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Clothing
: Women's Clothing
: Fashions of Motherhood
by Linda Baumgarten
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The French encyclopedia by Denis Diderot illustrates a pair of stays
for wear during pregnancy; they
have additional lacings at the side waist to allow expansion as a woman's body
grew. As uncomfortable as stays sound to us, they did provide support for the
back and helped maintain some semblance of the fashionable female figure by
keeping a flat line at the bodice front, pushing the bosom up into a high, rounded
shape. Although some criticized stays prior to the 1790s, the most vocal outbursts
against them occurred after stays had been abandoned for fashionable reasons
at the end of the eighteenth century. In an 1807 edition of Advice to Mothers,
Dr. Buchan praised the new uncorseted fashions and described the former practice
of wearing stays during pregnancy.
Among many improvements
in the modern fashions of female dress, equally favourable to health, to graceful
ease and elegance, the discontinuance of stays is entitled to peculiar approbation.
It is, indeed, impossible to think of the old straight waistcoat of whalebone,
and of tightlacing, without astonishment and some degree of horror . . . I need
not point out the aggrevated mischief of such a pressure on the breasts and
womb in a state of pregnancy. Unfortunately, fashion later in the nineteenth
century returned to corseting and constricted the waistline as much as or more
than it had in the previous century.
Few maternity gowns survive
in museum collections. Colonial Williamsburg has only one. Women altered their
usual clothing in an era when most could not afford large wardrobes or clothing
designed specifically for pregnancy. Women's styles were surprisingly adaptable
to changes in size. Many gowns fastened at the front with hidden lacings that
could be let out to accommodate the new figure. If the triangular stomacher
no longer fit the front of the enlarged gown, the front could be filled in with
a large neck handkerchief worn much like a shawl.
Petticoats usually fastened
at either side with ties, and thus could continue to be worn during pregnancy
by loosening the ties. Women merely tied their petticoats up over their abdomens,
hiking up the hems at the front as a result. Print sources suggest that no attempt
was made to adjust hemlines to make the skirts hang evenly in front.
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| Women's thigh-length Short Gown from the late 18th century
could have served as a loose-fitting maternity garment. 1985-242. |
Another garment easily adapted
to pregnancy was a loose, unfitted gown with a shortened skirt that was
worn with a petticoat as a two-piece outfit. Variously called a "bedgown"
or "short gown," this style was not limited to maternity wear, but was
the everyday dress of many working women as a comfortable alternative
to fashionable but tight gowns. Because they were cut full and loose,
pregnant women could wear bedgowns without altering them.
The high-waisted, uncorseted
styles of the turn of the century were even more convenient. They were
usually fitted to the upper body with drawstrings that could be loosened
as necessary. The absence of a natural waistline made camouflage and fit
easier than it had been in the past.
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Historic Triangle