First Year Fashion Student: Boning

In fashion, boning refers to rigid strips of material used to support the desired shape of garment. Each strip of boning material is called a bone or a stay. Stays were historically made of whalebone, ivory, other types of bone, and wood, but today they are made primarily of steel or plastic. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and different levels of flexibility.

The earliest types of corsets, worn from the 16th to 18th century, were designed to transform the upper torso into a very stiff, inverted cone shape. Very tough materials such as boning were used to create this desired effect. The bones are sewn vertically into the fabric of a corset or bodice. At this time, boning would also have been used in the making of cage underskirts.

These costumes worn by Queen Elizabeth during the Elizabethan era are good examples of boning. Boning was used here in the bodice of the dress to cinch in the waist, creating an inverted conical effect. Boning was also used in the cage underskirt of the dress to create a voluptuous skirt that exaggerated the hips and made the waist seem all the more miniature;

In the 19th century, corsets became less restrictive, and stays were often used only on the front of the corset. The first steel boning dates from around this time, and when whalebone became scarce and expensive in the latter 19th century, people looked to different materials for corsetry. Bones were sometimes made of cork, a plant fiber called Coraline, or Featherbone, made from the quills of feathers.

1860's court dress, Victoria & Albert Museum.

Many contemporary designers still incorporate the boning technique into their garments to create shapes forming off the body.

Thom Browne Autumn/Winter Paris 2011: The shapes forming off the body below are achieved through boning;

Here the skeleton of boning is shown as a decorative feature in itself, not merely as an internal structure.

Una Burke: boning, exposed;

Richard Nicoll Spring/Summer 2012: tube dresses with boned rings;

Nicole Farhi ready-to-wear Spring 2012: she used boning to lend a petal shape to pleated skirts, and gave otherwise simple dresses a sculptural aspect to do the same;