Crinolines and corsets are back....Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2013

In Sarah Burton's exploration of the feminine silhouette for Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2013, the body has been transformed by the extraneous supra-structures of the crinoline and corset. Playing with transparency and concealment, Burton has carved out a wasp-waisted, hyper-feminine look, reminiscent of the crinoline craze in the mid-19th century and Dior's New Look in the mid-20th century.

Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2013

The designer said: “The collection is a study of femininity. We looked at erotica. Vargas girls, cages, corsets and crinolines and the idealisation of the female form. Nothing is set in a particular period. It’s about sensuality and skin but not nudity. We also wanted to express lightness, for the clothes almost to hover over the women who wear them.”

Book Review: If Walls Could Talk by Lucy Worsley

Curator, historian and author Lucy Worsley knows how to make history accessible, interesting and entertaining. In her latest book If Walls Could Talk, An Intimate History of the Home, she takes us on an intimate journey through the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen. It sounds like it might be a dull topic for a book, when in fact "every single object in your home has its own important story to tell". Lucy's saucy writing style makes the most mundane historical fact seem fresh and original. Divided into four parts covering the four main rooms of the house, the chapter titles include such teasing titles as: A History of the Bed, Sex, The Whole World is a Toilet, A History of Clutter, The Wretched Washing Up, Speaking to the Servants.... Lucy knows how to turn a phrase and the book almost seems like an intimate conversation between friends. And although the book lacks footnotes, it has an extensive bibliography for history buffs that want to find out more.

Of course, one of my favourite chapters was on the history of knickers. Although I am well versed in this topic, Lucy is not shy in telling it like it was..... "A huge hooped skirt meant that drawers were impractical if you needed to use the toilet without completely undressing. So ladies went commando, and squatted over a chamber pot when required. This meant that toilets were everywhere and nowhere. The bedchamber, an ante-room, even the street: all were potential places to go." (page 43)

Engaging, delightful and fun are words to describe Lucy's book and they are also words that describe her as a person. My interview with Lucy for her last book  The Courtiers: Splendor and Intrigue in the Georgian Court at Kensington Palace continues to be one of my most popular posts and no doubt reflects the enormous popularity of her show for the BBC.



Title: If Walls Could Talk, An Intimate History of the Home
Author: Lucy Worsley
Publisher: Bloomsbury House 2011
Category: Non-fiction
Number of Pages: 331

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Marie Antoinette's Corset Rebellion

To French aristocrats, a tightly corseted body represented "the norms of stiffness and self-control" expected of the ruling caste. Marie-Antoinette's position required her to wear a form of corset called a grand corps. This more rigid form of corset was the "mark of supreme distinction". Only France's greatest princesses had the right to wear this undergarment on a regular basis. Other noblewomen were allowed to wear it only on the day of their presentation at court and after that, only at specially designated formal functions. This corset was stiffer than a regular corset and made breathing, eating and even moving one's arms difficult.

The grand corps was described by the Marquise de La Tour du Pinto be "a specially made corset, without shoulder straps, laced up the back, but tight enough so that the lacings, four fingers wide on the bottom, allowed for a glimpse of a chemise of such fine batiste that it would be readily apparent to everyone if one's skin underneath was not sufficiently white...The front of the corset was laced, as it were, with rows of diamonds."

Marie Antoinette did not like wearing the grand corps, especially as the corsets she was used to wearing in Austria were far more flexible. A few months after arriving in France, she rebelled against wearing the grand corps and since she was thin enough to wear her gowns without this tortuous undergarment, she went without. This rebellious act was considered a breach of etiquette of considerable proportions. The court took to whispering about Marie Antoinette's misshapen waist and right shoulder and this gossip was repeated far beyond the court eventually reaching her mother Marie Theresa, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. It took diplomatic intervention by the Austrian ambassador to convince Marie Antoinette to resume wearing the grand corps on a regular basis.

Later in her life, Marie Antoinette took to wearing a thin white chemise dress with a ribbon sash. This airy, ruffled informal dress did not require a corset and was widely copied.

Sources:
Queen of Fashion, Caroline Weber, Picador, New York, 2006
Marie-Antoinette Style, Adrien Goetz, Assouline, New York 2005
Corsets and Crinolines, Norah Waugh, Routledge Theatre Arts Books, New York 2004
The Corset, A Cultural History, Valerie Steele, Yale University Press, 2001