WTFrock Is a Stomacher? – The Research

All of us here at Frock Flicks are fully aware that people making costumes for movies and TV are dealing with budget and time constraints. We’ve written about this before — costumes are typically a very small part of a film or TV series’ budget, and the costume team may get a six weeks or less to create the whole wardrobe for a production. We get it! But we exist as an alternative to the unknowing mass media that gushes over “lavish” period costumes which bear only the faintest relation to historical imagery. This is our specialized beat. So we notice how onscreen costumes are constructed and how that differs from period evidence.

One biggie is stomachers. It’s really easy to gloss over this part of women’s fashion, which existed from the late 16th century off and on through the end of the 18th. You can fake stomachers in a million ways, it seems, or at least, it seems like frock flicks have faked it forever. During Snark Week, I pointed out a whole lot of those cheats, but I thought it’s only fair to explain what the frock a stomacher is. Then let’s see if any movies and TV shows have gotten that right.

Throughout history, women’s garments have opened at the front, sides, or the back, depending on fashion and usage. As Kendra has pointed out many times, back-lacing garments don’t make sense if there’s already a front opening — historical people weren’t stupid and wouldn’t create extra work that didn’t have a really good purpose. Front-opening garments are always common because you can get in and out of them by yourself. It’s a luxury to be dressed by someone else, although before the 20th century, people tended to live in larger households with extended family and/or servants, so you would have some help to get dressed if necessary. But if you’re a working woman, you don’t have as much time to get someone else to lace you in at the back, whereas a wealthy lady of leisure doesn’t care.

Up through the 16th century, a front-lacing gown (or jacket or coat type garment) would be worn over another gown or at least over a smock. That means that some of this undergown or smock might show through the lacing. For example, here you can see a woman lacing up her blue gown over a black undergown layered over a white smock:

You might have a front-lacing gown like this, but if you’re a wealthier women, maybe you want to show off in your clothing more — conspicuous consumption is as old as humankind! So how about, instead of just letting a simple undergown or smock show, you pop in a bit of super-fancy fabric underneath the closure to show off? Well, that little bit of fabric underneath the front closure becomes the stomacher. It’s nothing more than some fabric that covers a gap in a front-lacing gown or jacket, and the stomacher is almost always highly decorated either to match the gown/jacket or to contrast and stand out.

It’s not clear exactly when stomachers were first worn, but I can see evidence of where they might have come from in a few places. Venetian 16th-century gowns were often laced in the front with a wide part of the women’s smock showing.

These styles sometimes include something behind the lacing that is suspiciously like a stomacher, since it fills in the space and is quite decorative.

In the above painting, that scrolling decoration under the front lacing is too perfect and centered to be part of a smock, which bunches and shifts underneath a gown (trust me, I’ve worn this style of gown as part of Bella Donna Historical Performers ;).

In this painting, the material under the front lacing seems to match the gown’s fabric, but it’s clearly under the lacing, so it couldn’t be integral to the upper part of the bodice.

Meanwhile, over in France, here’s another possible proto-stomacher. She’s wearing a gown folded open in the front to display a triangle that’s highly decorated with pearls. The triangle could be part of an undergown (kirtle) decorated with pearls, but it would be more practical to have a separate piece of pearled fabric pinned in.

Perhaps related is the brustfleck worn by women in 16th-century Germany. It’s a highly decorated “breast band” that’s pinned or sewn into a front gap in a gown. This is seen in a lot of Cranach portraits, and while the brustfleck doesn’t necessarily go behind the lacing, the concept of a decorative piece of fabric filling a front gap is similar.

It’s when we get to the 1580s with the wheel-farthingale gowns in France and England that we see definite stomachers. These gowns are huge and elaborate, and they need to open in the front because much of the fabric weight of them skews towards the back. The edges of the bodice front are usually folded back a little bit, and the stomacher is pinned to that fold, either underneath or on top of it. The stomacher could also be pinned directly to the corset (called bodies or stays), since these were probably being worn by upper-class woman by this time.

This French image shows an early stomacher worn with a wheel-farthingale gown.

Here’s an early English version:

In one of my favorite portraits of the era (I made my own version of the gown), you can see the fold line where the bodice ends and is trimmed with lace over where the stomacher is pinned in (I ran out of lace when making mine, boo).

This one clearly shows the side of the bodice, which uses the same fabric as the hanging over-sleeves. The stomacher uses the same fabric as the full sleeves, and it looks like the forepart of the petticoat uses a different fabric.

Very little 16th-century clothing survives in museums today, but I did find this piece of blackwork embroidery that the V&A calls a stomacher. I can see how this could have been pinned over a corset and tucked behind the open front of a gown.

 

 

16th-Century Stomachers in Movies & TV

There aren’t a ton of movies or TV shows set in the 1590s, or at least not ones with characters wearing wheel-farthingale gowns. What we do see is almost always Queen Elizabeth I, such as … Queenie! The date for this series isn’t clear, but Sir Walter Raleigh shows up after he’s sailed to North America, so that puts it in or after the 1580s. And the costume looks great with a proper stomacher.

More precisely though is the classic QEI portrayal by Glenda Jackson on the BBC, and she wears a couple of 1590s gowns with stomachers. There’s one based on this portrait:

You can just see the edge where that heavily decorated stomacher meets the bodice edge.

It does not fasten in the back, of course.

But the most well-known wheel-farthingale of all has to be this massive white gown Elizabeth wears in the Ditchley Portrait.

Reproduced beautifully here:

In this behind-the-scenes shot, you can see where the stomacher pins in:

Other shows have made their own gowns inspired by the portrait:

The costume on display does appear to have a proper stomacher, totally bedazzled.

Then there’s just QEI in all kinds of bling, including super jewel-encrusted stomachers:

Put a pin, so to speak, in those stomachers on her ladies-in-waiting — I’ll discuss them in a moment. Let’s continue with the Queen:

This stomacher is exaggerated in length, although they could be pretty long in the period.

Lady Euphrosyne in Orlando is also wearing a super-long stomacher, and it seems to be pinned on top of her gown, much like the ladies-in-waiting in Shakespeare in Love. I’m not saying that style wasn’t done because you really can’t tell in some of the 1590s to 1600s paintings. The stomachers can look very much plopped right on top of the bodice. If that was artistic license, then at least these couple flicks reproduced the period aesthetic well.

OK, now for a few 16th-century films and TV shows that I’m giving an “E” for effort because they’re showing the accurate historical concept of a stomacher with a gown, even if the execution isn’t great. First up, this gown on another Queen Elizabeth:

I do love how the wheel-farthingale gown seems to appropriately recreate the big pleat at the top of gown. It’s a really weird part of these gowns that’s been wildly misunderstood onscreen. For comparison:

But I digress. The gown should have a stomacher pinned onto the bodice. When the Queen overheats, she unpins and unlaces her bodice. But it’s pretty clear that the bodice front is sewn on one side and just pinned on the other, which is closer to how a bodice from the 1520s-40s would have been constructed.

Here’s the earlier bodice style, as illustrated in The Tudor Tailor (2006) by Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davis:

That type of gown construction may have still been in use, but I question whether it would have gone with a wheel farthingale, which typically had the long, pointed stomacher bodice style.

The next one has the concept of a pinned-on stomacher correct, but the construction is terrible. For starters, you don’t pin the stomacher to your smock! It’s just going to move around, plus it’ll be uncomfortable. You need to pin it to the corset or the gown.

And if you pin it to the gown, try using more pins so it’s not gaping like crazy. The top edge of stomacher should also sit closer to the bustline. This is riding way too high. Of course, looking at the picture of her getting dressed, that stomacher may be oversized for her entirely. File this under “Shit That Doesn’t Fit.” But the actual garment pieces are correct.

Finally, here’s one that’s constructed totally wrong but gives the right effect.

If this character has removed the stomacher from one scene to another but there’s no front opening on this gown, there has to be back lacing. So the stomacher is not doing the intended job here.

 

 

17th-Century Stomachers in Movies & TV

Stomachers were worn with some styles in the 17th century, but back-lacing gowns (which don’t need stomachers) seem to be a bit more common. Here’s one example of an extant garment that would have had a stomacher to fill in over that laced part:

See how a similar garment might look worn with all the pieces put together:

The same effect in a more formal gown on a queen:

There are so few 17th-century films and TV shows made compared to other historical periods, and I really had to hunt around to find screencaps of any women’s costumes, especially ones showing a reasonably accurate stomacher! For the early part of the century, it’s all about the Musketeers:

Then supposedly 20 years after the main Musketeers story, Anne of Austria is basically wearing the same thing as in the earlier movies, but it’s a good stomacher example:

You’d think English Civil War frock flicks would show these fashions, but those tend to have far more men. Again, so hard to find examples!

One onscreen example of a 17th-century stomacher I found is in this fantasy Cinderella flick, so it doesn’t have a specific year. The execution of the style is not bad:

Somewhat unique to this period is a type of bodice with a stiffened or boned and elaborately decorated stomacher that’s an integral part of the bodice; meaning it isn’t just pinned in. We covered one very well-done movie example already:

While these are super cool and this shows it can be done on film, I’m not considering it a “stomacher” for our purposes because that’s a full garment, not a separate piece. I suspect this bodice was often worn underneath gowns or jackets in the mid-17th century, and it can be hard to tell in period images what’s a full bodice-stomacher and what’s a separate stomacher.

For example, in painting like this, it looks like white part edged in gold scallops is a stomacher. But maybe that’s part of a bodice under a black gown? Hmm … When I get to the Snark Week nit-picking, this will matter!

At the end of the 17th century, the mantua gown made more standard-issue pinned-in stomachers fashionable again. A mantua was draped and pleated in the back and could have a front opening.

The novel of Moll Flanders ends in the 1680s, so at some point before that, Alex Kingston gets this early mantua gown.

While it’s hard to tell here, the folded-back sides at the front of the gown are a good hint (also, great fontanges!):

Here’s an exaggerated, somewhat theatrical take on the mantua that still gets the stomacher part right:

There are precious few onscreen portrayals of Queen Anne of Great Britain, which is a pity because she’s interesting, but for my purposes here, she and her court wore mantuas! Her era straddles the end of the 17th and start of the 18th centuries, though I’m going to categorize this with the 17th century.

In the most recent (and easy to find pix from) film version of Queen Anne’s court, costume designer Sandy Powell used modern materials for the costumes due to a tight budget, and the film’s color palette was stripped down dramatically. But Powell stuck to historically accurate fashions and garment construction. In an interview with Awards Daily, she said:

“The women’s costumes are a very good mix-and-match capsule wardrobe. It looks like they have lots of changes, but the dresses are made up of components. There’s the triangular bit at the front that clips on and so I’d switch those out. It’s a bit like having two jackets, two blouses, two skirts and seeing how many combinations you can get out of that.”

Powell used the mantua gown and stomacher to create more looks for the characters, and this can be seen on Rachel Weisz as Lady Sarah Churchill:

 

 

18th-Century Stomachers in Movies & TV

The mantua eventually grew into the robe à la française or sack-back gown, which was worn in the 1730s through the 1770s. This style was worn with a stomacher in the front. Here’s what it would look like without a stomacher pinned in:

And with the stomacher:

Here’s some examples of how stomachers were worn … highly decorated:

Contrasting the gown or matching:

Caught in a moment at home with the gown unpinned, this portrait shows how the gown is put together. That’d have to be a stomacher under there, covered with ton of knotted trim sometimes called fly fringe. This was a delicate and very popular trim that is incredibly time-consuming to make.

Here a good close view, where the stomacher is trimmed with lace and topped by a bow:

While stomachers were first worn with sack-back gowns, as fashions changed, the back pleats of the gown could be stitched down, creating a full, rounded skirt, instead of the more oblong, wide skirt shape of the sack. This type of gown, called an English nightgown or a robe à l’anglaise, still had a front opening that needed to be filled with a stomacher.

With or without a sack back, the front piece is the same: a highly decorated triangle-ish shape that’s pinned into the gown or onto the corset. There are lots of extant stomachers in museums, such as:

Now for some movie and TV versions. Raïssa Hans, costume designer for this Belgian TV series set in the 1740s, shared these photos with us when Kendra interviewed her. The stomacher is hand-embroidered, like historical versions would have been.

I’ll note that, while historically stomachers would have been pinned in or even temporarily basted into a gown, often movies and TV shows will use hooks and eyes. That makes perfect sense because it’s fast and always accurate, ideal for quick changes on set. Sometimes in close-ups (and especially in high-definition), you can see a little peek of those hooks, but unless it’s egregious, I give ’em a pass. Better to use hooks and eyes than completely sew the gown up with a fake stomacher!  My advice would be to add some trim to cover the join — that’s historically accurate and just looks pretty. In the period, it helped hide pins too.

Here, you can’t see how the stomacher is attached, but since the gown doesn’t close in the back, there’s probably some hidden hooks or pins in the front.

I always look for a glimpse of where the stomacher is fastened — that’s how you can tell it’s not faked and sewn-in.

For all it’s being “an occasionally true story,” The Great‘s comedy take on history does have some historically accurate costumes (though I know some are recycled from earlier productions). These from season 2 show off proper stomachers:

Recapping the second season of Outlander, Kendra and Sarah noticed how one gown was worn with two different stomachers and petticoats, as you do:

Even later in the series with less fancy costumes, you can still see accurately designed stomachers:

This series might have used a number of recycled costumes since it only had a few episodes and didn’t get picked up. But the gowns on the leading characters were solid.

While Belle uses a lot of recycled gowns, here are a few that may be original to this film and appear to have accurate stomachers, starting with the little-girl versions of the main characters:

As the characters age, the young women wear gowns that require stomachers less often, while the older women continue to wear the style, especially with sack-back gowns.

The adult Dido favors fully front-closing gowns but does wears stomachers here, and they both feature very 18th-century style trimmings:

Harlots also used a lot of recycled costumes (hey, the show had a big cast!), so I don’t know if this one is original. But I like seeing that little stomacher gap on the side…

The miniseries The Aristocrats had a lot of gowns made for it that were then recycled into other productions, including this dazzling costume:

I appreciate how this Italian TV show has some highly decorated stomachers, evocative of what you see in museums:

For a bevy of beautiful, historically accurate stomachers onscreen, look no further. In particular, I love how you can see the stomacher has shifted a smidge underneath the lacing of Madame de Tourvel’s jacket here. That’s such a natural, everyday thing that happens, making her costume look lived-in and more like historical clothing.

Looks like the Marquise de Merteuil is wearing a sparkly stomacher first with this cream-colored gown in one scene and then an embroidered stomacher with the same gown later in the film.

Here you can see the edge where the stomacher is nicely tucked in:

Same here:

Awesome fan pleating on this stomacher:

Even Cécile gets a sweet little robe à la française and stomacher, both with sari trim since the costume designer was working that budget.

In the 2006 Marie-Antoinette, the Queen is shown disliking the stuffy, older fashions, so she doesn’t wear many robe à la françaises or even robe à l’anglaises that need stomachers. You mostly see these on secondary characters.

Likewise, Georgiana Cavendish was quite a fashion trend setter, and the sack-back gown was going out of style around the time of her marriage when she became the Duchess of Devonshire. So the Keira Knightley movie about her doesn’t have a ton of stomachers in evidence, mostly at the beginning, such as these:

Even some shows without big budgets can get it right:

As can random flicks:

Not every movie names the date it’s set in, but generic “18th-century” movies can also do well with this bit of costuming:

As can fantasy movies with 18th-century style. This gown was first made for The Slipper and the Rose, and when it was reworn in Clarissa (which is probably set in the 1740s), you can see how a different stomacher changes the look. That could be done in the period too!

After the 1770s though, this style of dress was fading, so in movies and TV shows, stomachers might only be found on, say, a servant in a country house:

Or perhaps a mature lady who’s secretly an evil witch? IDK, but it’s a nice dress!

Finally, at the end of the 18th century, the sack-back gown was going out of fashion (though it hung on in some ossified court settings). By the 1780s, English nightgowns had evolved into fitted gowns that fully closed in the front.

Thus faded away the relevance of the stomacher as a separate accessory!

 

 

Have you noticed stomachers and this gown construction onscreen?