Mahalia Palmer-Joffe is a postgraduate student at the University of Glasgow in MLitt History of Art: Dress and Textile Histories. She studied at Wimbledon College of Arts completing a BA (Hons) Costume Interpretation for Theatre and Screen. She has experience in theatrical costume making for the screen having worked on set for The Crown and Harlots and is skilled in modern and historical sewing and pattern drafting techniques.

Mahalia recreated the dress worn by Penelope Home in this 1789 painting by Adam Callendar which is on display at Paxton House. Mahalia made the dress in full including all the undergarments.

The series of paintings made by Adam Callander in Grenada in 1789 provide us with the only surviving portrait of Ninian Home of Paxton and his wife Penelope.  They are also a rare record of plantation life in the colonial period. in 2021, I took the painting as evidence for the reconstruction of the costume worn by Penelope Home.

The Dress

Marie Antoinette by Elizabeth Vigée le Brun © Metropolitan Museum, New York

I interpreted the dress in this painting as a chemise a la reine, and based mine specifically on an example in the Musée de la Toile de Jouy in France. The dress is abundant in French and English portraits from the 1780s-1790s, but I was able to locate only 2 examples in museum collections.

The chemise a la reine is a blousy, largely unstructured white dress, almost always made from white cotton muslin. It was made famous by a controversial 1783 painting of Marie Antoinette by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, which set a fashion for wealthy French and British women to be painted in similar dresses. Women on plantations in the French West Indies had been wearing similar styles of simple, unstructured, white linen dresses even earlier. The chemise a la reine was recognised to be inspired by Creole styles of dress which makes it a particularly appropriate choice for an interpretation of Penelope Home’s clothing.

My interpretation of Penelope’s dress is made from light white cotton with a subtle narrow stripe, and the bodice is lined with bleached cotton calico. The dress opens down the centre front and the bodice is gathered at the waist and neckline.

The Stays

Stays recreated by Mahalia Palmer-Joffe

My first decision was whether or not to include stays in my costume. From analysing portraits of women wearing chemise dresses like Penelope’s, it is clear that some wore stays underneath and some did not. The stays are based on a pattern taken from extant stays from circa 1780, held in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

These stays are made from a combination of machine and hand sewing. The boning channels are machine stitched for speed and accuracy. From studying an array of extant 18^th century stays, the pieces are sewn together often in the same way, the seam allowance is sewn behind and whip-stitched to the lining layers so the stitches do not show from the front, then the panels are butted against each other and sewn together with a whip stitch. This often creates a messy seam at the front, so the seam is covered with a narrow ribbon which may also help to reinforce the seam.

Stays from this time were typically made from linen canvas, however, in modern corsetry, cotton herringbone is common for its strength and stability and made a good substitute. The originals were boned with whalebone/ baleen, until steel took over in the mid 19^th century. I chose a 5mm width synthetic whalebone made from plastic, which is safe for museum display.

Stays were sewn together by first folding the seam allowance back and whip stitching in place, and then firmly sewing the pattern pieces together, also using a whip stitch. This produces very strong seams, and I used the same technique for the reproduction stays. The edges were typically bound with narrow strips of leather or fabric; I chose to use cotton bias binding. The binding and the ribbon used to cover the seams were sometimes in contrasting colours to the top fabric for decoration, I chose to keep them white in order to make sure the stays are as inconspicuous as possible under the dress. Stays at this time were spiral laced, rather than cross laced and eyelets were bound using hand stitching. Penelope’s stays are intended to lace with an even 2” lacing gap.

The Shift

Late 18th century shift © Boston Museum of Fine Arts

The shift or chemise is a large, loose, white shirt-shaped garment worn as the base layer of any outfit, worn under the stays for hygiene and comfort. It absorbs any dirt or sweat and could be laundered much more easily than a set of stays, and it also prevents the stays rubbing against the skin. My chemise for Penelope is made using a no-waste pattern cutting technique, meaning it is made only of squares, rectangles and triangles, and the only fabric wasted is the circle shape cut out for the neckhole, using fabric as economically as possible. Gussets at the sides and underarms allowed for free movement. All seams on the chemise are flat-felled for strength – being worn against the body and laundered constantly meant seams had to be as sturdy as possible.

The Petticoat

Quilted petticoat © Victoria & Albert Museum

The petticoat goes over the shift and stays, and gives fullness to the skirts. Petticoats could be made from thicker fabric or quilted for warmth in colder climates, though Penelope’s is made only from light cotton. The front and back are pleated differently, with a box pleat at the front and an inverted box pleat at the back. It is put on by first tying the back ties around the waist, then wrapping around and tying the front ties. This means the petticoat is easily adjustable for different sizes, and leaves splits for hands to reach the pockets which are worn underneath the petticoats. There are a number of petticoats with similar construction in museum collections, though it seems that mostly quilted petticoats have survived, likely because this fabric was less easily reusable. Petticoats could be made from linen or cotton, and Penelope’s is made from lightweight cotton calico.

The Pockets

Pockets, c.1760, © Victoria & Albert Museum

Pockets were an individual garment, consisting of one or two large pocket bags worn on a tape or belt that tied around the waist, over the stays but underneath the petticoats. They could be plain or embroidered. Along with other undergarments and household linen, pockets were often marked with initials or the name of the owner, year the object was acquired and sometimes numbers to facilitate organising the linens and reduce the risk of theft during laundering. Skirts and petticoats have splits in the sides towards the top, which allowed access to the pockets.

The Hat

Portrait of an unknown woman, ca. 1780-1789, George Englehart © Victoria & Albert Museum

Penelope’s hat is indistinct in the portrait, and a number of styles of hat were worn with the chemise a la reine. Large gathered hats were worn to cover a large hairstyle and equally prevalent were brimmed straw hats, either with a tall, pointed crown sometimes called a Gainsborough hat or a low, flat crown sometimes called a bergére, after the French for shepherdess. All types of hat tended to be heavily decorated with ribbons, feathers and flowers, and blue and white were common colours. Penelope’s hat is designed to be worn on top of the head or tilted slightly forward, as in Marie-Antoinette’s portrait. This angle creates the large round look we can see in the painting of Penelope Home at Paraclete.

Taken from the research report for Paxton House by Mahalia Palmer-Joffe, 2021