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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Fashion 144 Years Ago


I don't care if this was made out of superior Satteen Twill and real Whalebone. That French hands lovingly stitched every seam. Or that their price and value can't be beat.
You couldn't get me into one if you tried.

Don't care how fashionable it was either.
I'm not very fashionable in this era I doubt I would I have been then.
Don't believe me? I'll prove it to you.
I wear high top Converse shoes with dress pants to work. I've even been known to wear my pink plaid Converse to work. I love my pink plaid ones.
I don't wear pantyhose ever! Hello! It's Phoenix. It's like broiling hot here!
I'm very into comfort. And I'm lazy.
Working this hard to just leave the house wouldn't really work for me.



Every woman wore one.
Not me! Would I jump off a bridge if everyone else was doing it?
Not now.
Sure, back in high school we'd get all liquored up and jump off the Flaming Geyser Bridge. (a bridge across the Green River near our house in Auburn, Washington. Thought I'd give some context).
But, then we'd do all kinds of crazy ass things back then. (stories for another time. No, I'm not worried about my kids reading about them. They already know about most of my misspent youth.)



Or that you weren't completely dressed without one.
Still wouldn't wear it!
(okay, people this is probably more information than you wanted)
I'm not really big into bras and undies ( Not big on the word panties either Anna).
Sometimes I forget all about them when I get dressed in the morning. Or at least the undies part. Bras are another story. It's the whole structure/foundation/age thing. Gravity is not always our friend.


Come on ladies! Fess up. These things just looked brutal.
Would you have squeezed yourself into one?
Would you have bowed to fashion?


A big sorry to all of you guys and maybe some gals who can't or weren't really able to relate to this subject.
Here's some Civil War battle sketches.
Forgive me?



Love,
M

15 comments:

  1. Extreme Fashion: Man's way of keeping women totally restrained.

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  2. To wear a corset would be pure torture right up there with panty hose!!!

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  3. I'd never wear one either, although the strapless bra I wore at my wedding felt pretty similar and painful. I'm with you, comfy clothes always. I'm usually in flip flops but Chuck Taylors rock too. Your Civil War drawings are awesome!

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  4. I dream of wearing one, that is about all. My southern grandmother and all of her sisters wore them, day and night. They had boobs women today pay big money for! My grandmother on the norther side never wore a bra, just a little slip thingy. My mother wore those 1950 pointy things and I wear what is comfortable.

    But I do dream of being very femine and fashionable, it just doesn't work for me.

    Linda
    http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

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  5. Star Trek lore has it that Jonathan Frakes (Riker) wore a corset on the set of 'The Next Generation'. Not sure if this is actually true (my apologies to Mr. Frakes if it isn't), but that's the rumor. Probably not a French corset, though. ;)

    Whoa! My captcha is 'hatenest'. Really? I feel so loved here! :D

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  6. What, I wear one of those now. Is that wrong? :)

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  7. Apathy lounge: Amen!

    Kath: corset+panty hose=torture

    Casey: These are photos I took this a.m. from a 1864 magazine. Cool huh?

    DayPhoto: You have got to be kidding me!

    Goodfather: Could have been French.

    Stileto Mom: And the color is?

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  8. Goodfather: Sorry about the captcha. Another commenter's was "bulsiht". Damn blogger. I'm just waiting for someone to get whthefck

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  9. I'm in a wedding in a month. I totally plan to find something to help me suck it in. This looks a bit too intense though!!

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  10. I would like to try it out for a little while. But not for every day. I do love the look of the dresses they wore over top of these corsets.

    btw the word 'panties' is a bit creepy to me. And 'knickers' sounds slightly sleezy. We just call them 'undies' in our house. Now I am wondering why I thought you needed to know that...............)

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  11. I HAD to hop over to your site after you made the comment on Apathy Lounge that you were a librarian because of math.

    OMG, ME TOO!!

    I actually failed statistics when I went back to college to get my library certification and had to retake it. My math skills had not improved in 20 years!!!

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  12. I don't wear pantyhose either, although, with the weather getting colder up here...

    Nah, I'd have to shave my legs.

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  13. I must admit, if I were in my teens or early twenties I would have forced myself into it. Since I joined the "30s" crowd I'm much less likely to bow to the fashion gods.

    Thanks for stopping by today! I have no idea who this artist is, but I loved the picture since I'm an avid reader. In a former life I wanted to be a librarian but chose economics instead. Where did I go wrong? :)

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  14. If I had the body I want to have, I'd totally rock one of those bitches out. Then again, if I had the body that I want to have, I'd run around naked all the time, too.
    There are some people who are not hoping my diet will be successful, and others that are.
    ;)

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  15. Great post! I actually own one of those Spanx things that starts under your boobs and ends above your knees. I wore it to a couple of things where I needed to wear a dress. And I liked it! It made me feel all. . .pulled together. I think it's probably more comfy than the whaleboning though. I bet if they'd had miracle fabrics back then, the olden days would have looked a lot different.

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