-----Original Message----- At 12:59 PM 9/14/2011, you wrote: >Victorian women NEEDED split drawers. They wore a long chemise over the top >of the drawers, and a corset laced up tightly on top of that, so the only >way to "drop a penny" was to have the drawers split. You just couldn't get >at them to pull them down from the waist. > >Kim
That's not necessarily so. (Gentlemen, please delete this message, only the ladies should read it.) When in my 1840s outfit for Sutter's Fort, I simply do not wear any bifurcated garments. With 5 layers (shift, 3 petticoats, and dress) between me and the outside world (and no inclination to do cartwheels), my modesty is safe. I find split drawers to be very uncomfortable as they never fit properly and caused me to get badly chaffed. So all I need to do is pick up all the layers and take care of "business". Of course, later in the 19th century fashions were different, but until the cage crinoline, drawers were not necessary for modesty. Joan Jurancich joa...@surewest.net I think she was saying accessability and not modesty. Your drawers is sometime caught up in the corset making it difficut to drop the drawers. And like corsets, if made right should fit comfortably. De _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
