I got the impression, from an historical novel that I am reading, that a buckram was a bodice or corset. Well, which was it, and was I reading that correctly? I don’t know, so let’s check out the Oxford Canadian Dictionary:
a coarse linen or other cloth stiffened with gum or paste, and used as an interfacing or in bookbinding.
stiffness in manner
Hmm. Not the dissertation on eighteenth-century costuming I was expecting. So, google it and what do I get?
Wikipedia: in addition to the book/stiff cloth usage above, I learn that it is a type of European garlic.
American Heritage Dictionary: more of the same stiff fabric / stiff neck usage, no garlic.
The Milliners Supply Company will sell it to me by the yard, in white only, but will not tell me what it is used for.
Merriam-Webster had an article link which referenced the use of buckram in stomachers, but didn’t really go into other costuming uses.
Any insights or links I might follow up on? I’m getting curiouser and curiouser …
Buckram (haven’t used that word in years) is, as the dictionary states, a stiffened, coarsely woven fabric. It is rough and scratchy. I’m sure it comes in black, although I’ve only seen white. I’ve used it for everything from lampshades to costumes – large stand up collars, breast plates, funky hats, wings, etc. It can be used as is for lampshades, but is covered with fabric, beads and other material for almost all other uses. Some stippers use it to make base forms for pasties. The best way to visualize it, though not a true description of what it IS, is to think of finely woven burlap, stiffened with glue.
Okay, then. The author who referred to her character lacing up the buckram could just as accurately have referred to lacing up the velvet, silk or leather?
Is this, then, an abbreviated reference to some other item? ie “the buckram” instead of “the red buckram stomacher”?
I certainly hope that the character in question wasn’t lacing up her pasties!
