Astomacher is a decorated triangular panel that fills in the front opening of a woman'sgown orbodice. The stomacher may be boned, as part of astays, or may cover the triangular front of a corset. If simply decorative, the stomacher lies over the triangular front panel of the stays, being either stitched or pinned into place, or held in place by the lacings of the gown's bodice.
Astomacher may also be a piece or set ofjewellery to ornament a stomacher or bodice.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, men and women both wore decorative stomachers (sometimes calledplacards orplackets) with open-fronteddoublets and gowns. Henchmen and footmen at the coronation ofHenry VII of England in October 1485 were supplied with crimson and green satin doublets and "plakkardes".[1] The form and style of these stomachers in combination with the headgear is often used to date paintings to a certain time period.[citation needed]
Stomachers forElizabeth I were made by her tailorsWalter Fyshe and William Jones. Some were rigid, made with paste board, while many had no stiffening. In the 1590s, the embroidererJohn Parr embellished stomachers for Elizabeth with pearls and silver wire.[2]
In 1603,Elizabeth Wriothesley, Countess of Southampton, who was pregnant, wrote to her husband in London asking him to buy her a stomacher, 'buy me a "stumiger" of scarlet, half a yard broad, and as long at least, lined with plush to keep my belly warm a days when I must ride'.[3] In 1635,Henrietta Maria's tailors were paid for "putting inwhalebone into all her Majesty's stomachers when her Majesty was with child".[4]
In 1674,Lady Anne Clifford wrote that she usually wore a string of scentedpomander beads under her stomacher.[5]
Some 17th-century women's stomachers from theDutch Republic:
Stomachers were in and out of fashion through the 17th and 18th centuries, varying in style and decoration, throughoutEurope andNorth America.
From about 1740, most gowns and bodices were worn to reveal the stomacher, which covered the front of thetorso from neckline towaist or even below the waist. The bodice's lacings would then criss-cross over the stomacher, and eventually the lacings became a series of decorative bows.
Stomachers were often embroidered, or covered inpearls and otherjewels. They could be made of the samefabric as the dress or of a contrasting fabric. Depending on the period, their bottom point was at waist level, or lower; towards the end of the 18th Century they could be as deep as 10 inches below the waistline, making it impossible for the woman wearing them to sit[citation needed].
Necklines also defined the length of a stomacher. There was a brief period during the court ofLouis XVI, when the neckline and stomacher actually were below thebreasts, which were covered by a transparent ruffle of fabric called afichu.
