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Stays and Jumps
Article
contributed
by
Sue Felshin
No documentation, just general information.
Stays are the woman's support garment of the 18th century. Their job was
to support the body and mould it into a straight-backed form, conical from
the waist to the bust. Stays were also sometimes worn by infants to "support
their weak backs".
Posture and gesture were a premiere form of displaying high social status
-- as important as dress, if not more so -- and stays were an important part
of achieving good posture.
Eighteenth century stays were not designed to crush the body, as were
nineteenth century corsets. Instead, they redistributed flesh in order to
achieve the desired conical form and made use of the shoulder straps to keep
the shoulders back and down.
Women of high social status wore stays from the earliest ages, which did
slightly effect the shape of the ribcages. They laced their stays tightly
enough as adults to be uncomfortable. In extreme cases, the back could be
pulled tight enough that the shoulderblades met, and the front could be cut
so wide that the stays jabbed the upper arms if they were not held back and
out at all times. (The prefered posture for a woman's arms was with the
upper arms held away from the body and the lower arms curved gracefully back
in toward the waist.)
Women of low social status wore looser stays, frequently without shoulder
straps. These stays provided a great deal of support and only moderate
shaping. If you are going to spend your day lifting heavy pots on and off
fires, or leaning over a washtub, or sitting on backless stools, you will be
very glad to be wearing working stays! (Compare them to the modern
weightlifter's belt.)
In conservative and prudish New England, stays were nearly universally
worn by women. It would be positively shocking behavior for a woman to be
seen in public without either stays or jumps and very few women behaved
shockingly.
Jumps
It's hard to find a solid definition of jumps. They were a sort of a
watered-down version of stays, less stiff and possibly cut more loosely.
Jumps could be only partially boned, or have cord in place of boning, or be
stiffened with buckram, or be quilted, or some combination. Writings tell of
jumps being worn by pregnant or infirm women, or as "deshabille" (clothing
worn in the private recesses of the home), or by slatterns -- women careless
of their appearance. (Women also sometimes wore stays in these
circumstances.)
A Period Quote -- From London Magazine 1762
Beauty
and Fashion
Then of late,
you're so fickle that few people mind you;
For my part, I can never tell where to find you;
Now drest in a cap, now naked in none,
Now loose in a mob, now close in a Joan;
Without handkerchief now, and now buried in ruff,
Now plain as a Quaker, now all of a puff;
Now a shape in neat stays, now a slattern in jumps,
Now high in French heels, now low in your pumps;
Now monstr'ous in hoop, now trapish, and walking
With your petticoats clung to your heels, like a maulkin;
Like the cock on the tower, that shews you the weather,
You are hardly the same for two days together |
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Object-ively
Speaking:
Case Study of 18th Century Stays
By Sally A. Queen
Underpinnings.
Bjarne Drews' Homepage
Bissonnette on Costume
The Lingerie Collection: 1700 to 1799
1740-60 Stays
Mara Riley andA
Timeline of
Women's Stays
1750-60
Stays www.nwta.com |
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