Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Question from Emily - Fashion and corsets after the break with Rome

I am conducting a report on the history of corsets for my BA hons degree (2nd year) and im wondering if anybody has any idea how fashion and particularly corsets developed after the establishment of the Church of England?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sorry but I have no idea.

kb said...

The best thing you can do is dive into some of the historical costume books and chart changes on a timeline. Then put a Church/Reformation/Theological time line next to it.

Look at almost anything by Janet Arnold. Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd or Lost From Her Majesty's Back will start you off. She discusses corset construction.

Try going to the Royal Historical Society Bibliography and do a search [advanced] for costume or corsets and restricted to your period of interest for other suggestions.

http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/

I suspect you will find that fashion for elites was primarily governed by celebrity (the royal fashion) and for everyone else by money and sumptuary laws.

This is a fascinating area of research. Please keep us posted on what you find.