28/11/2023
As part of my EPQ I focused on how politics effected fashion in the 18th century. Making a pair of 1760s stays as they were the precursor to the corset to create that iconic cone-like shape. they were the foundational garment for all women, rich or poor. The significance of social change from a total monarchy to a constitutional effected women, politics and fashion. Women got more of say in industry as they had there own guild, the mantua maker, which is most recognisable as what Marie antionette wore! Politics had a shift as it became a more powerful job that was open to anyone, meaning the merchant class could have as much power as the landowning class did! And fashion became far more oppulant with wide hoop skirts to display the expensives silks, this was because fashion told the most about a family’s succes then anything else! I found this topic fasinating both to research and to make!
The stays are make of linen and and cotton with buckram!
