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It took hours to get ready
Re-enactors put on a 'put-it-on' showDate published: 11/20/2007 by Hugh Muir Prithee, a little dance music for the Rappahannock Colonial Heritage Society. (Ba-da-boom!) Actually, the music and the dancing came later at last week's Stafford Historical Society meeting, where a re-created colonial mistress and her maidservant gave members and guests a peek under milady's voluminous skirts to see how the upper classes in 18th-century Virginia dressed up. (Put it on! Put it on!) A dozen members of the Colonial Heritage Society, founded in 1999 in Fredericksburg, were performers at Thursday's meeting of the Historical Society to show off--literally from the inside out--the many layers of clothing needed to create a colonial lady of fashion. The president of the RCHS, Sandra Piercey from Fredericksburg, was the fashionable re-enactor, aided in assembling her costume by her indentured maid, in the person of Elaine Sturgeon of Spotsylvania (who is also the Heritage Society's dance instructor). Piercey materialized in front of the Historical Society audience of several dozen wearing only her shift, or chemise. (Ooh la la! La chemise!) This basic layer, explained Lyn Padgett, who organized and narrated the evening's performance, is what protects the hard-to-wash outer layers of clothing from the oil and dirt on the skin (baths not being common in colonial days). "What does a lady wear under her shift?" Padgett was asked. "Usually nothing," was the bland reply. Then came the stays, a girdle-like wrap containing flexible vertical strips extending from hip to bust and laced up the back (by the maid). It held the body in a firm grasp. "In public, if she dropped her handkerchief," commented Padgett, "she waited for a gentleman to bend down and pick it up--not for gallantry, but because she couldn't." Next came a pair of panniers, literally baskets covered with cloth (they did contain pockets) fastened on each hip, which broadened the width of the colonial woman's silhouette. (It was a fashion statement at the time for fertility). ( and broad where a broad should be broad!) Then the maid helped her mistress into her under-petticoat, a sort of half slip, and then her outer-petticoat, a simple skirt. This was followed by the "robe à la Francais," as French fashion termed it, the flattering and decorative outer gown that gave milady style. It usually included a small, often triangular, train.
Read more stories about Stafford Date published: 11/20/2007
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