This is about the fact that I have yet to see anyone mention the importance of underpinnings in any of those "how accurate are you? how accurate am I? how accurate should we be?" posts. And you know what? They're damn important.
I've seen so many polite debates (and not so polite ones) about how some people just want to feel pretty, some of them want 1,000,000% accuracy, blah blah. But here's the thing. If you're not wearing the right underwear, you're going to look wrong. Full stop. Historically, people wore specific garments that shaped their bodies in specific ways. Maybe it was achieved through cording, or whalebone, or steel. Maybe it was just strategically cut inner garments with no stiffening. Doesn't matter. If you're not wearing the right shaping garments for whatever time period, your silhouette will not be correct.
You can do everything else right--construction techniques, fiber content, witchcraft, whatever--but if you're not wearing the right support structure, you might as well just go home. Because the number one step in making a historical garment should always include starting with the correct undergarments (or reasonable facsimile thereof).
Which is why I have anxiety dreams about forgetting my corset every time I go to an event.
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Thoughts? Questions? Comments?