16th century stays

after completing the chemises i wanted to move on to stays, which is the next garment layer after the undergarments. stays were the predecessors to corsets, which are a bit more familiar to most within our modern day. they were often thought of as patriarchal torture devices that made women (and men!) pass out in the streets, break ribs, and have their internal organs squished into places they should not go.

i am here to tell you these are all lies! myths! hogwash! hamslosh! however, within the area of royalty and riches, there were those whose corsets and stays were much too small for their figure and cinched to the point of fainting spells if one tried to do any task other than sitting pretty. for the other 99% of the population, corsets and stays were equivalent to wearing a bra, and perhaps even better. they provided extra support to the body while helping maintain posture and the image of ideals within society. this may sound counter-feminist, but hear me out: instead of attempting to change the physical body through use of diet culture and disordered eating to reach a societal ideal that is impossible, people were able to use corsets and stays to shape their bodies into the societal ideal. you could gain weight or lose weight, and your support garment (and exterior layers) would still fit you.

for this work, i recreated an extant original from 1598 ce. this pattern was drafted by Janet Arnold in her book Patterns of Fashion 5. since it was drafted directly from the original and scaled down to fit into a book, the pattern had to be graded and tested multiple times until the fit was correct for my body.

instead of acting as a garment that helps to shape the exterior layers of dress, i wanted this piece to hold its own and be the final exterior piece. if it were the 16th century, it would be extremely scandalous to be seen in only a chemise and stays, not to mention jeans. however, i am not the first person in the 21st century to bring stays and corsets into fashion – they can be seen on runway shows and have more recently come into being trendy.

i wanted to present this piece in movement to show the lack there of, and how it forms to and shapes the body. this video was played on a tv in the hallway of the visual arts building, so as people walked down the hallway, the video of myself would sometimes sync up with them as if we were walking side by side.