This Is My Favorite Vine

this is my favorite vine

For writers: historical women’s clothing

Those who have been with me for a while know that although I’m not an expert, I’m super enthusiastic historical clothing. Which means I also notice when it’s totally butchered in writing (I’m looking expecially at you, smut fics). So here are some pointers for your historical/fantasy lady’s clothing, for my peace of mind:

Not everything with laces is a corset. Although terms overlap, we mostly only talk about corsets from mid-19th century. Before that you have stays or bodies, maybe even jumps (unboned, quilted garment). You’re pretty safe with simply saying stays.

Stays cannot be tight-laced! You can only tight-lace if your garment has metal eyelets (otherwise the lacing would tear the fabric, ruining the garment), and those only came in mid-19th century. Your 18th century lady won’t be gasping for air (I’m looking at you, PotC)

That being said, even tight-laced ladies are unlikely to gasp for breath.

Your character won’t be wearing a corset/super structured stays under an empire gown/Regency style dress. That would be totally unnecessary (looking at you, Bridgerton). Character instead would be wearing “transitional stays”–a short, boned garment somewhere between a modern bra and a corset–, or lightly boned/unboned stays. The point of these is to push the boobs up, not to slim down the waist/create a silhouette.

Instead of stays, your early 16th century/fantasy character can wear a boned kirtle–in this case, the bodice and the skirt are made up of one garment.

Stays/corsets can be back laced (mostly earlier stuff), front/front-and-back laced (a bit later), back laced with clasps at the front (Victorian)

Some stays can be worn as outerwear. They can be colorful and intricately decorated.

Gentlemen can and will help their lovers dress; they know how women’s clothing works.

There is always a chemise/shift under the stays! (looking at you, The Tudors.) That is your first layer–it protects the character’s skin from chafing and the character’s clothes from sweat.

Stockings are held just under the knee/mid-thigh with garters/ribbons.

No panties! No underwear, whatsoever. Ruck up those skirts and the banging can commence

There’s such a thing as split drawers (19th century)–which is like a pair of knee-lenght underpants, only the two legs are not connected at the groin area.

Ladies can have pockets–they are basically big pouches that can be tied around the waist with a string. They can be worn over or under the overskirt.

If the pockets are worn under the skirt, then they can be accessed via slits on the sides. This happens when the skirt has a kind of “apron like” fastening: basically, the top of the skirt is made of two rectangular pieces, both of them having their own ties. You first tie the back part on the front, then the front part in the back. And voila! Slits on the sides.

Those were just from the top of my head. If you have any question, feel free to ask*–or better yet, look up ladies on the internet who know more than me on this topic, like Bernadette Banner, Karolina Zebrowska, or Abby Cox.

Also feel free to correct me if I said something stupid

HEY ARTISTS!

Do you design a lot of characters living in not-modern eras and you’re tired of combing through google for the perfect outfit references? Well I got good news for you kiddo, this website has you covered! Originally @modmad made a post about it, but her link stopped working and I managed to fix it, so here’s a new post. Basically, this is a costume rental website for plays and stage shows and what not, they have outfits for several different decades from medieval to the 1980s. LOOK AT THIS SELECTION:

OPEN ANY CATEGORY AND OH LORDY–

There’s a lot of really specific stuff in here, I design a lot of 1930s characters for my ask blog and with more chapters on the way for the game it belongs to I’m gonna be designing more, and this website is going to be an invaluable reference. I hope this can be useful to my other fellow artists as well! :)

Random mansion generator

The Procgen Mansion Generator produces large three-dee dwellings to toy with your imagination, offering various architectural styles and other options. Each mansion even comes with floorplans:

https://boingboing.net/2019/07/12/random-mansion-generator.html