Wendy puts her earlier research on transitional Regency stays into practice and reproduces a set of stays for herself, walking us through the fitting stages.

Wendy analyzes over 80 stays from 1790-1829 for fiber, colour, weave, length, opening placement, shoulder treatment, bust shaping, boning or cording.

Dresses of the 1770s-80s were worn over a “bum” or “rump,” but there is little extant evidence as to what shape and proportion these rumps took.

In the Napoleonic period, what was once taboo came out from hiding, along with the natural female form. Suddenly, it became necessary to keep the world from glimpsing too much.