I used to be in the Sealed Knot - civil war reenactment society (and that's the English civil war, so we're talking mid-17th century costumes). The women universally wore bodices, but they were all ones that laced up the front (and were worn with blouses underneath, and sometimes a sort of waistcoat-y thing as well). A front-lacing bodice can be done up by yourself (though it doesn't hurt to have help). Back-laced ones, which I think came in later, you have no chance whatsoever of getting into on your own.
It's certainly something that I had to keep half an eye on when writing some of my renaissance-period fiction; I had my heroine and her (male) companion travelling together, as merchant venturers, and I wanted them to be spending lots of time alone together, but realistically if she was travelling she would have had a maid along, precisely to help with dressing her every day. And he would probably have had a manservant/groom as well. I still need to do lots of rework on that stuff, bringing in those supporting characters (one idea was that since my MC was low-born and has clawed her way up through society, she actually has no idea how to handle having a maidservant and gets through a succession of temporary ones because she just can't find the balance of how to be someone's "boss" - an important part of her learning process...).
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Date: 2008-07-16 04:59 pm (UTC)It's certainly something that I had to keep half an eye on when writing some of my renaissance-period fiction; I had my heroine and her (male) companion travelling together, as merchant venturers, and I wanted them to be spending lots of time alone together, but realistically if she was travelling she would have had a maid along, precisely to help with dressing her every day. And he would probably have had a manservant/groom as well. I still need to do lots of rework on that stuff, bringing in those supporting characters (one idea was that since my MC was low-born and has clawed her way up through society, she actually has no idea how to handle having a maidservant and gets through a succession of temporary ones because she just can't find the balance of how to be someone's "boss" - an important part of her learning process...).