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Part Three: Examples of Plebeian Wearing NOT Wearing Stays

Whalebone Stays: Who Wore Them? Part 3

Evidence of Plebeian women NOT wearing Stays:

Next we shall look at images where Plebeian women are NOT wearing stays and there are quite a few . And some of them, I have admittedly stolen from John Styles book ‘Dress of the People’.

joh collets works - female oratorsFirst we have ‘The female Orators’ – see right. The complete print contains 2 ladies, one viewed here on the right and the 18th c working women imagesother on the left. Our images are split but these are the two ladies found in the original images. Neither, we think, are wearing stays. Although bedgowns were loose garments, there is still too much baggage in these images for them to wearing stays underneath.  I’ve tried to place the images here as large as possible so you can see the shape of the breast (as in this lady here – see right) and the looseness at the back – (see below).

Here’s our logic:  the Stays are such a rigid piece of undergarment that they easily shape the body into a cone. This creates two effects. 1) It means that there is no natural curvature to the bust at the front – which, you can see with the top ‘Female Orator’ that she definitely has. And 2) the bust is shoved up to the top of the stays and held there. This ‘shoving up’ of the bust also creates an angle that can be clearly seen beneath any form of clothing bar a loose shawl  (which unfortunately a lot of images include). but the way that the cloak strings tie round the bust, in the case of Pink stripey lady to the left, this really should not be possible if stays were being worn.

Next is an image by John Masey Wright, titled ‘A Rustic Dance’, There’s no date for this image but as the artist was only john masey wright - a rustic dance - no date - HandBound Costumes, Whalebone Stays who wore them, did working people in the 18th century wear stays? Could you work in fully boned stays? Historical Replica Costumes made to measure for theatre and re-enactments, HandBound Costume Research into Stays and their historyborn in 1777, I can’t imagine it’s much before 1810. Still, the main lady, throwing herself into her dancing and looking like she’s having a great time does not look like she cares about Stays either. This is all down to individual interpretation – but she looks far to baggy to be in stays. There is a downside to this though, if the date is anywhere between 1790-1815 then it wasn’t in the mode of dress to where the kind of Stays we’re mutual embrace - 1774 - short calico gown - HandBound Costumes - Bibliography, customer library and research, whalebone stays; who wore them? what did the normal people in the eighteenth century wear? Historical costume research for made to measure period clothing, HandBound EIghteenth Century Historical Costume and Researchconcentrating on at any rate. It could also be argued that ‘Modes of Fashion’ took a while to trickle down to the lower classes and therefore this factor wouldn’t necessarily count in her case. Who knows – but it’s a great image and has been included as a ‘possibility’ 🙂

The next image is called ‘The Mutual Embrace (see above). The women being embraced is wearing a bedgown but is she wearing stays? I don’t think she is – the back and side of her torso look a little too relaxed and natural for a figure wearing stays. Please feel free to put your comments in!

Next is an amazing image by Paul Sandby – we so appreciate this guy here at HandBound, I can imaginePaul Sandby-Cries of London - Nat Gal of Scotland 1759 - HandBound Costumes - Bibliography - 18th century costume research - what people wore - street sellers clothing - Everyday georgian costume him only drawing what he actually sees! Anyway, it’s one of the ‘Cries of London’ and we don’t think she is wearing any stays – her bust looks a little too natural. She is also very poorly dressed – which doesn’t help our case, because when we use the word ‘plebeian’ it comes with the obvious understanding that the state of even one person’s life can peak and trough with times when they are slightly more affluent and times when they are not. Being plebeian does not assume you are always at rock bottom, nor ever at rock bottom – merely that you ‘belong to a low social class’ (see cambridge dictionary). The fact that she is in tatters and badly dressed means she cannot afford even a basic standard of clothing and therefore far less able to afford a pair of stays. This does not mean she never had an oppurtunity to own a pair or that she wouldn’t in the years to come, but that at, right this moment in her life, she is not able to afford even the basic clothing that workhouses would supply (see Dress of the People – J.Styles).

The next image

is a brilliant cartoon of the ‘Abusive Fruit Woman’ (see below) and again, the market stall lady does not appear to have stays on – you can see the shape of her slightly saggy boobs wonderfully. What is interesting about this image is that although she is wearing no stays she is wearing a nice looking hat – possibly of black silk and with a bow. If , and it’s a big if as there

Abusive fruit woman - pubd 25th feb 1773 by JR Smith - handBound Costumes - Eightheenth Century Clothing Research - exampls of Street sellers clothing - plebian costume - georgian costume - cloak string examples - 1700's english costume - white aprons - history of working clothes - made to measure historical Costumes - Historical Costume imagesis absolutely no way from an engraved cartoon to be able to tell if a hat is silk or not, but, IF, she is wearing a silk hat then she is a woman who does care about her clothing, is a woman who has a finery item and who is still not wearing stays. Just for interest – all of these lovely ladies are wearing bedgowns in the above images, of (which is also an interesting point) varying lengths. They also wear a standard skirt beneath. Three have aprons, the others appear to not, and the only one I’m a bit vague on is the lady in Paul Sandby’s Cries of London 1759 (two images above) she is either in her shift/smock and tucking her skirt in

Paul Sandby - Eighteenth Century Costume - Plebian costume - Women's Georgian Costume - street Sellers and what they wore - history of Aprons - Cries of London - 1700's dress - history of English costumeto her arm (working woman seem to have been quite in the habit of doing that) or her apron and the white garment showing beneath is a white skirt. As it’s a sketch it’s hard to tell. Also three of them have some sort of string crossing their chests and in two of

these pictures (‘Abusive Fruit Woman’ and the first image from ‘Female Orators’) it seems clear that this string is to hold their shoulder cloak on. Next is the image here also by Paul Sandby and entitled ‘Light for the cats and Liver for the dogs’ (that would’ve been her cry – wonderful isn’t it!) and is dated the same year: 1759 (see above). She also appears to not be wearing stays. And she also is wearing a blue bedgown, her apron is in a knot and is long and she wears a tattered skirt that comes a good 9″ above her ankles and displays her wearing either very loose and badly knitted socks or some sort of spats or leg wrappings. Also, it’s something I’ve noticed in other images of plebeian women is that shoe laces – proper shoes laces I mean, not literally ‘lace’ on shoes as the upper classes would call it but ‘Lace’ in the modern sense of the term – features quite a lot. This lady is also wearing quite a high-necked shift/smock. paul sandby - c.,1759 - two women holding baskets - HandBound Costumes - Working class costume in the eighteenth century - historical costume - bedgown images - Aprons - Plebian Clothing - Made to measure historical costume - period clothing - Georgian dress - 17000's womens costume-

Next we have another Paul Sandby image and it is entitled: ‘Two Women holding baskets’. It’ is debatable as to whether these ladies have stays on. And we’re only including it here, not as evidence that they weren’t but more a really good image of working women in working dress. The lady in front is wearing a bedgown, her blue apron caught up in the string, a red coloured under skirt with nice-ish looking shoes and a some sort of cap or bonnet tied on with dark kissing strings. She also wears a white scarf about her neck. The lady beyond her, who is a bit more out of sight, is mostly in brown, with a large and full brown apron tucked up, a cap under her wicker hat, full length skirt and a Cries of London - Francis Wheatley - Primrose Seller - 1793 -HandBound Research - Costume Bibliography - Eighteenth Century dress - Poor peoples clothing in the seventeen hundreds - 18th cent costume - 1700's clothing - Georgian Costumevague something-or-other on her top half. She also wears a long shawl. For some reason, she also seems to be almost displaying her breast! This might actually be suggesting she IS in a pair of stays –  as the top of the breast could get held near to the top of the stays, making it pop outable if the tightness and size of breast is correct. This kind of lowness of necklines tends to be a design feature of the more fashionable dress and therefore the stays echoed this shape and as did the shifts. Though she doesn’t overly look like she’s wearing stays but she could be just wearing a brown coarse linen shift with a low neckline and hence why it is flopping down and revealing her chest.

Next we have The Primrose Seller by Francis Wheatley. Painted in 1759 this selection of images contain a lot of interesting Costume features. The lady here does not seem to be wearing a pair of stays – the front of her dress and little too-slouched we think for one supported by stays. To see a larger picture of this painting please see out Customer Library and the Francis Wheatley Page.