Classes

[femkes_follies]

Second question on the Corset thing....

At what social class do corsets then disappear? Who was too poor to afford one, or worked too hard for it to be practical?

Comments

[mistressarafina.livejournal.com]

Just because you see a curved bustline doesn't mean the person isn't wearing a corset. I am very busty and even with my corset closed as tightly as it can go, I have a curve in profile.

Anyone who has to do a lot of bending at the waist is not served by wearing a corset - at least not the ones that we have extant examples of. I think that corset wearing is more directly related to the amount of manual labor one has to do, rather that specifically to social status - although clearly those two things are related. It'a not practical if you're farming, so why would you go to the expense of making one. See what I mean?

[femkederoas.livejournal.com]

I do see what you mean. And mostly I'm trying to develop my "eye" for portrait analysis, using logic to deduce what's most likely. ;-)

[mistressarafina.livejournal.com]

What I posted was all based on personal experience. That's what I love about what we do. We have a theory and then we can test it. There is no one right way to do anything. Aside from techniques or materials that were clearly invented out of period, I think that everything is fair game.