A few years ago I fell in love with a picture of an Edwardian Walking Costume, in the book Haute Couture & Prêt-à-Porter, Mode (Fashion) 1750-2000 - Ietse Meij. For those of you lucky enough to own the book, it's on page 79. And also in the book Haagse Hofmode (Hague Court Fashions) on page 27, on the far right.
It is the costume on the right, in the picture above. I found this image here berthi.web-log.nl. Where you can also find, under 26 &27 september, more pictures of the exposition Haagse Hofmode.
A description of the dress:
A Liberty& Co Walking Costume, consisting of a blouse, skirt, coat and mitaines (fingerless gloves). The skirt and coat are from purple wol and silk shangtung. The smocked blouse is made in silk.
The skirt has an attached corselet but without, as more commonly, the point going upward, but going downward instead. I can't see the back in any of the pictures, so I have no clue, how it looks.
A picture of a corset(waist)skirt in dutch called a keursrok.
Pattern of typical corset skirt:
How to sew boning into a corset skirt.
I do not intend to replicate this costume, my costume will be merely based upon it, but I do want to keep close to the original look. As I have a very short uppertorso, I was not sure of whether or not the attached corselette skirt would look good on me. I decided on making a separate corselette girdle after finding this picture, of what is called the Medici ceintuur (belt).
* All image above are from; Ik kan kostuumnaaien, dated to ca. 1905/1909*
Which looks suspiciously much like the Truly Victorian #492, 1890's Victorian Corselets pattern.
With a separate girdl I will have the option to wear my costume with or without it. So if it doesn't look good, I do not have to change the entire skirt.
At this moment I am experimenting with several variations of the TV pattern, on of them has a downward curve in front.
I found out that a corset/girdl/belt like this is also often refered to as a Swiss waist.
Swiss Waist (picture)
Vintage silk Swiss waist
Vintage Swiss Waist
Variety of pictures with Swiss waists
http://www.koshka-the-cat.com/swiss_pattern.html
Victorian Blue Corduroy Swiss Waist Cincher
Adventures of a Costumer has a nice blog about it.
And now I finally understand where the famous swiss dirndl derived from!
I'm keeping an eye out to buy a copy of the book for my collection. BTW, I have published a number of books containing patterns for Victorian and Edwardian clothing. They are described at www.lavoltapress.com and are available at many online bookstores.
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