Building the feminine silhouette... How?

There are a variety of silhouettes in the body-hugging gowns worn by women in the fine art of the late 14th and early 15th centuries in Europe. Theories abound concerning the methods used to achieve the look of these gowns — a look that more often than not hoisted the bust to attractive heights, or at the least, gave it the appearance of comfortable support. Most intriguing of all is that there is no provable evidence for the widespread use of a supportive undergarment. How did the gowns support the bust?

I used to use a flat pattern drafting technique that I tweaked to provide bust support. It was semi-successful, because it looked fine but was not comfortable enough. I began asking around in online communities and came across Robin Netherton's informative posts from the H-Costume archives on what she calls the "Gothic Fitted Dress", or GFD for short. I began to experiment with four, narrow rectangular panels, pinning and basting them along the vertical seams under the arms, up the center-back, and up the center-front, a clothes-making method she cites as likely used by tailors/seamstresses in period. I missed some of her salient points in my eagerness to get started and came up with a fitting-on-the-body method that is slightly different from hers, but which I have ended up feeling reasonably satisfied with just the same. It is worth noting that philosophically, my method, which involves a curvature in the center-front seams, is a close cousin to Robin's method, which uses a straight center-front seam. I would like to make clear that the following experiment was done in the spirit of learning and comparison, and not in opposition to Robin's well-researched and credible fitting methods.

Presented here for your review are two viable methods for achieving bust support in the fitting and cutting of the gown itself. The first method, using a curved front seam, is my own as it evolved from kernels of information culled from Robin's postings. The second is an educated guess at what Robin's straight-front-seam method might produce, since I have never had the opportunity to work with Robin directly or watch her work on someone else. I doubt that the second method is *exactly* what Robin would do, but I have tried to achieve a fitted-on-the-body pattern and gown silhouette that matches the Netherton GFD a lot more than the first method does.

I have also included a section in which the results of this experiment are compared, contrasted and rated for their pros and cons by myself (the tailor) and by Sheree, my model.

Along with these fitting steps, I offer you my thoughts on what I call the "versatile" gown, and how it served a central role in fashion for women during this period. Finally, there is a brief section discussing the fitting of the abdomen, and how this affects the period silhouette.