Sleeve supports
When not sewn into the dresses, the sleeve supports were attached to the corset's shoulder straps by ties. In the 1830s, these straps were oriented at a forty-five-degree angle from the body, and sometimes even more obliquely. Although impressive in mass, the earlier sleeve puffs did not disrupt the line of the shoulder. Instead, because they were poised so precariously on the upper arm, the sleeve's outline simply continued in a descending line from the shoulder. It was only in the 1890s that the giant puffed sleeves obtruded above the line of the newly squared shoulder.
Artwork Details
- Title: Sleeve supports
- Date: ca. 1828
- Culture: British
- Medium: cotton, baleen
- Credit Line: Purchase, Irene Lewisohn Bequest, 1966
- Object Number: C.I.66.38.5a, b
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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