An Amazigh woman.
The Amazigh people are the indigenous inhabitants of North Africa which have been there before the Arab and European conquests.
Under the gaddafi regime they were discriminated against heavily by government policy.
Sooooooo as asked @misseccentric here is a post about undergarments (I think I’ll make another one for men’s undergarments later!). Basically are 5 garments (pug not included) that we consider “undergarments” and after a woman was dressed with them she was… well, ready to get dressed (I know, WTF).
1. Shift
Also known as chemise, the shift was the very first layer of clothing for a woman of any class, worn with nothing underneath (no underpants darlings!) it was usually made of white linen (the whiter the finer and more expensive) and it could have simple and discreet lace or very small riffles on the neckline and cuffs. The main function of the shift was to protect the clothing from the body, since daily bathing was not customary (eeewww), that’s why there are not many surviving garments (double eeeeww).
2. Stays
Stays are what people usually call “corset”, but back in the 17th century they were called “body” or “boned body and in the 18th century “stays” or “pair of stays”. Their main purpose was to shape the upper body in a conical form and to support the bosom, so it is not a constrictive garment more than one of support. Most women wore stays of different boning and materials depending on their social and economical situation, but in vague shape and style the stays of a woman from the upper class and the ones from the house maid were not that different from each other. Made of linen, wool or silk they were reinforced with whalebone or cane.
3. Pockets
A pocket (or a pair of them) was tied around the waist since actual pockets stitched to the garments didn’t happen until the 19th century. They could be of plain linen or be beautifully embroidered (even though no one would see them) and have a rather big size since they should hold all the necessities of a woman (think about all a girl would carry in her purse nowadays).
4. Paniers and Bums
The hoops or paniers were also made of linen and reinforced with whalebone or cane. The biggest expression of this garment happened at the court, where even if in the fashionable dress big panniers were no longer in fashion, they kept appearing through the whole century. The hoops are a key for the century silhouette in combo with the stays: the curve-less upper body was the perfect contrast with the big bottom that had volume only on the sides of the dress. That is until the bustle became fashionable.
The bustle (bums, rumps or culs),came as a substitute to the huge panniers and they were only small hoops or pads of different sized and shapes that added volume to the hips, both on sides and back (VERY Georgiana Cavendish).
5. Stockings and Garters
Stockings then and now are pretty much the same in shape but not in materials since they could be made of woven as well as knitted silk or wool. My favourite part of 18th century stockings is the over-the-top decoration and the bright colours these people wore (and here I am with a closet full of black and grey clothes!). Since (obviously) there was no spandex back in the day, you had to use garters (ribbon or tape) to keep the stockings in place, and of course those must have a little colourful party too with embroideries, gilded threads, knitted materials, satin colours and phrases and monograms.
A reblog because undergarments info is always welcome 🙂
• Evening Dress of Empress Maria Feodorovna.
Place of origin: France, Paris
Manufacture, workshop, firm: Firm of Fromont
Date: 1880-1881
Medium: satin, lace, Brussel lace, beads.
Because without the technology behind that brassiere (or girdle), the moon landing would have been impossible. It turns out that the 21-layers of gossamer-thin fabric in the Apollo spacesuits that kept Armstrong and Aldrin from “the lethal desolation of a lunar vacuum,” as Nicholas de Monchaux puts it in his remarkable book “Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo,” was created by the same people who made your grandma’s bra. Playtex. And now, Warner Bros. has hired Richard Cordiner to adapt De Monchaux’s book, which is a story so good you almost believe it was scripted by a Hollywood scribe, not part of historical fact.
The creation of the Apollo AL7 Pressure Garment is one of the great American stories of the past forty-plus years. When America pitched itself into the great Space Race, and president Kennedy declared we’d have a man on the moon by the end of the decade, among many of the colossal obstacles NASA had to face was how to make a suit that could withstand space’s incredibly hostile environment. NASA turned the creation of the spacesuit into a competition (largely dominated by military contractors)—and it was assumed a military contractor would win the day.
Instead, pitted against the military-industrial complex, Playtex created the 21-layer spacesuit, each layer distinct yet interrelated in function to the rest of the whole—a masterly combination of elegance, complexity, and form. Where the military contractors created cybernetic, armor-like suits (that failed, and failed again), Playtex’s vision was one of crucial softness, world class stitching, and perfect design. Traditional engineering firms could not figure out how to meet all the mission requirements and create a functioning suit that would keep the Apollo astronauts alive. The seamstresses at Playtex, with their years of experience fashioning girdles and bras, could, and did.
In his book, Michael Collins often referred to “the little old ladies with their glue pots” who fashioned the suit that protected him from the harshness of space during his EVA. I am glad that these “little old ladies” are getting their own movie.
By which I mean, PLEASE KEEP TAGGING ME IN THESE POSTS. This is so cool I could hyperventilate.
@deadcatwithaflamethrower, makes me ponder on Star Wars space suits. 😛 You know this could make for some hilarious jokes from a history buff.
I just want someone to comment in-story about how Plo sat his ass out in the vaccum of space with a breather that would have been ENTIRELY INSUFFICIENT with no space suit for hours on end…and nothing happened. No blood boiling, no freezing, no damage, nada. What we apparently should be doing is harvesting Kel Dor skins for space suits. THERE is your fucked-up historical “WE DID WHAT?” space history for SW. *g*
Steel Phoenix Studios 