The Happy Life of a Duchess

The next day, Mrs. Daumier, who had taken up the post of new tailor in the residence of the Duke of Juradi, and Mrs. Duncan, a middle-aged woman who customarily made clothes for her, came to the door together.

Most of the power in this era is in the hands of men.

There is only a very small part, which is almost exclusively female.

Such as fashion, such as dress.

These are things that women think about and improve, and are the parts that men disdain and cannot participate in.

Mrs. Duncan has been making clothes for Duke Jurady's residence for many years, and she is also well-known in the entire aristocratic circle.

For some reason, she seemed to meet Madame Daumier, and after considering Madame Daumier's skills, she arranged for her to be her assistant.

Mrs. Duncan is not only the first to make clothes for Jura's family. Her creativity is amazing. She can perfectly understand Adele's meaning. The clothes she designs are always good-looking and excellent. The most important thing is that unique .

Like the oriental long dress with a very positive color before, it was Adele who gave her the fabric and offered to ask for a dress with a mysterious oriental charm, and used not very exquisite painting skills She showed her the ideal patterns and meanings. Unexpectedly, Mrs. Duncan understood it perfectly and made a dress that Adele thought was perfect.

Because she is very pursuing quality and has many wonderful works and ideas, she needs someone who can understand her "work" more than relying on clothes to make money.

Fortunately, Adele unexpectedly met her appetite, so that although Mrs. Duncan is not only serving the Duke's Mansion, she basically puts Adele's needs first and will directly serve her When making clothes, one piece of skirt is basically not faked by others——

And Adele has a high demand for clothing because of her status.

Therefore, making clothes for Adele basically took up the most of her time, and in the rest of the time, she would take orders from other ladies and wives depending on the situation. In addition, she was also one of the many honorary tailors of the Suss store.

The Suss store will be divided into a part for her, and she needs to design some hats and skirts for the Suss store every quarter, but the task load will not be very large.

In fact, the Susi store is headed by the owner, and other design and business models, such as Mrs. Duncan, are still standing.

"What do you need today?" Mrs. Duncan smiled and said, next to her was a female assistant and a big package.

Madame Daumier followed, ready to meet the task at any time.

The salary given to her by the Duke's Mansion exceeded her imagination. She only needed to take on a few more tasks to ensure her son's schooling and family expenses. This made her feel so grateful that she almost shed tears.

The generosity of the duke's mansion moved her very much. As a sensible widow, she thought about it, and the only thing she could do was to do her job better and more carefully, so as to satisfy the duchess, who was so kind to her.

This young lady is not engaged yet, and it is time for her to dress up in good-looking clothes. For a better marriage, she can do nothing too much.

"My corset is a little uncomfortable."

Adele pointed to the position of her chest. She thought it might be because she had taken care of herself recently and was in a good mood, so she might have gotten a little "fat" again.

She is wearing a white high-waisted dress, which is a bit close to the dress of the Empire period, but because it is only a little more formal than pajamas but far from everyday clothes that can be worn out, it is not considered Very serious.

But since it is necessary to tailor the clothes, of course it is impossible to cover yourself out of breath. Like other ladies, Adele will not wear those tight restraints when she is alone at home and does not have to see guests, let alone so many In the clothes, the tea dress is relatively relaxed, the only troublesome thing is the formal dress, in order to hold up the thick layers of skirts, you must wear a tighter corset.

At this time, all the clothes such as tunics were handmade by women themselves according to their individual needs, not mass-produced by industrial machines.

Because there is no underwear such as bras, the corset at this time is different from the modern one. It is closer to the combination of corset and waist, which probably includes the area from the chest to the buttocks. The abdomen is relatively hard. The top is bust-shaped, and the edge of some waists is expanded a little, so that it is convenient to add hip pads to support the skirt.

This kind of corset fits everyone's different body shapes and needs, and at the same time bears the needs of sharing back pressure, bearing the weight of long skirts for muscles and bones, supporting the chest, maintaining body lines, etc., fitting the body shape and exerting force everywhere.

Adele isn't one of those little perverts who likes topless clothes, and while it used to be popular, she's quite demanding of her 'lingerie'.

Mrs. Duncan looked at her - where the breasts were, and smiled.

"I think you've got a little fuller figure, but we'll have to re-measure and I'll help you adjust the corset to the perfect size."

"Some girls will force themselves to wear a smaller corset or deliberately tighten it for the sake of the waist that is too slender. Let me say that this is completely undesirable. Wearing it for a long time Aren't you tired? Although noble ladies don't need to do troublesome things, for most women who need to do physical work, an ill-fitting corset is a disaster, even walking will be uncomfortable."

Adele raised her arms, and Jenny and Mary helped her take off her skirt, leaving her only undershirt on.

In fact, the girdle is not worn close to the body, and it will be padded with soft cotton or silk material, so as not to cause unsightly marks on the body. This is also one of the experiences of the ladies at this time. talk.

Mrs. Duncan is not an idle person. She measured her bust size and reported the data one by one for the female assistant on the side to write down, while muttering.

"Are you still used to it now? When you first wore it, I thought you didn't feel very comfortable..."

"Um, it was..." Adele couldn't say that it was the first time she traveled here and wore such a formal dress, so that she felt awkward.

A corset is a piece of clothing that takes getting used to, to use an inappropriate metaphor——

People who don't wear bras all the time will feel awkward when they suddenly let her wear a bra, let alone a corset that covers most of her body.

"I know that it may not be close enough at that time. It was made according to the data given by Mrs. Lu De before, but it is slightly different from your actual figure. However, there is no time to modify it so carefully, so we can only make do with it first."

"Fortunately, we don't need it now. We always have to make the most comfortable ones, whether it's shoes or clothes."

Mrs. Duncan had found the explanation herself, and Adele said no more.

After measuring her new size again, she said confidently that Adele's figure is better, her breasts are more plump, and her buttocks are more prominent, which is more plump than before, which is just right.

However, those skirts that were originally measured and made have to be slightly adjusted. This time, Adele only tried on a part of the dresses, and ordered a few design drawings that she liked very much, and asked Mrs. Duncan to give her Prepare.

Then, she spent a large sum of money, placed a deposit, and added a dozen more orders to her summer clothes.

"Wait a minute." Adele intentionally left Mrs. Daumier to talk, but the other party immediately nodded yes.

With such a large workload, it would take a lot of time for Mrs. Duncan alone. She took a fancy to Mrs. Daumier's embroidery, and the two of them discussed it. Leave it to her.

There are other tailors in the Duke's Mansion, and there are a few others who "cooperate" with Adele.

Adele also ordered hats and shoes from them earlier, and she will definitely have a matching skirt.

"How have you been lately?"

Mrs. Duncan was escorted away by Mrs. Luder, and Adele was talking to Mrs. Daumier while being helped by a servant to change into a more formal uniform.

"Everything is fine, thanks to you."

Mrs. Daumier picked up some good things to talk about. Seeing that Adele was curious, she mentioned a few words about her recent situation and her son's study.

With money, she finally found a way to send her son to a missionary school.

She didn't have too many expectations for her only son, but if she could be a priest, she would be very happy, and she didn't think much about it even further away.

"Oh yes, I made you some hats and handkerchiefs."

From her large parcel she took out two exquisite hats and several handkerchiefs of fine embroidery.

"Have you been doing this for a long time?"

Although Adele doesn't know embroidery, she also knows that making clothes is not that easy. Even a skilled worker needs at least one night to make a beautiful hat. Besides, these hats are very exquisite in terms of shape and decoration. , especially styles.

It was Adele who had seen so many houses, but had never seen one before.

It can be seen that Mrs. Daumier is indeed a very talented tailor and designer.

"The fabric isn't cheap either..." Adele touched the veil, and knew that she probably spent a lot of money.

"I'm looking for Mrs. Lu De... If the cotton can be finer and matched with better thin thread, I can embroider better."

"A thinner thread?" Adele didn't quite understand.

"Embroidery, the more realistic the pattern is, the more thinner and richer the color of the thread must be used, so as to create a sense of hierarchy and the pattern looks more realistic and beautiful."

Mrs. Daumier explained that she was also very happy to see Adele looking at the pattern of the handkerchief with a look of admiration.

"That is to say... Technically, it can actually be done...?" Adele showed a thoughtful expression.

"Yes, I have seen that kind of fine thread. The cotton thread is dyed and embroidered on silk. It feels completely different from sewing two patterns on linen. It's a pity that there are too few and too many. Expensive."

"Then you will?" Adele asked curiously, but Mrs. Daumier didn't think much about it.

"Technically I can almost understand, but in fact I have not tried similarly."

"I see." Adele nodded.

"Based on your level, if you go further and learn from Mrs. Duncan, maybe there will be a store named after you in the circular square in the future."

"You are so good at teasing me." Madame Daumier smiled very modestly.

"No, I'm serious." Adele said sternly, implying something, "This is indeed feasible, isn't it?"

"Perhaps you will also have such an opportunity, as long as you can seize it, and I am very happy to be this investor. Of course, it would be great if more poor wives could have an extra meal and a livelihood. "

The author has something to say:

A corset in the Victorian era is not the same thing as a corset today!For the convenience of understanding, I directly wrote it as a corset.

At that time, the clothes were all handmade, and my corset was definitely in line with the size and needs of my body, unlike the current uniform size. At that time, it was out of the need to maintain the body line and support the heavy long skirt. In the Romantic period, corsets needed to be worn around the waist, and they were basically a must, unless the shape and material of the long skirts were changed to make them lighter.

At that time, in pursuit of body lines, even men would wear corsets, which generally played the role of shrinking the lower abdomen (beer belly?), so that one's shoulders to waist showed a nice inverted triangle, or it could be understood as a good back (?) kind .

Now some merchants sell waistbands, which do not include the chest part, nor are they lower than the buttocks. Being fooled by unscrupulous merchants, objectively speaking, using a waist corset will indeed degenerate and weaken the muscles in that part of your body, but women at that time did not need to engage in labor activities, did not do strenuous exercise at all, and did not know how to run. So there are some problems now that women at that time did not actually have.

In fact, some modern high-end dresses also use a certain waist design, which can be found by looking at the shape and material. In addition, some actresses also wear waists to ensure their body lines when they walk on the red carpet.

But don't be superstitious about corsets, if you really need it, please follow the doctor's advice!Don't do dangerous behaviors such as wearing ill-fitting waistbands, exercising and eating! !

There is a data, a study of the Bath Costume Museum, for the measurement of the real existing Victorian girdle, after measuring a thousand Victorian skirts, it was found that the smallest waist circumference was 21.5 inches (54 cm), and the average woman in 1866 was About 28-29 inches (71-73 cm), part of the data has been modified (beautified), according to WHO data, a normal healthy waist should be around 31.5 inches (80 cm) or smaller, that is, at that time The waist circumference can generally be said to be within the normal range.

In some pictures and portraits, women’s waists are horrific, but in fact, those were all processed. According to the aesthetic needs of the time, it is the same as our current beauty, which is different from the actual situation of real people. The (?) is an exaggerated proportion, and the other is that the proportion of chest, waist and hips is terrible, probably because there were chest pads and hip pads at that time, which enlarged the proportion.