What Lies Beneath
The official page.
There’s loads of bits we could put up here. Infact the whole project is being written up into a rather lengthy report but…I think for the sake of imagery and something easy to read, we’ll just pop up a nice and easy synopsis of the project….for now.
So…. How did it all start?
I first saw these stays on my very first trip to the NMS when I was researching undergarments. We had out several boxes on the table and I was doing a brief photo, drawing, note-taking on each. This was WAYYYY before my time of realising what I actually wanted from a study session and so my time with each item was only like 15 or 20 mins.
Anyway, in one of the boxes was a pair of exquisite looking stays. Very curvy. very extreme in it’s appearance. but also very pretty. It was a floral dull blue damask with matching seam tapes and patterned lining – very attractive to an early-researcher’s eye like mine.
Years later, when I was full swing into the mantua project, I remembered these stays and requested to see them again. My theory?? Could these be BRITISH court stays – as in stays worn with the mantua gown?
Back out came the stays and out came my pencil and tape measure and I began to take a pattern. BUT i hit a wall – though I could take a pattern of what was seen, my study session was beginning to crop up question after question as to how these stays were made and was the pattern I was taking correct? Was there more going on below the surface.
In all honesty, at that moment I had to down my pencil and look over at the lady in charge of my appointment and exclaim that I didn’t think I could actually accurately study these stays! Things got discussed….and I left with a challenge that if I could find funding it wouldn’t be ridiculous to get the stays X-rayed. X-rayed. I mean, actually X-rayed. As in – be able to see what the heck was going on beneath the layers and everything. I’m a Christian so my drive home that evening was one LOOOONNNNNGGGGGG conversation with Jesus, pouring hope and ache into every word and agonizing with him about the frustration of not knowing what these stays were doing.
To cut a long story short, after 3 attempts and a pandemic in between, I was finally able to secure funding and to get the project off the ground.
The Project:
First stage was to get the stays X-rayed.
The 2nd was to arrange a visit to LACMA and study a pair of suspiciously similar pair in their collection.
3rd stage – to study the stays again alongside the X-rays.
4th stage – to use the study notes to create a replica.
5th stays – to create a comparison section to the project where other stays were compared to the original pair and the methods found to be put into context of 18th c staymaking. to compare making methods, pattern cutting, sizes and fashion details.
6th stage – to replicate a mantua and sample it with the replica stays.
7th stage – to write up the report.
Stages 1 to 6 have all be completed – stage 7 is still very much ongoing.
