Foundations Revealed

A utilitarian but essential part of the Medieval wardrobe, researched and recreated on a modern body.

The history and construction of lower hose: netherstocks, stockings, and boot-hose. Then we'll drape, pattern and sew our own with a combination of machine and handstitching.

Two questions and a short story on the Letters page this month: how to make a set of the 1660 watered silk stays from the V&A, alternative lacing and where to find colored eyelets, a short story from 1913.

Alison Kannon demystifies the construction and recreation of “bodies”, the stiffened supportive layer of clothing that later came to be called a corset or stays.