Construction of jewels and dresses both important Archived Message
Posted by Beth1  on November 3, 2014, 9:19 pm, in reply to "Re: How royal ladies wear heavy dress jewels. Queen Beatrix has also worn stars attached to sashes. "
I strongly suspect that how very large brooches and stomachers are constructed is as important as the construction and fabric of dresses.
With the jewels, I imagine it is crucial for the jewellers to find the correct point for the pin fitting to ensure the jewels are balanced so they do not tilt forwards and downwards. For large stomachers, I think the balance point has to near the top of the jewel, even though we know that many of these are in fact separate brooches.
Perhaps Vincent, through his extensive researches, may be able to give us some insights.
In most photographs of brooches in The Queen's Diamonds by Roberts, the pins cannot be seen; however, in a few cases they can. In the case of Q Victoria's fringe brooch (the waterfall) a photo of the reverse on page 49 shows the pin is at the top and is curved. Similarly, a photo of the reverse of the Courtauld Thomson Scallop Shell brooch on page 261 also shows a curved pin, while the Cullinan III and IV brooch has a pin in the centre of the upper stone (page 158 ), but whether straight or curved in unknown.
I can envisage that corsets, as worn by ladies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, could provide a stable foundation for very large jewels; however, because such garments were very tightly fitted, the danger of injury from a pin would have been high and so I suspect that areas of the bodice would need some form of reinforcement. The structural nature of bodices then made the use of stiffened fabric of some sort posible. With the more fluid lines of modern styles perhaps a third layer of lining made from a sturdy fabric is used. The nearest appropriate comment I can find in Angela Kelly's book is on page 46 where, in reference to discomfort caused by heavy large beading on evening dresses, she says that a few extra layers of lining are sometimes used.
Unless, some posters have specialist knowledge, this may be a subject which needs further research.
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