Bonjour Juliette !
Désolée, je n’avais pas vu votre commentaire :'(
J’aurais tendance à vous dire de mixer les patrons : peut-être un patron de corset 18e en haut ? Et le jupon d’une française sur grand panier ? Avec un bas de robe sur le même patron ?
Au plaisir de peut-être vous y voir (je ne sais pas encore si je m’y rends cette année 🙂 )
Amitiés,
Fanny

En fait la marquise de La Tour du Pin emploie le mot corset à postériori car elle a écrit ses mémoires « Journal d’une femme de 50 ans » au début du 19ème siècle. Je cherche toujours de mon côté aussi car j’avoue que cela m’intrigue énormément. Il est bien possible qu’il s’agisse d’une nouvelle coquetterie apparue à la fin de la décennie pour rendre le grand corps moins contraignant quand certaines rares circonstances d’étiquette l’imposaient encore. A suivre donc…

Bonjour Sylvie !
Merci pour cette citation que je ne connaissais pas !
Le fait de parler de « corset » pour le grand corps me semble logique pour 1787 (le grand corps tél que vu sous Louis XV était démodé). Par contre pour la vue de dos, ça me semble être une coquetterie dit comme ça… Mais du coup je regarderai attentivement les images désormais (je pense qu’il y a des gravures où on voit le dos), je regarderai celles que je croise et vous tiendrai au courant dès que je trouve quelque chose !

Hi Kim,

(first of all, I love your example with Mr Darcy :-p )

About the corsets, I did not speak about that specific corset : Galliera’s corset is a daywear corset, exactly the same kind of corsets that woman who could afford to be fashionable used to wear after 1780 (when they get rid of their “corps baleinés”) –but it will be my next subject on this blog, I will be able to add engravings & photos-. All we have in the sources (and in some extra informations which were told during Mrs Gorguet-Ballesteros’s lecture –I was luckily there-) is that corsets have the same shape than “corps” and have very few bones in (only what is needed for it not to fold).
We have mentions of corsets from dark ages until now and it seems to have evolved very much, but for the 18th century there is a pattern in Diderot & d’Alembert’s encyclopaedia (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9978d/f103.image.mini.auto=2 and they talk about “corsets baleinés, it’s before 1780).
But my point is that for a lot of “Grand Habit” mentioned in commercial invoices and inventories after death, there is not a “corps” for each : corset can be mentioned instead of corps, but corset is not stiff enough before 1780 to be worn without a corps beneath. I think a “Grand Habit” is quite a “look” much more than specific garments. During the 18th century each dressmaker made what he/she could to make the dress matching for court standards.

And about the cost of corps : I agree with you, it’s very cheap compared to the other prices (some dresses used to cost a small castle !) but if we keep a 18th mind it doesn’t matter, it cost more but it’s not seen, so they preferred the cheapest way for what I know. For example, during “fastes de cour” exhibitions we had a waistcoat made of gorgeous black silk and decorated with a lot of diamonds. I think it cost a lot of money… but the back was made of cheap and old fabric ! Because it was not seen so it did not matter. It’s hard to understand for our 21th century minds because when you have enough money to buy a Porsche adding 50$ to have electric windows is quite natural, for our ancestors if no one could see how windows close than they could prefer keeping manual windows because the important fact is the sign of wealth (nothing else) :/

As I have no real sources explaining why they used corsets sometimes with Grands Habits it’s the only explanation I see (but I can mistake about that, for sure !). I have a scientific mind : I consider I am right until someone proves me that I am wrong, that’s why I sometime do not agree with literary minds who need proves to say things -I think it’s risky for costumes because so many things are still unknown and most of the common garment have been destroyed : in France we rediscovered 18th corsets in 2010-.

(English is not my natural language so I hope it’s not too tricky for you to understand me :’( )

A little correction: 1 £ Sterling was roughly 1 Louis, so the gown cost « just » 189 £. But while the price is more reasonable (going by inflation rates, it would amount to 34,000 Euros in today’s money) he bodice’s price would remain proportionally low at 3 pounds.