Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 07:54:18 -1000
From: J&B
Subject: Re: H-COST: Sitting in a Farthingale
Hello group-
Since there seem to be diverse opinions about how to deal with your farthingale,
here is a summary of what Caroso (1600) has to say. This is what I teach in my period
movement and gesture classes:
First of all DO NOT tip your dress up - this would have been seen as most
unbecoming. DO NOT raise up your skirts to reveal your petticoats, this too is
unbecoming, and Caroso suggests ladies who do this are only trying to show off
their beautiful underdresses. There is also the danger of accidentally grasping your
petticoat too and actually showing your leg!
Caroso says:
In order to seat herself, then, with the utmost grace, beauty and charm with
which she may flatter her own person . . . . she should approach the chair (or seat
if you will,) with her back directly to it, and from about half an arms length away,
whence she should make a Reverence to the princess, or anyone else sitting there,
acknowledging her before she seats herself. . . .Now approaching the chair more closely
she should seat herself halfway back on it; for if she were to seat herself all the
way back, her farthingale would raise her dress high in front, that those facing
her might see as much as half her legs, but if she were to sit as I have said, halfway on
her chair, her feet would touch the floor equally, and so would her farthingale and
dress. Be careful that chopines are never revealed. When ladies raise their dresses
the other way, however, the poor things must beat on them with both hands, as if they were
shaking out dust or fleas.
(sorry- lengthy - but instructive - quote)
Bob Skiba
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Date: Tue, 1 Jul 1997 10:09:54 -1000
From: Ninni M Pettersson
Subject: Re: H-COST: How do you sit in a farthingale, etc.?
Greetings!
Regarding this subject of sitting down in farthingales, perhaps someone can
explain a statement in Boucher that puzzles me:
In the text to plates no 426, 438, 440, 443 'Spanish Costume and its
influence' he says:
"[...] Ann of Austria (plate 440) wears a basquine fastened with puntas
(points) over a farthingale. The gown clearly shows the horizontal pleat
designed to hide the feet of the wearer when seated (plates 426, 440)"
How could this work? Wouldn't the lowest hoop of the farthingale push up
the edge of the skirt regardless of any pleat in the fabric? Or were the
fabric indeed so heavy as to keep the hoop down if pleated in this way?
/Ninni Pettersson
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