"so what I need you to do is slash across there as hard as you can" [slash] Remember when I said
that theoretically and mathematically Enola Holmes could indeed have been saved from a
stab attack by her corset? Well that is still true but after this video you'll see why I also
said you shouldn't rely on it. And remember when you watched the Nevers if you did and you thought,
'how did a knife get through all of that clothing and boning to make such
a clean looking slice on True's torso?' Well I had that same feeling friends so
today we're going to test it out on my new dummy Mannequin Skywalker.
Hey Ani, are you okay? I'm Jill Bearup, I'm a
stage combatant, and I like to test the veracity of things that happen in fiction
so I wrapped my dummy in underfloor insulation, called a friend and set up the first experiment.
Here's what we're trying to replicate episode one of The Nevers which is set in Victorian England
features the main character engaging in a fight with some quasi-supernatural dudes one of whom
slashes across her torso with a knife leaving a nasty slice through her skin even though she
is obviously in other shots wearing a corset. This is my newest sharpest sharpened for the
occasion kitchen knife this is Duncan who will substitute both for this guy and for Linthorn,
and here are the layers: cotton layer for the undershirt corset mock-up we're
getting there cotton shirt over the top. Pretty thin cotton in both cases I mean this
is a hanky but I'm trying my best to be fair and mostly I want to see if it goes through the boning
of the corset rather than whether or not it can go through the fabric layers. How far through the
boning can you get with a slash? [slash]
As it turns out not that far. "It's got the first layer but it's not broken through"
the knife slashed through the cotton which is substituting for our shirt easily enough and
through the coutil of the corset patch but didn't make much of a dent in the boning.
"The second one I'll do is I will push and then draw it so like a draw cut."
[slash] "So you can see where this one is,
that it's, it's broken the the stitching more as well, look, along look one two three four
whereas this one though it cut all the way across it didn't really go through at all"
I'm going to try and show you an extreme close-up here while it scored the boning it
hasn't come close to breaking through. If you are at this point wondering but what is that thing?
It is science. This is a mock-up of the
structure of a Victorian corset which was very kindly provided to me by the nice people at Kiss
Me Deadly because I emailed them like hi I want to stab a corset but not like a whole reproduction
Victorian corset because that just seems really wasteful so can you help me? and they said... yes?
so the stuff that it's made out of is coutil and the black lines you can see down here
are stitch marks for boning channels and in every one of these there is a piece of
plastic boning. Save the whales kids. And you'll note that while it's pretty flexible it's also
reasonably tough. This actually has two layers of boning in it there's the front part of it which
runs this way and then on the back it runs in the opposite direction. Which is completely
irrelevant for the slash tests because it didn't even go through the first layer of boning but
on the stab tests well you'll see. The fact that the boning channels
are right next to each other makes it much more like an actual reproduction or Victorian corset
like Enola's is as opposed to something like this fashion corset where there's a bone here
and then there's a bone here and then there's one over here the bones are quite far apart
is what I'm saying. But what if the slashing is only ineffective because the boning is so dense?
What if we take that black steel boned fashion corset and try slashing it instead? Now because
it's steel boned the individual bones will be more difficult to break through in fact probably
impossible with a kitchen knife but there are these very significant gaps between boning so what
does that do when you try and slash through it? [slash]
Turns out that even when they're this far apart the bones are still close
enough together to interfere with the knife getting any real purchase. "you
can see where it's... like, it's made an indent" If I hold it right you can see the lines where the
knife tried to break through while it was slashing "And I'll give it a little bit of a push as I go"
"you did it right on the busk" "by the time it pushes into there it's also now
picking up on the next bit of bone-" "yup"
"so it's not going to have an effect like if it were longer across here like for instance you know
it cuts the bone here-" "yup"
"and then as it continues then it's got all the fabric it can then try and go through
although it doesn't seem to be doing anything on this one anyway" Slashing across an
area that's already reinforced uh no. Useful to know. But I never did think
that slashing would give you much joy because corsets are pretty tough to begin with. What
about stabbing though? [stabby
noises and laughter] Wasn't quite expecting this
degree of success with that but let's try Enola's scenario. in the Enola Holmes movie Linthorn pulls
a knife and stabs Enola but while it breaks some of the boning in her corset it doesn't
manage to penetrate through to her skin. For movie replication purposes Enola is wearing a
whalebone corset which obviously would have had an under layer and a silk dress over the top. I mean
this is quite thin silk but I did my best. "100% silk! I got it from the charity shop. Um. okay..."
"I assume you didn't tell them what you wanted it for"
The thing is though that Enola moves back with the blue so to try and replicate that
I held Ani to try and rock her back a bit since otherwise she'd just fall but
i don't think I did a terribly good job. "Look here now I'm outstretched the arc
of my power stops here at the end of my stretch. Yeah so it's not like I'm here
I'm able to punch all the way through it like I did before. [stab] And it's broken through it!"
"Ayy! oh it's actually stabbed Ani" "It's stabbed Ani, I'm sorry!"
"that's okay" "so... and that
was from a... that was in the distance" Because yeah that just went right through
didn't it? Through one layer of silk through the coutil holding the boning in place through not one
but two layers of boning both of which are broken and obviously through the undershirt underneath
and then right into the dummy, sorry Ani. So breaking through not one but two layers
of boning will have absorbed a fair amount of the energy of the stab
possibly enough that after it goes into the body it won't go deep enough to hit organs but
I wouldn't rely on it I really wouldn't. So is there any way we can make this plausible?
Actually yes because Enola's corset has a steel busk down the centre.
"The busk is like this sort of centimetre wide strip"
A knife just won't break a steel bone or a steel busk. Deform it maybe but what's
more likely to happen is that the knife is just going to skid off somewhere else.
So in this scenario Linthorn who is really kind of far away stabs at Enola she moves back maybe
the knife hits the busk and then skids off into the boning it breaks the boning but by
that point it doesn't have enough energy left to break through to the skin. It's plausible is
what I'm saying but the very very fortunate kind of plausible. If we stab the steel boned corset
the bones are far enough apart that they just aren't really going to get in the way
and unboned corset fabric just isn't going to turn a knife that isn't a butter knife the Enola Holmes
book has a steel boned corset which one must assume has as many boning channels as this one
though not two layers of them and a steel boned corset that's as densely boned as this could very
plausibly turn a knife. I mean assuming that you only have a single layer of boning there is always
the chance that you're going to get unlucky and they're going to stab you right between the bones
but that is...that would be quite a lucky shot. If you'd like to see some more videos about
martial adventuring in corsets, poofy dresses or otherwise there is a playlist next to my face,
subscribe if you'd like more videos like this and I'll see you soon