Women's underwear during the First Empire

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FIRST EMPIRE

SECOND EMPIRE

Women's underwear during the First Empire

<i>Corset "à la Ninon", Parisian fashion 1810 © D.R.</i>

Increase

Underwear was originally worn to protect the wearer's skin from often richly decorated clothes that could irritate or scratch the skin. They were also intended to add an extra layer to keep out the cold and make warm conditions more bearable, whilst also resculpting the body to suit the popular fashions of the day. To meet these requirements, new specialised items of clothing, such as the corset, were invented. The Revolution and Directory periods saw the rejection of old Ancien Régime styles and the liberation of the female form (which resulted in the abandonment of constrictive pieces of under-clothing such as the shirt, the corset, and the panier - stiffened hoop dresses supported by whalebone inserts - which made up the gown "à la française") but by the Consulate period so-called "decency" was beginning to make a return.

Fashion styles inspired by antiquity - simple forms with no petticoat worn - remained popular, but light or transparent fabrics were no longer acceptable. The new imperial regime in 1804 - seen as a return to order - also marked the return of the corset.

The corset - which sat low below the hips - was worn not only to support the bust and slim down the waist and pelvic area, but to avoid any hint of transparency. Large adjustable buckles were worn over the shoulders to hold it in place: at this time, whalebone had not been added, and so its rigidness was created through the use of selvedges and added cotton thread. The busk, a piece of hard metal or wood placed at the centre front of the corset, was used to flatten the stomach and hold the shape of the corset. The most popular style in 1808 was the corset known as "à la Ninon", which featured a flexible cotton bodice with a small busk that felt less restrictive across the stomach.

During this period, the undershirt worn underneath the corset and against bare skin made its reappearance. Often made from woven white cotton, the shirt would hang down to the lady's thighs. In less well-off families, it could also be made from linen or hemp. The shirt's collar was generally open and often square, whilst the sleeves were usually short. Ladies would also wear stockings which went up to just below the knee and were held in place by garters. These stockings could be in cotton, silk or even wool.

Unlike in Britain or Austria, the use of drawers or under-trousers was not yet particularly widespread in France. When it did eventually arrive, following Napoleon's marriage to Marie-Louise (who had worn them since childhood), it was to prove a shock to the French population.

Emmanuelle Papot (tr. H.D.W.)
January 2012

Sources :

- Nathalie Harran, La Femme du Directoire au Ier Empire, Ed. Errance, 2010
- Cristina Barreto and Martin Lancaster, Napoléon et l'Empire de la Mode, Skira, 2010
- La vie des Français au temps de Napoléon, Larousse, 2003

The Empress of the French, In her Bridal Costume

Increase

The invention and proliferation of the sewing machine is a milestone in the history of textiles and dress. The pace of industrial change during the nineteenth century was such that from its date of conception in 1846 it took only twenty years for machine stitched garments to all but replace the more labour intensive alternative. The speed at which stitches could be made gave way to an increase in the number of stitches required in a gown:

"As soon as lovely woman discovers that she can make ten stitches in the time that one used to require, a desire seizes her to put in ten times as many stitches in every garment, as she formerly did." (The English Woman's Domestic Magazine, October, 1867)

Although the first machines designed to stitch fabric and other flexible materials had first appeared as early as 1804 the technology was not commercially successful until after 1846, when Elias Howe (US) first patented his lockstitch machine.1 Previous to Howe's patent that was registered in 1846, the Frenchman Barthelemy Thimonnier had patented a machine that produced a chain stitch and that was used in the production of army uniforms as early as 1830. As with many technological advances around this time, it is difficult to pinpoint the earliest appearance of a particular innovation and numerous patents and designs appeared simultaneously. Howe is widely recognized as the principal inventor as it is his lockstitch machine that endures today.

Machine stitches on silk could be produced at a rate of 550 per minute compared to 30 by hand – one of the obvious advantages of rapid stitch production was the opportunity to employ more of them in each garment. Mass manufacture was a concept that had been applied to clothing but only to a very narrow range of products – mainly to slops and to military clothing. The improvement in the machine itself and the quality of its stitches meant that the trend for voluminous skirts at the moment of the lockstitch machine's invention was fortuitous for both the new technology and the fashion industry.2 This is exemplified by Empress Eugénie depicted here by the Illustrated London News, wearing her State wedding gown. The gown has been described by observers as velvet and the voluminous layers of lace aptly termed (in German of which there is no English equivalent) 'duft'.3 The main component of the gown was in fact 'velvet épinglé', an incredibly fine corded silk, of the same weave family as velvet.

"The dress for the religious marriage was made by Mdme. Vignon; […] with a train, and covered with point d'Angleterre; the corsage à basques, decked with diamonds. Point d'Angleterre was chosen for this dress, on account of the veil, which could not be obtained in point d'Alençon." (Illustrated London News, 5 February 1853)

The multitude of layers would have been extremely labour intensive even if stitched by machine. Eugénie's later renown for extravagant changes of dress and demand on her dressmakers would have taken on an altogether different meaning had she been reliant solely on hand stitched techniques.

Zoe Viney 2010

Image: The Empress of the French, In her Bridal Costume. Taken from the Illustrated London News, March 5 1853

Sources :

1 Cooper, G (1985) The sewing machine (Washington, D.C : Smithsonian Institution Press) [pp. 6, 19]
2 Cooper [pp. 58-9]
3 Lady Augusta Bruce quoted in HRH Victoria (1908) The Letters of Queen Victoria: A selection from her Majesty's correspondence between the years 1837-1861, Vol II (London, John Murray) [p. 434]

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