How ladies got dressed in the 18th century

Some of you may remember the scene near the beginning of OUTLANDER Episode 102 ("Castle Leoch") where Mrs. Fitz helps Claire get dressed in 18th-century clothing for the first time.

Here's a video showing how upper-class English ladies got dressed in the 18th century.



I like this demonstration because it's done slowly enough to follow this complicated process, and because the narrator explains what each separate garment is for.

One item she didn't explain, however, is the corset busk, shown at 2:11 into this video. (Similar to the one shown here.) You may recall that Brianna used a corset busk as a weapon in A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES, when she was being held captive by Stephen Bonnet's slave Emmanuel.

You can definitely get a sense of how time-consuming it would be to put on all of these layers of clothing!

5 comments

Mary Tormey said...

Hi Karen very fascinating video , the Victorian period also was a hard time for ladies getting dressed with petticoats and hoop skirts and ribbons and bonnets , my favorite time period was the 1920's it was the first time women 's fashions became simpler and more femamine , plus it was simple and the first modern period , will be going to an Scottish /Highland Festival this Weekend, I hope to see plenty of Outlander fans there , will be watching season 3 in Sept can't wait , am very excited , please post more soon. Sincerely Yours .

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing...quite interesting!

susan q said...

one definitely could not get dressed by themselves! so many layers!

Anonymous said...

Gah!!! ...Cry... Spoiler warning! I just started reading the books a month ago and haven't gotten to that one yet.

Anonymous said...

They've also made a movie about the busk:
http://www.periodcostume.co.uk/getting-dressed-in-the-18th-century-the-busk/

And another for working women:
http://www.periodcostume.co.uk/getting-dressed-in-the-18th-century-working-woman/

Powered by Blogger.