the joy of stays

I've been studying what made up a woman's clothing in the 18th-century and it is quite complicated! No underwear, for starters. Can you imagine? Then there were those pesky stays that were made of bone and fabric (usually) and shaped a woman's upper body (or tried to) into a cone shape. Add a shift, several petticoats, some stockings and garters, and then top it with a dress and you are still not done! In one collection of ballgowns I've been perusing, the dresses are over 200 years old and the only defect on most are the sweat stains beneath the arms:) Try dancing for hours on end without deodorant, in a crowded ballroom, lit by heat-inducing candles and no air-conditioning in 90 degree summer temps. Now you have the idea of what it was like being a colonial belle...

Interesting facts:
~George Washington did wear underwear, unlike most men, and ordered his from a tailor in London to go beneath his clothes.
~Thomas Jefferson suffered so from the cold he also followed George and ordered underwear from London. Think longjohns here.
~Colonial women among the gentry sometimes took hours to dress, then changed several times a day for tea, dinner, riding, etc.
~Pregnant women in colonial America did not disguise their condition and often rode, danced, visited, shopped and did all else till their "reckoning" in their normal clothes which were simply altered.
~The preferred color for colonial wedding gowns was yellow.
~Powdered wigs were de rigueur for the gentry; if you ran out of powder, flour sufficed.
~If you wanted to brush your teeth (given you had any) you would use "Essence of Pearl" tooth powder. I think that sounds quite charming, actually! And best not put that in your book because I am:)

I have a little secret to share with you. Take a look at Morrow's book cover. Though I love it wholeheartedly and would not change a single thing, there is one interesting historical error therein. I saw it immediately when the final copy was sent to me. But I don't give a hoot as it is so incredibly well done (in my humble opinion, which doesn't sound very humble right here). If you know your history you'll be able to detect it. If not, don't sweat it. Most readers don't know the difference or give a hoot either:)