Tailleur Costumier Essayant un Cor a la Mode, plate 55

Date1778

Publisher Esnauts & Rapilly (fl. ca. 1775-1811)

Maker Nicolas Dupin

MediumHand-colored etching and line engraving

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1971-3084

DescriptionPrint is from Galeries des Modes, 15e Cahier, 1ere Figure

Upper margin reads:" 55/ "Cahier de Costumes Francais Suite d'Habillemens a la mode, et 1778/ Le Clerc del./ Dupin sculp./ TAILLEUR COSTUMIER ESSAYANT UN COR A LA MODE./ Il est vêtu d'un habit noisette à collet noir de velours boutonieres d'or, les boutons et boutonieres de l'Habit de même, une veste de tricot cerise avec un tresse d'or, culotte de velours noir, et bas de foie gris la jeune personne n'a qu'un simple jupon et des bas blancs, et son cor couvert de batiste teinte en jaune./ A Paris chez Esnauts et Rapilly rue S.t Jacques a la Ville de Coutances. A.P.D.R."

Translation:
He is dressed in a hazel coat with a black velvet collar with two gold buttonholes, the buttons and buttonholes of the Suit are the same; a vest of cherry red tricot with a gold braid; breeches of black velvet, grey silk stockings. The young person has only a simple petticoat and white stockings, and her stays are covered with yellow batiste (linen).

The Galerie des Modes provides futher information on this plate. It reads:
It is not enough to present the exteriors of clothing, it is important to make known the interior pieces: often it is these which make the prestige of the fashions, and the more they are hidden, the more interesting they are to uncover. It is that which has been attempted in this Print.

It offers a young person, trying on a corps piqué (stays with visable channels), or corps de baleine (stays with a cover). People have complained much, these days, against this interior part of Ladies' dress. Some Doctors have alleged that it is disastrous, especially for the young; others have wanted to to establish its use among old men; but despite all these complaints, Ladies continued to wear stays, and they have not become weaker, nor less well-made. Experience demonstrates, to the contrary, that well-proportioned stays are nearly always useful; its only imperfection can make it dangerous.

Stays are of diverse types; some have straight straps, like that shown in the Drawing; others have off-the-shoulder straps: these only serve for Court dress, and always lace in the back. There are also stays without straps, these are heavily used in England; they lace in the front or the back, or on the sides, like the first.

The two sides and the back of the stays are composed of several fabrics sewn together, with whalebone. On the front, there are two channels to pass two other whalebone stays through: these are called the busks.

The corset is also an interior fitted garment; it replaces the stays and serves the same use, but it is more flexible: the two busks are the only whalebones in it.

The stays offered in the Print are a corps à la Française, laced in the back, with aiglets on two sides to hold petticoats, and a little lace on the front to give the chest the necessary space for breathing.

This fitted garment is placed immediately on the shift, and it is to it only that women derive their torsos' rounded shape, pointed at the bottom; a unique shape, and which always, before marriage, can be regarded as one of the distinctive attributes of honor.

Label TextThis plate was published in the French fashion periodical "Gallerie des Modes et du Costume Francais."