More fake than a tan in February

It's still all weddings, all the time at the museum, and I've been wading through piles of gowns writing up document reports and taking photographs of them for the exhibition notebook. All of which is great, especially when I run into antique breast implants.

Or, if not breast implants, than certainly the world's original push-up bra. One of the wedding dresses I handled, a gorgeous cream silk taffeta from 1851 with three-quarter sleeves, a deep v-neck (which was pretty rare - most of the other wedding dresses we have from that decade have a wide bateau neck and cap sleeves), and some crazy diagonal ruching, also had built in breast-pads. The entire chest area was extra thick, with round pads made of cotton batting sewn into the bosom.

I guess the more things change, the more things stay the same. Female insecurity and the need to live up to the expectations of a society that objectifies the female form don't really disappear from century to century. I don't know why I'm surprised - after all, this is the same society that forced women into constricting corsets and advocated removing a rib to make them skinnier. I guess it's just because the big-breast thing seems like such a hallmark of the silicone age.

Of course, I could be overthinking this... maybe our anonymous 1850's bride was just sick of being part of the itty-bitty titty committee and decided to do something about. After all, it's her party, and she'll enhance her chest if she wants to.