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It took hours to get ready

November 20, 2007 12:35 am

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.

The final touches were long semi-gloves, extending from elbow to mid-hand, plus, of course, shoes, jewelry, a smidge of color on the face and a wig or powdering of the hair. (The stockings had been put on at the beginning.)

(Voila!)

The entire dressing took half an hour. "For the higher fashions, dressing could take three hours," said Padgett, herself attired in a golden gown with lace fringe. "And in winter, well, there could be up to seven layers of petticoats and, sometimes, a pair of woolen drawers under the chemise."

The era represented by last week's performance was 1750 to 1780, at the time of the Revolution. The re-enactors can re-create any time between 1740 to 1810. "Is this the way all the gentry dressed?" Padgett was asked. Often, she replied, "but Mary Washington, George's mother [who died here in 1789], was not a stylish dresser at all."

(Mon Dieu!)

The Rappahannock Colonial Heritage Society, which has some 35 members, began as a Scottish Country Dance Group in 1995 and since then it has added Welsh and English dancing, all traditional in the Colonial era. The society also teaches Colonial dances twice a month, which are open to everyone.

Since 1999, Heritage members have also given "living history" performances of Colonial society for civic groups, hospitals, historic sites, retirement homes and schools (usually in front of fourth-graders, the year when Virginia history is taught). The nonprofit group's goal is to preserve the culture of the Colonial era. Hence its motto: "Lest we forget."

Last week's meeting of the Historical Society closed on a stylish note as Heritage Society members, in two facing rows of six each, all in appropriate dress (including 12-year-old Nick Brunacci and his parents), glided and stepped and swung through three different Colonial dances to (recorded) authentic 18th-century music.

(Encore! Encore!)