…were covered with rich material and peeked out from under the front of the robe. In 1630, a short bodice that looked like the man’s doublet of the same time was worn by all classes and especially lower and middle classes long after women of elite classes had abandoned them. This bodice was worn over a “body of stays”, or was itself boned like stays.
(Extant garment and portrait: Man’s jerkin from about 1600, and the stays now visible on the bodice in similar shape, form, and structure on the 1630 gown worn by Jane, Countess of Winchester)