Category: 17th century

17th century, Bodies and Stays, Jacobean, Stuart

Sittingbourne Bodies, c. 1630-1650 | Part One: Pattern and Materials

Sarah Bendall

I recently announced that my first research monograph, Shaping Femininity, is now under contract with Bloomsbury Academic. Featured in the book will be the reconstructions of bodies (corsetry) that I did during my PhD (and began blogging about on this site in 2015!), as well as some newer reconstructions. My reconstructions, including farthingales, feature predominately… Continue reading Sittingbourne Bodies, c. 1630-1650 | Part One: Pattern and Materials

16th century, 17th century, Bodies and Stays, Jacobean, Manuscript / Archival Research, Object Research

Bodies or Stays? Underwear or Outerwear? Seventeenth-century Foundation Garments explained.

Sarah Bendall

What should we call the torso-shaping female foundation garments of the seventeenth century? Were they pairs of bodies? Bodices? Stays? Moreover, how were they worn? Were they underwear or were the outer wear? This post clears the air about terminology!

16th century, 17th century, Elizabethan, Farthingales, French Farthingale Roll Reconstruction, French Wheel Farthingale Reconstruction, Jacobean, Object Research, Research Publications

The Farthingale, Gender and the Consumption of Space in Elizabethan and Jacobean England | New Research Article

Sarah Bendall

Abstract: Farthingales were large stiffened structures placed beneath a woman’s skirts in order to push them out and enlarge the lower half of the body. During the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods in England criticisms of these garments increasingly focused on their spatial ramifications, decrying their monstrous size and inconvenience. Nonetheless farthingales served important social and… Continue reading The Farthingale, Gender and the Consumption of Space in Elizabethan and Jacobean England | New Research Article

16th century, 17th century, Elizabethan, Jacobean, Stuart

Back to Basics: The Smock in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Sarah Bendall

As many of you know, during my PhD I decided to reconstruct four items of female structural dress from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. However, in order for the reconstructions to be worn during photoshoots the most basic female undergarment of the the early modern period was needed: the smock. The Smock – A Brief… Continue reading Back to Basics: The Smock in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

16th century, 17th century, Experimental History, Jacobean, Object Research, Rebato Collar, reconstruction

Rebato Collar, c. 1600-1625 | Part One: Brief History and Materials

Sarah Bendall

The structural fashions of the early modern period in Europe reached a peak at the turn of the seventeenth century. Whilst the ruff, a gathered and starched linen frill that was worn around the neck, was still widely worn, at the beginning of the seventeenth century a new type of standing linen collar became fashionable.