Layer Cake

I am the underwear nazi. I mean, I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone, since I spent a full year of graduate school obsessing about teenagers and corsets for my thesis. But really, when you are going to dress up--historically or otherwise--it's your underwear I'm checking out most aggressively.

Okay, I promise, I am not going to go around peeking under anyone's skirts. That's not the kind of underwear I'm worried about. It's just that I like to see that if you put the time and effort into procuring a lovely outfit, don't spoil it by stopping at the surface. This goes for anyone: brides, reenactors, fancy costume lovers of all kinds.

Underwear shapes your body and the clothes over it. Cloth is soft and it needs the right support to make you look utterly fabulous. The human body is soft too (unless your a super model--and even they get their arm flab air brushed out) so you need something to give it the right silhouette.

Lesson 1--Brides: Wedding dresses can cost a small fortune. It's one day when we ladies have some extra drive (and a nice excuse) to really look fabulous.

But even a nice simple $100 dress can look stellar with good alterations to fit you properly and the right undergarments.

Torso: Ladies, very few of us have a perfectly smooth figure. That's normal. The "lunch meat" on the sides flops over. The boobs slip down and flatten out, and then there's that irritating lump that I have right above my belly button.
But it really does look better in a dress (for anyone size 6-26) to smooth yourself out with a good foundation garment. You don't need a steel-boned corset if you don't want one (I didn't). Even just a good $50-$100 modern shaper will do the trick. Tuck your waist in a little bit and keep your boobs up where they look their best.

Even if your gown is boned, taking this step will take the stress off the dress, leaving the underwear to do the work.

Want to go whole-hog for a steel-boned corset? Awesome! They look gorgeous, and can make your posture look stellar (which is worth more than you would think). Think carefully about what kind will serve you best. Try my blog entries here about how to pick it out.

Just be sure that no matter what underwear you get, you wear it to each and every fitting!

Skirt: Please, please, please do not buy a gown with a big puffy skirt and then try to save money by cutting out the petticoat. If you want a sleek silhouette, go for it, but big skirts fall flat without some help from below. Check out the difference it can make in the 1950s dress:

Same dress, but on the right I added the petticoat. See how much better that is? Making your hips and skirt look bigger also has the added bonus of making your waist look smaller. Nice.

Until you get used to it, you may feel a little funny. But please put something under there!



Lesson 2--Historical Dressing: This is the one that always gets my goat. You cannot slap on a pretty dress and call yourself done. Historical silhouettes are based on enhancing the natural body. See the lady in the blue dress? This Copely portrait was done in the mid 18th century. I can tell you for a fact, that when this lady got undressed for bed, her boobs were not that flat against her chest. She is wearing a pair of stays (also called a corset by modern Americans). Like this pair. They're not just important to make you look skinny. They're important to make you look right. That sexy shelf bra look that we like now was so uncool in 1775.

Also, don't you dare skimp on the petticoats. It takes a lot more than you think to get this kind of pouf. One or two is a start. But try getting bold and pile on three or four. You will notice the difference right away!

The same goes for the Victorian era. The corset seems obvious. You need a smallish waist, and you need to get your boobs up to make this look right. But, you think this gal's butt is naturally this big? For all 60-ish years of Queen Victoria's reign, volume was in. And there were so many ways to get it. Piling on the petticoats is the first step. And Victorian petticoats have extra layers sewn onto them to make the bottom fuller. They're called flounces.

If you really want to get involved, you can start adding bustles, hoopskirts, etc. Just make sure you pick the right one for your decade. In the Victorian era, fashion started to move almost as fast as it does today. Every decade had it's own look. You wouldn't want to be caught with a '80s bustle under your '50s dress! This would be just as odd (fashion speaking) as wearing your 1980s big feathered hairdo withr your 1950s poodle skirt.

Just remember, not wearing enough undergarments in your historic costume (from an historic point of view) would make you look poor, sloppy, and half-dressed. If you are trying for authenticity, pile on the layers. Even just adding a few can really improve your look.


I am in favor of this for Halloween costumes as well. Even when I sell my pinup dresses (at left) I add not just one, but two petticoats to get the right pouf.

Once I was super disapointed when, in a pinch, I ordered a costume from a major producer of sexy Halloween get-ups, and the cheap fabric clung to every lump and bulge and then fell flat over my pudgey butt. However, by throwing on two fluffy short petticoats (oh God I love petticoats) and just a basic plastic-boned corset, I had a super-sexy look that gave me pinup curves.

So don't be shy! Layer it up. Get your best look by building a frame for your dress to hang off of. Rely on a good foundation garment (corset, waist cincher, or bustier) and be sure to add enough petticoats to get the volume you want.