they could be reached. Garters would be worn to keep stockings up. Both of these items would often be embroidered and I decided to make them to match. My main source of inspiration was a pair of pockets from the Snowshill Collection and two pairs of garters from the V and A that I got to sketch during my visit.

Pockets from the Snowshilll Colllection

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.