At the end of the 15th century, men's jackets often had a V-opening allowing for a decorative front-piece, or stomacher, and women's gowns were laced over an open bodice that was also filled in with a stomacher, which could be embroidered, jewelled, or decorated with bows.
Corsets that were laced up the front were often covered by a decorated panel known as a stomacher that concealed the laces.
In the 16th century it could be worn partly open, requiring a stomacher or placard underneath.
In time the stomacher grew more rigid, being stiffened with pasteboard or buckram.
A ballooning pansy-pattern skirt ($145); a black leather cutaway coat gussied up with soutache braiding ($500); and an white eyelet dress with a cardboard-like panel tucked inside its bodice, something like an Elizabethan stomacher ($350), had an appealingly vintage cast.
Newport, Bar Harbor & Southampton blaze like three emeralds in stomacher, instead of as they used to, shining solitaire.
She has scrutinized such data as the contents of Sir Andrew Dudley's study: One cofer conteyning twoo olde hates one lytle brushe and a furred stomacher.
Stomacher, ornamental garment worn at the front of the upper body by men and women from the end of the 15th until the late 18th century.
