Centre Front Panel of the replica of K.201.5.85

The Project:

• Studying and understanding K.2015.85 – a very distinct pair of stays in the NMS collection
• Have the stays X-rayed (which took place last year, in the Spring of 24)
• Re-study the stays in the light of the X-rays (which took place last year in the Spring)
• Cross compare the stays with a very similar pair in the LACMA collection
• create replica to test out methods learnt
• dress replica with 18th c style gowns to see how the stays work with robings

Oh there are so many questions with these stays – and so many more that have popped up during the research – that IF, even just to record all the questions and possible theories that take rise from them would be a rather wordy document. And as the final report has been begun, it is indeed proving a rather worthy document.

The Stays were finished back in November 2024 and a mantua gown was started and mostly completed in December 2024, but here we are now in July 25 and the report is still in the midst of being written.

Take a look at some of the stunning coats this gentleman had in his wardrobe:

It is simply a joy to study coats like these.

Some interesting facts from the collectin:

• they’re not the greatest examples of tailoring we’ve seen! Some of the stitching is incredibly good and some a wee bit sloppy. Some of the lines too are not as neat as they could be. And this maybe speaks of a middle of the road tailors shop = perhaps one not based in London where the competition was great, but a smaller town based tailors. Who knows!
• There are enough intruiging similarities to suggest, though definitely not all made by the same person, but perhaps enough to suggest that some of them were made by the same tailoring house.
• he had a rather garish taste for cloth! From purple striped velvet with stars stamped out  to a strong mustard green. And also large decorative buttons on one his woolen coats.

Meet Sno.401 – (images courtesy of Snowshill Manor, National Trust)

This is a late c.1780s-1790s coat made from the most softest and exquisite silk velvet I’ve ever felt! The velvet pile is quite deep which adds such a softness to the touch. It’s also figured (stamped? or woven lol – no idea but very clever!) so that the yellow weave also glimmers through creating a really beautiful effect.

This coat has mariner style cuffs, a stand collar and just the two functional buttons along the CF edge.

The sleeves look to have been let out at the back side seam – something our research is trying to follow with great interest, and it has linen supported fronts, if you’re interested in what inner tailoring there is :).

Let’s talk about 1730s fashion trends

The early part of the 18th century is one of those eras that appears to have gotten lost in time – especially fashion wise. It seems to have simply faded into being and become the years that fill the gap between the return of the King – Charles II –  in 1660 and the more busy reign of the Georgian King, George III. This is represented in our love of the fashions too, for these eras. The classic doublet and hose that were still being worn as Charles took his throne – and the for more loved and favoured furbelow sacks that pretty up our reenactment balls and Georgian events.

But there are  indeed 5 reigning monarchs ( or rather 4 monacrhs and one Oligarch (William & Mary)) between these two kings and much of the 18th century fashion appears to very much stem from garments that were introducted and that became popular in Charles’ reign. And this is no more visible and important for the 1730s.

The ‘Persian coat’ that Charles II introduced became the forerunner of the classic 18th century mens coat – and indeed the 3 piece suit that we have today!. And during this same period (the c 1660s) the evolution of the nightgown and the mantua and the sack began too.

Interesting times, hey!

For this post we’re just going to be looking at the 1730s – and the fashions that those early 17th century gowns evolved into.

With the round hoop, the mantua and night-gown really come into a style of their own – bell shaped and elegant, the cuffs were fashionably short (for atleast half of the 1730s), the skirts lovely and round and the torso, encased in stays created that slightly elongated torso.

This fashion can be perfectly glimpsed in the 1737 publication ‘The Rudiments of Genteel Behaviour’ booklet that taught the readers how to walk, bow, curtsy and all keeping the genteel movement expected by those fair, genteel folk.

If you look at this image here – you can see those high pinched sleeve cuffs, the very domed skirts (especially at the top! We’re not quite sure yet how they achieved that!), the elongated and smooth torso and the neat way the front train of the mantua sweeps round to the back.

It’s interesting too, the way the shift sleeves hang straight and long beneath the shortened sleeve.

The ‘Les Manteaux’ image is from 1729 – and goes to show the development of fashion over the next decade or so. The mantua itself hasn’t overly changed – but  the hoop appears to be more domed and less full at the top. It also seems to prefer longer more relaxed looking sleeves and cuffs.

To bring some colour into these decade, let’s bring in another image – and this one also is from the late 1720s.

Studying and understanding court fashions, is, like most fashion, not as simple to understand as we’d like. The Royal Courts could host a whole range of ‘Undress’ to extreme Ceremonial dress functions and there are underlying fashion codes that are maybe not so obvious to us nowadays as they were back then. This means understanding the whys and whens of the costume that we see in court images is a little more complex. This image here, entitled ‘Tea at Lord Harringtons’ can be found in the royal collection and features an afternoon tea at the rooms of Lord Harringon within St James. This may suggest an ‘undress’ court appearance and may explain why the ladies are entrenched in hoops – but who knows – there may have been a fashion for no hoops – or a court function where hoops were discouraged.

The hint that the majority of these ladies are wearing mantuas is two-fold. The neat little buckle at the lower
ed waist is a fashion linked to mantuas. The ruffled up trains behind them also signifiies a nod towards this part of the gown on behalf of the painter. On the blue and pinky lady in the front left, you can also see the front train being pulled round. The Cunningtons mention that some trains could be detachable and images like this you begin to get a sense of how that could have been possible. The lady in light pink on the right is in possibly a night-gown or Robe a l’Anglaise – the back of her skirt has been painted differently.

The details of the stomachers in this painting is also really telling. The lady in a lovely heavily patterned brown silk looks to have thin lines drawn across her stomacher. This may be a nod towards those silk cord decorated stays.

painting. Again she has an interesting stomacher – whether it is the string decoration from the stays or some kind of decorative stomacher we will never know – unless Hogarth kindly lest us some notes, as this family portrait is also painted by William Hogarth, and in the same year.

We first came here back in 2018 to study the Aqualate Hall mantua (which we called Shrewsbury – it seems to have officially been retermed ‘Aqualate Hall’ now by the unknown authorities up there in the museum world)

From that first session we always wanted to re-visit but it’s hard to know what kind of items they actually have in their collection – it not being searchable online.

A fellow instagramer (@the_back_stitch_boys) shared some images of the yellow quilted bodice and we’ve not studied anything like that. We knew we were up at some point to Berrington to set up the Mantua Display – but how it worked out was more perfect than we could imagine! I literally gave the poor museum only about 4 days notice and amazingly they were able to fit me in.

So here are some pics of what we’ve been studying up there – and very much am going to continue to study once we can book another trip. It’s good old money issues though so if anyone wants to buy the book and support a study trip lol.

Quilted Yellow Bodice + Stomacher:

This item was stunning to study. Complete with it’s matching stomacher – the whole ensemble was in great condition and appears to feature no alterations whatsoever.

Embroidered Stomacher:

Now this one was interesting as we’re hoping to get funding to study a pair of court stays at the NMS (National Museum of Scotland) . This, what we call ‘Torpedo’ style front tab is hugely fascinating to us and we really want to know why and how it developed. The fact that this stomacher has been embroidered and decorated to assimilate the court stays front is intriguing. It was also worth taking some dimensions in order to compare to NMS stays.

Covered Stays:

Exactly what covered stays are is something we’ve always wondered – their front opening nature and very basic style boning has always raised many questions and we’d never really seen anything like it in the portraiture of the day. This pair however were a little different from the usual design. It had no front opening – and looked to be very similar to how a robe du cour would have been constructed. Except the boning – the boning was very similar to the covered stays – hugely chunky – and with loose bents in this case – and straight, straight down lines for the boning. Very different from the fluid and detailed court stays – which, though are made from patterned silks actually don’t always appear to be covered – as in the stitching can be seen from the top.

This book studys and concentrates on a gown remade at some point during the 1750s and 1760s.

The book provides a photo heavy study of the gown, a look at the stitches and threads used on the gown. It also provides a scaled down pattern of the original gown plus a Step-by-Step guide teaching how to make the gown using the EXACT methods that the original seamstress used.

It also talks a bit about the history of the night-gown and how it developed, plus there’s a chapter taking a deeper look at the alterations made on the gown.

All in all – it’s a useful and informative book on this c.1760s yellow night-gown!

What a stunning load of early 18th century mantuas simply gliding around the park!

As part of our 1760s dressmaking study, we’ve been replicating a 1760s nightgown and plan to release a book style pamphlet based on an original gown.

To test out the instructions, we made this here dress. And very pleased we are with it too!

Here’s a quick little glimpse of what now features in our latest Facebook post. 🙂

http://https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=371549523960534

And some lovely close-ups too…

We’re turning attention to the 1760s at the moment and here’s a really simply sweet gown from the Palais Galleria.

Check out the following images and also we have now created a 1760s Image page so you can find these images on that too. 🙂

French fashion from the 1700s – Palais Galleria

a sack back gown from the 1750s to 60s

Sack back gown from the 1750s-60s roccoco style fashion

Only in British Fashion!

Don’t get excited -we’ve only just started researching so not all of our research will be up here yet, but we have embarked on a long ol’ journey to get our heads round a few important questions:

• What exactly was the Mantua in all or any of it’s variations
• Does the term Mantua include or cover or belong to the Robe a la Anglais
• If not, what differs in them
• The court version of the Mantua compared to the Stiff Bodied Gown
• What exactly is the Stiff Bodied Gown and what is it’s history

And probably a whole load more questions that could crop up as we begin to dig.

We may have to change our article on Stiff Bodied Gowns too.

But, here are a couple of photos from our latest trip to the wonderful Bath Fashion Museum.

All of these images are courtesy of the Bath Fashion Museum and we ask that you treat them with grave respect 🙂

First up is:

BATMC: 93.436 – Stiff Bodied Gown Doll – 1769-71

Back View – image courtesy of Bath Fashion Museum

Front View – Image courtesy of Bath Fashion Museum

BATMC.I.09.1406 – Court Mantua – 1760-69

Back View of Bodice and sleeves – image courtesy of the Bath Fashion Museum.

An image of the long train of the skirts of the dress. Fairly narrow. Image courtesy of Bath Fashion Museum