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Women's Complete Renaissance Costumes • Bodices • Gowns & Overdresses
Blouses & Chemises • Skirts • Undergarments • Shoes & Boots • Capes & Cloaks
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A women's bodice, or "pair of bodies," was a close-fitting garment for the upper body, normally, for most people, made of wool. It served the double function of keeping the body warm and also that of molding the upper body into the fashionable shape of the period. The look was rather severe and masculine: flat, broad in the shoulders and narrow in the waist. In essence, the bodice served the combined function of bra, girdle, and vest all in one.
The degree of stiffness of a bodice was proportional to the wearer's station in life. While upper class women wore stiffly boned bodices, ordinary women required freedom of movement to perform everyday tasks (imagine churning butter in a stiff corset) and therefore wore less restrictive garments. Stiffening was provided by baleen , bundles of dried reeds, willow wood, or even steel. A less fashionable bodice might be stiffened with only a heavy fabric interlining. For extra stiffening a long, rigid piece of wood, bone, or ivory, properly called a "busk" would be inserted into a pocket in the front of the bodice or corset and held in place with a ribbon at the top.
The bodice waistline was pointed in the front and the neckline reflected the trends of fashion, low towards the beginning and end of Elizabeth's reign and high-necked during the middle years. A low bodice might be worn with a high-necked chemise, but only young unmarried women might sport the décolleté look in fashionable circles. The bodice itself had no collar.
While a sleeveless bodice was a proper outer garment for a working woman, women of higher social status had little cause to ever be seen in their shirtsleeves. A bodice's sleeves would be detachable, a separate garment, lacing in with ribbon ties so that they might be interchanged or replaced. Fancier bodices also had tabs along the waist called "Piccadills" and often featured padded shoulder rolls or stiffened wings of fabric at the armholes.
Since the bodice took a fair amount of strain, buttons would be too weak a fastening. Instead, bodices would be closed by means of hooks and eyes or lacing. Ordinary women's bodices would usually lace up the front; side- and back-lacing bodices were worn by those wealthy enough to afford servants to assist them in dressing. Middle class women were often seen in side-lacing bodices.
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