The History of Corsets by sophia

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The History of Corsets

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The History of Corsets TITLE PAGE SPREAD

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

Introduction

1500 B.C. - 1400 A.D.

Pre-Corset Foundations

1500 - 1700

Pair of Bodies

1700 - 1830

TABLE OF CONTENTS Stays

1840 - 1910

Victorian and Edwardian

1918-1980

Brassieres/Girdles

2010-Present

Corset Revival Index

28 30

Appendix

Bibliography

IMAGE This editorial was designed by Sophia Loren Sanchez for Graphic Design IV at Rutgers University-Newark under the tutelage of Rebecca Jampol in 2021. It was created using a combination of original images as well as images of extant garments and textiles compiled from various online sources, especially the online Metropolitan Museum of Art and Victoria and Albert Museum collections. Typefaces used are Augsburger Schrift and Nuvo Pro.

Introduction The first time I saw a corset was when I was around 10-years-old watching Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl for the first time. The scene of Elizabeth Swann getting tight laced into her corset by her maids with her waist getting tortured and her breath getting stolen away struck a chord with me. It was scary to see Elizabeth fainting from the corset, and powerful when it was cut away to save her. While I didn’t realize it then, I now know that the depiction of women getting tight laced in media has become shorthand for female oppression - when you see a woman being tortured by a corset in a film, you know she needs liberation in some way. Corsets can also be used to denote a female character’s vanity, villainizing her to the audience. While this use of corsets can be very useful for filmmakers and authors to get their points across quickly, it has created a culture around corsets that breeds misinformation. I first started getting interested in historical fashion in my freshman year of high school, I once again came across corsets. This time, I learned that corsets were not as awful as I was led to believe - if fitted correctly, they did not compress your guts, they did not stop you from breathing correctly, and certainly never broke any bones. Corsets weren’t even commonly called corsets until the Victorian era. This information opened my eyes to the misuse of corsets, and made me annoyed at media that would demonize corsets. I would get even more annoyed at people who got on their soapbox and denounce corsetry as one of the many ways women were historically oppressed. Yes, women have been oppressed. No, the corset is not the devil. Corsets were used much like how bras are used today, as a support item. Not all women like wearing bras just as not all women liked wearing corsets, but that is more personal than cultural.

INTRO

Not everyone has to absolutely love corsets or fashion history. Not every historical film needs to have 100% accurate information about corsets - useful storytelling shorthand is valuable. However, due to the recent surge of popularity in corsets thanks to shows like Bridgerton, I feel it would be helpful to shed light on the history of corsets. Corsets can be fun and comfortable, and they are truly beautiful fashion pieces. This editorial will go through each iteration of corset from 1500 B.C. to present day, explaining how corsets were made and their cultural use each time period. Thank you for reading!

Sophia Loren Sanchez

Part One;

Pre-Corset Foundations The earliest recorded version of shapewear dates back to Mycenaean Greece, likely sometime between 1,600 to 1,100 BC. According to lingerie resource and boutique Dollhouse Bettie, the ancient Minoans who lived on Crete long before the Athenian invasion weren't as concerned with decency and nudity as their conquerers. "While the Cretans had celebrated the female form in all its glorious sensuality, and created undergarments to emphasize the breasts, hips, and waist, lingerie in Ancient Greece was another matter entirely," wrote Dollhouse Bettie." The Cretan crinoline and corset would have had no place in Athenian society, and wearing such items would have been beyond obscene and in no way tolerated. Artwork of the time tends to suggest that the Minoan (or ancient Cretan) women would wear their breasts entirely out, nipples free and pushed up by corsetry that simultaneously brought in the waist. Some Ancient Greek bras, like mastoeides, actually helped push breasts out of clothing. But what's also interesting to note is that in several works, women are depicted as having the aforementioned hourglass figure, but with rather strong, broad shoulders and arms. The dainty figure we'll see created by shapewear later on didn't necessarily apply here. Rather, emphasis seems to have been placed on striking a balance between the curves of femininity and the physical strength of masculinity.

PRE-CORSET

1500

B.C.

One of the earliest examples of corseting (reducing the dimensions of the torso or waist) can be found on pottery figures created during the late Minoan Period (1500BC) and found in Knossos, Crete. The bodies of these snake goddesses are closely confined within their belt-like bodices, commonly thought to be made of leather or wooden strips with a front opening reminiscent of modern-day corsets. Documented instances exist of corset type garments being used early on by the people of South America, Egypt, Ancient Greece, Crete, and the Roman Empire. In Greek and Roman times, the corset was split into two garments, made of kidskin leather or similarly strong material: In Greece the zona bound the abdomen, and the fascia supported the bust, these were referred to by Homer as the cestia; In Rome, the lower abdominal support was referred to as a mitra or girdle and the upper piece as a strophium.

beginning to develop. The third extended to the beginning of the Renaissance, during which epoch the corset was incorporated in the outer dress, and not a separate garment at all. The fourth was the era of whalebone, which started in the middle of the sixteenth century and continued well into the nineteenth. And the fifth is our own age, in which the corset differs from anything ever known before in being at once firm and flexible, and in aiming not so much at moulding every figure to one conventional form,. as at fitting each figure individually and moulding it to its own most perfect and healthful form. Near the end of the 1400s stiffened, front lacing garments were worn. By the sixteenth century, when a separation of bodice and skirt became fashionable, a heavy under bodice was worn in order to keep the bodice straight and tight. This was made of two or more layers of heavy linen, padded, quilted together, then shaped to the waist at the sides. These were referred to as a body or pair of bodies. These could be laced at the sides, front, or back and had shoulder straps. When laced at the back, a piece of wood or bone called a busk was inserted between the layers in the front to help it lie flat. Influence of Spain’s growing influence on Italian and English fashion encourages the form to become even more rigid. At this time the steel cage corset is introduced. These cage-like designs, made from three to eight individual pieces, eventually transitioned into a more flexible steel structure, and were finally replaced by a boned bodice.

According to the Encyclopedia Of Fashion, "The societies of the Greek island of Crete [...] and those of Hellenic Greece (the period before Alexander The Great (356 to 323 BCE) [...] also learned the art of metalwork, and they made decorative metal girdles an important part of their fashionable dress." Oh, girdles. The Role Of Women In The Art Of Ancient Greece also explains that "there are numerous references to girdles in the Iliad and the Odyssey". Girdles were also made of linens and soft leather during this time, more often than not facilitating the hourglass shape that had already started to be a thing equatable to desirability. Early manifestations of the girdle seem to have had an element of mysteriousness to them — like an additional layer of clothing separating mere mortals from beautiful women. Take this passage from the Iliad : "She spake, and loosed from her bosom the broidered girdle [...] curiously-wrought, wherein are fashioned all manner of allurements; therein is love, therein desire, therein dalliance–beguilement that steals the wits even of the wise.” This early shapewear was a symbol of sexuality, no doubt, but one that came in the form of a garment that ultimately helped change the shape of your natural body.

PRE-CORSET

The direct ancestors of the modern corset are undoubtedly the garments worn by the women of classical Greece and Rome. These garments fall roughly into two types–the zona or abdominal belt, and the fascia, which supported the bust; but they were varied considerably, apparently to suit differing figure needs. One statue in the Louvre in Paris shows a Greek woman winding her bandelette under her breasts (Fig. 2); another, a Venus, shows a bust bodice built up over the shoulders (Fig. 3). Other sculptures of the classical age show different uses of a long narrow scarf as bust supporter and as waistbandage; and of handkerchief shaped pieces of fabric used in a fashion which it is interesting to know is still followed in the peasant costumes of some parts of France. The most usual colour for the girdle or bust bandage, we learn from contemporary writings, was red, and the material was often, and particularly when the garment was designed for a heavy figure, a soft kid skin or other fine leather. In the earliest days, the bust and waist supports of this age were simple and mainly functional; usually, too, they were worn next the skin. But later they were developed as fashion garments and worn outside the robe; and then the most beautiful embroideries, in gold and pearls and jewels, were used to adorn them. Roman mothers, careful for the beauty of their daughters, sometimes tried to prevent the over-development of the bust by binding their girls in firm fascia,; but it is also recorded, more particularly of the Greeks, that the bust-bandage was used to lift up and accentuate the breasts. The firm bindings were also used literally as foundations, so that the tunic or other outer garment would hang well. A French authority writing in the middle of the last century divided the history of corsets into five epochs. The first was the antique period of Greece and Rome just described. The second reached into the Middle Ages over a long period of transition, when the classical types were gradually being abandoned and the rigid types of later centuries were just

Minoan Snake Goddess, Heraklion Archaeological Museum.

PAIR OF BODIES (image)

Part Two;

Pair of Bodies The corset as an undergarment had its origin in Italy, and was introduced by Catherine de Medici into France in the 1500s, where the women of the French court embraced it. This type of corset was a tight, elongated bodice that was worn underneath the clothing. The women of the French court saw this corset as “indispensable to the beauty of the female figure.” Corsets of this time were often worn with a farthingale that held out the skirts in a stiff cone. The corsets turned the upper torso into a matching but inverted cone shape. These corsets had shoulder straps and ended in flaps at the waist. They flattened the bust, and in so doing, pushed the breasts up. The intense tight-lacing that is seen in later centuries was not possible at this time, as the holes through which the laces were threaded were sewn by hand, and would tear if put under too much strain. Therefore the emphasis of the stays was less on the smallness of the waist than on the contrast between the rigid flatness of the bodice front and the curving tops of the breasts peeking over the top of the corset. These corsets were typically made out of layered fabric, stiffened with glue, and were tightly laced. While a few surviving corsets exist that are structured with steel or iron, these are generally considered to have been either orthopedic or novelty constructions and were not worn as part of mainstream fashion. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries bodies, as corsets were known then, were typically worn as both underwear and outerwear.

PAIR OF BODIES

Portrait of Catherine de Medici; attributed to Francois Clouet.

When people think of 16th century dress, the first thing that comes to mind is the corset.

The corset represents a fundamental shift in the concept of clothing and tailoring; instead of shaping clothes to the body, as had been done throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the body began to conform to the fashionable shape of the clothing worn. There are several myths about wearing corsets, many of which spring from Victorian corsetry rather than Elizabethan. In the 16th century, the corset was not meant to draw in the waist and create an hourglass figure; rather, it was designed to mold the torso into a cylindrical shape, and to flatten and raise the bust line. There is one 16th century reference to a small waist being fashionable, but on the whole it was a fashionably flat-torsoed shape, rather than a tiny waist, that the corset was designed to achieve. Another common myth revolves around the horrible discomfort of corsets. This, too, stems from the tightly-laced waists of the 19th century; the corset worn in Elizabethan England, when fitted and laced correctly, is quite comfortable. Some well-endowed women consider them more comfortable than modern underwire bras, and many people with back problems have remarked how much a boned-tab Elizabethan corset feels like a supportive back brace. [Bodies were] made in two pieces fastened together at the back and front. It was at times a laced bodice, worn as an outer garment by women. It still survives in this form in the traditional national dress of many European countries. It has been suggested that the modern word corset was the result either of adding the diminutive et to cors or of Pair of bodies buried with linking serrer, meaning to close Queen Elizabth, 1602. tightly, to the word cors. The body became more recognisably the forerunner of the corset when, in the sixteenth century, it began to be fortified with whale-bone. Whale-bone (baleen) was frequently used in bodies to maintain their stiff appearance. Bents (reeds) were also common. A busk, typically made of wood, horn, ivory, metal, or whalebone, was added to stiffen the front of the bodice. It was then carved and shaped into a thin knife shape and inserted into a pouch in the front of the bodice, then fastened and held into place by ribbon, so that the busk could be easily removed and replaced. The busk was often used for special occasions and events, and was sometimes presented to a woman by a suitor as a prize when he was interested in a female. The front of the corset was typically covered by a “stomacher,” a stiff, V-shaped structure that was worn on the abdomen for decorative purposes. As the corset was [usually] hidden underneath the other layers of dress in the 16th century, finding out about it is difficult. Up to the 1520s, the raised and slightly rounded shape of the fashionable gown could be achieved by a well-fitted kirtle. A German wood carving of 1520 shows a woman wearing a gown with a definite crease and fold in the fabric under the bust. In Hans Holbein's sketches of the 1520s and his portraits of the 1530s, however, stiffening is definitely required. One possible method for creating this flattened bosom is that the Tudor bodices and stomachers were stiffened with buckram (glue-stiffened canvas) to achieve the fashionably flat shape. There is a reference in a Tudor wardrobe account to "buckram for stiffening bodices". Looked at from a practical standpoint, however, it saves time and labor to have one stiffened undergarment to wear under several gowns then to stiffen every gown individually. Having an undergarment to take the strain of shaping the body also helps to extend the life of the outer gown. In addition, tightly-fitted and supportive undergowns worn underneath decorative outer garments were found through Europe for the entirety of the preceding century; it is only natural that this established trend should have continued.

PAIR OF BODIES

How did the corset evolve into a separate garment? In the 15th century, a tightly-fitted kirtle worn under the outer gown was used to shape the body into the fashionable form. It's likely that it was the bodice of this kirtle which was first stiffened with buckram, and then with stiffer materials such as reed or bents, as the fashionable silhouette became flatter and flatter during the 1520s and 1530s. During the 1530s, the decorative skirt of the kirtles worn under gowns underwent a change: instead of an entire decorated underkirtle, a separate, decorated "kirtle" skirt could be worn under the outer gown. instead. When this happened, we can theorize that the by-now-essential stiffened kirtle bodice was retained as a separate garment: the "payre of bodies", or corset as it is now known. There are also references in early 16th century Spain of a "vasquina" bodice being tied to a farthingale or stiffened skirt. Add stiffening of some kind to this separate under-bodice, and voila--a corset is born.

The second corset is English, and was put on the effigy of Queen Elizabeth in 1602. It currently resides in Westminster Abbey, along with a detailed write-up of the corset by Janet Arnold which is kept in the Westminster Library. This corset was also stiffened with whalebone. Unlike the German corset it had boned tabs and a wide, scooped neck which hinted at the shape the corset would attain during the next two centuries. It laces up the front. Interestingly, the front edge of this corset curves in below the bust and out over the bust. Due to the front lacings, it has no busk; instead, two heavy strips of whalebone run down either sideof the front lacing. Aside from these two items, all we have are two 17th century stomachers, one currently in the Globe Theatre in London and the other in the Rocamora Collection of Barcelona, which were both cut down from corsets. They are virtually identical in proportion and construction; both are made of a heavy, coarse linen, are boned with thin reeds, and are braced with horizontal cross braces of whale-bone down either side of the front center lacings.

The first and best known example of a 16th century corset is the German pair of bodies buried with Pfaltzgrafin Dorothea Sabine von Neuberg in 1598. It is made of three layers of cream-colored fabric, the outer layer being silk backed with linen and the inner lining of linen, and has channels backstitched between the two layers into which whale-bone was inserted. It has tabs at the waist, as well as small eyelets at the waistline through which the farthingale (stiffened hoop skirt) or petticoat could be fastened to the corset.

By the end of the 17th century, the term bodies started becoming interchangeable and, despite miniscule differences, stays displaced the old term within the century.

A pocket sewn down the front of the German corset allowed a stiff busk to be slipped into the corset, to provide a completely flat front. The armholes are rather far back, as are the armholes of most garments of the time; a stiff, upright, and what modern people would call unnaturally rigid posture was considered a mark of good breeding.

PAIR OF BODIES

Pair of bodies buried with Pfaltzgrafin Dorothea Sabine von Neuberg, 1598.

STAYS (image)

Part Three;

Stays

Women of all classes wore stays. The lower classes often wore strapless stays, which did not impede the movement of the shoulders. Many stays were home-made and instructions for making them began to be published in the ladies' mgazines which came into existence at the end of the seventeenth century. The upper classes, and especially aristocracy and royalty, wore more restrictive stays. Lower class women did not lace their stays tightly, but upper class women are often depicted tight-lacing. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, was known for tight-lacing her stays, but this is the exception, not the rule. 18th century stays were made from wool, linen, twill/jean fabric, stiffened linen (buckram), and silk brocade. The interlining layer was the stiffened layer, while the outer layer could be something decorative. Boning was whalebone/baleen, reed, or wood bents, and the stays had a lightweight lining loosely tacked in that could be replaced easily. We often see surviving stays without their linings. Stays were commonly bound in leather, but the edges were also finished with linen tape, self fabric binding, or grosgrain. Stays were a support garment. They were the bras of the 18th century, supporting the bust from the waist instead of the shoulders. Stays lifted the bust, trimmed the waist, held the shoulders back (for those with straps), and created a smooth support for the garments worn on top.

STAYS

Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire; Thomas Gainsborough.

Stays were an essential garment for those in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the 18th century, stays are definitely underwear. Only in case of the Robe à l'Allemande, the stiff bodice survived until about 1730 and in the case of the French court robe even longer. The shape of stays is not much different from that of the 17th century: conical, pressing the breast up and together, with tabs over the hips. The tabs are formed by cuts from the lower edge up to the waistline that spread when the stays are worn, giving the hips room. They prevent the waistband of the skirt from crawling under the stays, and the waistline of the stays from digging into the flesh. There are stays that lace at the back (Diderot calls them corps fermé, closed stays) and those that lace across a stiff stomacher in front (corps ouvert, or open stays). Examples that lace both back and front (but not over a stomacher) are quite rare. Stays that lace in front only are even rarer and so far only known to me from the region of Southern Germany. In all these cases, spiral lacing is used.

Although 18th century stays were not meant to be seen, they Stays from 1780, are often quite The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection. decorative, with finely stitched tunnels for the boning, precious silk brocade and possibly gold trim. The inside, on the other hand, usually looks downright sloppy, even in outwardly fine stays. The basic shape of stays didn't change the whole century long. Towards the end, around 1790, when dress waists begin to wander upwards, the stays become slightly shorter. Since paniers were not worn anymore, the skirt is supported by small pads sewn to the tabs. At the same time, physicians make themselves heard, warning against the harm done by tight-lacing. While lacing wasn't usually overdone as much as one century later, it often started earlier: It started with tightly wrapping babies and included children's corsets, forcing the still soft skeleton into a fashionable shape.From 1794, the waist moved higher and arrived just under the bust around 1796. A new kind of corset is needed: The torso, hidden under flowing muslin, doesn't need shaping anymore. The breasts still need lifting, but they're supposed to stay apart. To achieve this, cups are employed for the first time. The busk, which in the 17th century had served to keep the front of the stays straight, now came back into use to keep the cups apart. The shape follows the natural form of the body and widens over the hips by means of triangular inserts. Since slender figures could keep the bust in shape with the help of only a firm bodice lining, it is mainly stout and over-endowed ones who wear corsets or short stays which already looked like early bras. Therefore, not many corsets from that time have been preserved. Unlike the earlier ones, they tend to be plain and functional. Maybe the fact that they contained less boning led people to refer to them by the (French) term for lightly boned bodices, corset. This is just a theory, but it would explain why the earlier term corps/stays had been replaced with corset by the 1820s. From 1794, the waist moved higher and arrived just under the bust around 1796. A new kind of corset is needed: The torso, hidden under flowing muslin, doesn't need shaping anymore. The breasts still need lifting, but they're supposed to stay apart. To achieve this, cups are employed for the first time. The busk, which in the 17th century had served to keep the front of the stays straight, now came back into use to keep the cups apart. The shape follows the natural form of the body and widens over the hips by means of triangular inserts. Since slender figures could keep the bust in shape with the help of only a firm bodice lining, it is mainly stout and over-endowed ones who wear corsets or short stays which already looked like early bras. Therefore, not many corsets from that time have been preserved. Unlike the earlier ones, they tend to be plain and functional. Maybe the fact that they contained less boning led people to refer to them by the (French) term for lightly boned bodices, corset. This is just a theory, but it would explain why the earlier term corps/stays had been replaced with corset by the 1820s.

STAYS

During the Regency, long stays and short stays were en vogue. This is the kind of stays nearly every woman, rich or poor, wore. Some women preferred short stays, or demi stays. These seemed to be mostly worn during the summer or if they were especially small busted, or if they didn’t have someone to help lace up their stays — although that would have been very rare — but these provided less support and lacked the smoothing effects of the long stays so they were not anywhere near as popular. It is believed that more of the working classes wore short stays, (probably because they were thinner or because the short stays cost less) than members of the upper classes. However, many sources suggest most working women wore long stays, too. Working class women usually shared a room with someone else so there was always another pair of hands to help lace stays in back.

At the same time, the term corset was first used for this garment in English. In the 1830s, the artificially inflated shoulders and skirts made the intervening waist look narrow, even with the corset laced only moderately. By the 1830s, steel stays had begun to replace the classic whalebone. The diarist Emily Eden recorded that she had to obtain a silver "husk" before accompanying her brother to India because a humid climate rusted the usual steel and spoilt the garment. In 1839, a Frenchman by the name of Jean Werly made a patent for women's corsets made on the loom. This type of corset was popular until 1890: when machine-made corsets gained popularity. As seen in various fashion advertisements of the era, the common corset cost one dollar. Before this, all corsets were handmade - and, typically, home-made.

Regency corset stays are quite comfortable. They don’t pinch. It’s simply not possible. Unless the boning is working its way out, they don’t poke. Unlike Victorian corsets which can be tightly laced, Regency stays don’t make it difficult to breathe. With the exception of the mid to late 1800’s, corset stays were not designed to give women a small waist, but to lift the bustline, and to give women a smooth base for clothes. In fact, until the introduction of the metal grommet (1828) and the 2 part metal busk (1829), tightening a corset enough to dramatically change one’s figure was nearly impossible. The fabric or the holes would have given out first. When the waistline returned to its natural position during the 1830s, the corset reappeared and served the dual purpose of supporting the breasts and narrowing the waist. However, it had changed its shape to the hourglass silhouette that is even now considered typical both for corsets and for Victorian fashion.

STAYS

Left: Stays from 1800, The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection.

Right: Stays from 1840, The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection.

VICTORIAN (image)

1840

Part Four;

Victorian and Edwardian Eras When people think of corsets, the image that comes to mind is often nineteenth century tightlacing. Rumors flew around that women were becoming ill and dying from the effects of lacing their corsets too tight; that women were getting surgery to remove ribs. These rumors were false. "A woman’s body is quite malleable. You can quite comfortably minimize the body without causing distress or discomfort," says Woodyard. "I think a lot of people have this misconception that you’re almost forced into one size of stays. I don’t think that a lot of folks realize that there are staymakers in the 18th century and that their specialty to work with a client, measure their client and make them a pair that fits them well." Although tight-lacing — where women laced their corsets too-tight to create a tiny waist — had come into fashion during a brief period during the Victorian era, it was not widely practiced. But the fact that it was practiced at all inspired satirical newspaper items and cartoons (by men, of course) lampooning (and exaggerating) the lengths women would go to slavishly follow the whims of fashion. It also helped perpetuate the idea that corsets were somehow “unnatural” and “oppressive,” ideas that led the way to the next evolution of corsets known as the “girdle.”

VICTORIAN

Portrait of Queen Victoria, Alexander Bassano.

Victorian women did not consider corsets as an article of fancy or fashion only.

Corsets were a necessity that gave comfort and shape to the dress of the day. In 1876, the Boston Comfort Corset Company introduced corsets without whalebones, these being replaced by strong cords which eliminated broken or loose whalebones in corsets after they had been worn for a length of time. In addition, this change permitted an easy washing of the corset. They were low-priced, opened on the side with small sleeves. The Worcester Corset Company had a large collection of corsets of various prices and shapes. One design featured an arrangement of sewing the front parts of corsets which contained the breasts. Generally these parts of the front were made of two pieces of cloth, one for each side. Between them were placed whalebones, or parts sewed through to press the breast in the middle. This corset design used three pieces thereby relieving pressure.

VICTORIAN Corset from 1891, Maison Léoty.

Moreover, these corsets had, outside of the usual back-lacing, a side-lacing. This permitted a regulation of the waist of the corset. Nearly all their corsets had suspenders for skirts, hoop-petticoat, etc. Some had shoulder braces, entirely unknown in European design corsets at the time. They also had a universal corset, which could be made to fit most any form of the body by adjusting the shoulder-straps, belt, and lacing; this being very useful for pregnant women. The Harriet M. Chapman firm of Philadelphia featured the buff corsets which gave a “nice appearance to those who have small-developed breasts.” These corsets were high and covered the breasts with the front made in the shape of two buffs (pad) to receive the breasts. The 19th century corset remained basically similar to the earlier stays in that it accentuated the bosom; but the Victorian corset also minimized the waist by producing a curved hour-glass shape. The corset laced up the center-back to achieve the correct degree of tightness to fit the wearer’s figure, thus the term tight lacing. There were hooks and eyes at the center front for easier removal. The corset was worn over a cotton chemise and not directly next to the skin. Corsets were worn by women, young girls and children. Children wore corsets to learn correct posture. Corsets came in a variety of colors, including white, black, charcoal gray, cream, and even red. The elegance of Victorian fashions was mainly dependent on the corset. Without the aid of the corset, no evening dress of the mid-1860s through the end of the century could be worn, unless the Victorian woman was willing to submit to the withering contempt of a merciless fashion conscious society. The illustration on the left represents a lady dressed in the elegant fashion of 1867. One glance at the contour of the figure is sufficient to show the full influence of the form of corset on the adjustment of this style of costume. In 1867, there was a strong tendency towards the short waists, low dresses, and long trailing trains. Practical hints on corset wearing at the time were provided by the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine: “… to facilitate that desirable object, a handsome figure. Ladies, when dressing for the afternoon walk or ride, or the evening display, when putting on their stays at first, should not lace them quite tight; in about a quarter of an hour they might again

Edwardian Corsets

tighten them, and in the course of half-an-hour or so lace them to the requisite tightness. They may fancy in this way there is no sudden compression of the waist, and the figure gets more easily accustomed to tight-lacing.” Occasionally, in France, ladies who were very particular about their figures had their corsets made in three pieces, laced down the sides as well as behind, and cut away over the hips; the holes for the laces were very numerous and close together.

For dress reformists and men of the late 1800s, corsets were a dangerous moral ‘evil’, promoting promiscuous views of female bodies and superficial dalliance into fashion whims. They exaggerated health risk, claiming that they could remove ribs or rearrange internal organs, compromised fertility; weakness, and general depletion of health were also blamed on excessive corsetry. With fashion being the only way many women could express themselves, men did what they could to discourage it. For Edwardian modes the new straight-fronted corset was essential. S-bend corsets, straight-front corsets or “health” corsets were invented in the early 1900’s during the Edwardian era and popularized by the Gibson Girls. At the time, the S-bend was thought to be healthier for the wearer as it placed less direct pressure on the front of the abdomen. It also promoted a “proud” posture where the pelvis tilted forward and the bum was pushed back while the shoulders and bust were thrust forward, and may have affected gait in such a way that caused a lady to swing her hips in a lovely manner (read: swagger). However, this corset style was later found to exacerbate lumbar lordosis (swayback) and thought to be worse for the spine, compared to a Victorian corset which maintains a more neutral posture. The S-bend corset did not last long, and a straighter figure was soon coveted.

This form of corset provided for a flawless adjustment to the figure, as well as the power of tight-lacing when required, and perfect ease in walking or dancing. The height and breadth of the shoulder had much to do with proportionate slenderness of the waist. A lady who was tall and wide - shouldered would appear very neatly shaped with a waist laced to twenty or twenty-one inches. In the late 1860s, and during the phase of tight-lacing, there is abundance of contemporary evidence that a waist measurement of seventeen to twenty-one inches was not merely a fashionable aspiration but a frequent realization, obtainable, in 1867, by Thomson’s ‘glove fitting corset’, in which the front fastenings were held together by a spring latch; or by the French backfastenings corset with a long steel busk down the front. The corset was comparatively short until 1875, when ‘the long corset and tightlacing to give the long slender figure fashionable’ accompanied the change of dress design. The corset continued to be long-waisted during the 1880s, and was often of elegant materials such as silk, satin and brocade, and of a great variety of colors. The 1890s saw a somewhat shortened form, with a considerable degree of tight-lacing. The rise of first-wave feminism gave rise to backlash against tight-lacing, and corsets in general. This evolving ideology laid groundwork for the changes in corsetry in the coming years.

VICTORIAN

S-bend corset from 1908, The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection.

How Corsets Affect the Body Corsets compressed the lungs and made it hard for women to breathe, causing women to faint and the need for fainting couches. Corsets were able to break ribs, and damage the skeleton. Women had their ribs surgically removed for tighter corsets.

INFOGRAPHIC Corsets restricted organs to a dangerous degree, causing long-term issues.

Corsets were painful and highly uncomfortable.

The Myth

Many misconceptions are made with how the corset affects the body, thanks to a plethora of diagrams from the Victorian/Edwardian-era health craze that depicted corsets as dangerously compressing organs and bones. As we know now, this wasn't the reality. These diagrams list the incorrect issues corsets cause on the left, and the reality of the situation on the right.

Corsets did not compress the lungs, and fainting couches were not called that in their time. Corsets are not, and have never been strong enough to break ribs. Sometimes, whalebone was used to strengthen the corsets, and those could break from wear over a long amount of time.

INFOGRAPHIC

Corsets, if sized right for the individual's body, fit like a glove. Just like shoes can be too small and hurt the feet, an ill-fitting corset can be uncomfotable.

Corsets are meant to provide light pressure, which is necessary to give support to the torso. If laced right, there are no long-term issues.

The Reality

BRASSIERES/ GIRDLES (image)

1918

Part Five;

Girdles and Brassieres Shortly after the United States' entry into World War I in 1917, the U.S. War Industries Board asked women to stop buying corsets to free up metal for war production. This step liberated some 28,000 tons of metal, enough to build two battleships. The corset, which had been made using steel stays since the 1860s, further declined in popularity as women took to brassieres and girdles which also used less steel in their construction. However, body shaping undergarments were often called corsets and continued to be worn well into the 1920s. By the turn of the 20th century, these negative attitudes towards the corset came to a head. This paved the way for designers like Paul Poiret and, later, Coco Chanel to emerge and loudly proclaim that they had killed the corset, subsequently “freeing” women from the oppressive garment. But this "victory" was hollow at best: women merely traded in their corsets for the girdle, which while less confining, still shaped the body to fit a specific body ideal. As the decades wore on, girdles had adjusted to fit the boyish figure of the 1920s, the sinuous curves of the 1930s, the sharp lines of the 1940s and the womanly hourglass of 1950s. However, by the time second-wave feminism took hold in the late 60s, the girdle began going out of favor. By the 1980s, diet, exercise and plastic surgery took its place, manipulating the body into the perfect athletic form.

BRASSIERES/ GIRDLES

Portrait of Caresse Crosby (Mary Phelps Jacobs), the first recipient of a patent for the modern bra, Phelps Family History.

When removed from the human beings who wore them, the corset can look like an abstract torture device.

BRASSIERES/ GIRDLES

Bra circa 1920, Underpinnings Museum

But, like all clothes, it was lived-in, and as such, it was not a static image of conformity; rather, it was a garment that was meant to fit the person wearing it – the person who chose to wear it. Corsets during the early 1900s still used a straight busk and straight front, but their function was not to compress the waist to exaggerate the bust and hips, but to minimise the abdomen and hips. A top heavy appearance was sought after, as women wanted their bust to be emphasised, and the rest of their torso to measure in the same line. To achieve this, corsets no longer came up to support the breasts but ended just below the bust line. The actual waist of the corset was placed just above natural level onto the lower ribcage so that extreme waist shrinking was impossible. To achieve the shape, corsets were cut longer and straighter in the body and hip than earlier corsets had been. Some early long line corsets were very long, often ending at mid-thigh, creating the basis of what was later known as the girdle. Boning was still used, but minimally. Due to the lack of supplies after the Great War, women's fashion began to evolve into simpler lines. Looser shapes, with a straight silhouette from shoulder to hem became the norm. Whilst flapper style dresses allowed more freedom of movement, a new style of corsetry was required. To achieve the desired boyish look of that time, corsets were designed to slim the hips and thighs as much as possible, worn under the bust to the mid-thigh. The corset also had a number of garters for connecting to stockings. During the summertime, coutil, silk brocade and Batiste summer corsets were worn, with included panels of cotton sateen or woven elastics for extra movement. Corsets were fastened at the front or the back. A variety of corset styles were available, such as 'hip confiners' and 'sports corsets'. These simpler styles were designed for a lower bust line, with lighter boning at the front and back. By the 1930's, slightly more fitted silhouettes emerged. Women still wanted to have slim hips, but now desired a more prominent waistline. Garments continued to have a dropped and were often cut with angled seams, and wider hemlines, incorporating gores, godets and pleats. Corsets continued to be mid-thigh length, but began to include built in brassieres, evolving into all in one foundation garment. These full body corsets usually had side hook and eye fastenings and hidden heavily boned inner girdles or belts. Fabrics used included coutil, rayons, cottons, woven elastics, and cotton covered rubber. With World War II declared in 1939, the fashion industry was deeply affected by fabric shortenings. Luxurious fabrics used in previous centuries were now hard to come by. People were forced to make do with what they had. Zippers were prohibited and hook and eyes closures were limited, so corsetieres turned to lace up fastenings and elastic fabric. When the war ended in 1945, it was time for a breath of fresh air after years of going without. Although rationing continued in most countries, by 1947 Christian Dior was able to revolutionise fashion by launching his New Look collection in Paris. The collection was a huge success, and would be copied all over the world. The wide hemlines, nipped waists and feminine designs were in complete contrast to the frugal cut and finishing of the fashions during war time Corsetry during the 1950's saw the girdle become commonly worn by females. The girdle was constructed out of nylon and latex rubber, and provided the firm outline required by fashion. Strategic panels were placed in order to smooth the stomach and give flat line and a flat bottom, contrasting the breasts from the rest of the figure. During this time, advancements in textiles manufacturing meant that elastic materials had the ability to stretch in more than one direction, allowing garments to be well fitted without boning.Pointed breasts were achieved by wearing

circular stitched bras. Besides the aesthetic look achieved by wearing a girdle, women were warned about the dangers of not wearing a girdle after childbirth. Those who didn’t wear a girdle were seen as having little self-respect, even wearing them during performing or exercise was a necessity. Lacing was largely done away with, and women either zipped themselves into garments, tugged themselves into elastic girdles or fastened the garment using hooks and eyes.

By the 1920s, most bras bore little resemblance to the bust supporters worn earlier in the century. The fashionable body type was increasingly slender, and many bras were intended to de-emphasize the bosom. One common bra style, the bandeau, was designed to cover and contain the breasts, rather than support them. The simplicity of the bandeau’s design could be easily mass produced and even made by women at home. In the mid20th century, the bust returned as a focal point, enhanced by various bra styles. Overwire bras arched over the breasts, rather than supporting them from below. This emphasized the bosom's shape and eliminated cleavage - ideal for women wearing evening gowns with plunging necklines. A return to the hourglass silhouette — most famously associated with the couturier Christian Dior’s New Look — necessitated a return to corsetry. These more modern corsets often featured underwire cups and flexible boning combined with elasticized panels.

The 1980's was a relatively prosperous time for the world. Designers had a lot of freedom as celebrities and supermodels emerged wearing designer names. The 80's saw the return of the corset, but this time as a part of the outer design of apparel, worn by famously by popular culture icons, such as Madonna, who wore corsetry design by Jean Paul Gaultier for her many stage performances. In the 90's ranges of controlling slips were introduced to the public, which similar to corsets, were worn to slim the figure, and are argued to eliminate any visible panty line underneath tight fitting clothes. Although some major retailers still offered corset options in their stores, the majority of women chose to wear comfortable underwear separates.

The rigidity of foundation fashions in the 1950s subsided during the following decade. In 1965, the designer Rudi Gernreich took the trend for softer undergarments to its most extreme when he introduced his “no bra” bra. Made from sheer nylon and devoid of structure, this garment served as a testament to the acceptance of the “natural,” braless look in fashion, while also offering a subtle barrier between the wearer’s skin and her clothing.

Brassieres The straight-front corset had less bust support than previous styles, so some women also adopted proto-brassieres or bust supporters. Bust supporters became more common during the early 20th century, but inventors had regularly filed patents for such garments as early as the 1860s. Luman L. Chapman’s intriguing 1863 patent had fabric “breast puffs,” “elastic shoulder-brace straps,” and whalebone under the breasts. He tried to eliminate the friction between fabric and skin, boasting the design could be “worn by all females at all times without either inconvenience or injury.”

Bras continue to be used as a support device and fashion item through the 1900s to present day.

BRASSIERES/ GIRDLES

Bust supporters took various forms. This one is heavily boned at front and back, shaping the breasts into the fashionable early-20th-century “monobosom” silhouette. Rigid bust supporters were gradually eclipsed by softly constructed designs that became known in the United States as “brassieres.” Mary Phelps Jacob (also known as Caresse Crosby) patented the most frequently referenced modern brassiere in 1914, after making one from two handkerchiefs to wear under an evening dress. Although her design was not a huge commercial success, the “bra” was established as an essential underpinning by 1917.

Girdle circa 1960, Victoria and Albert Museum Collection.

Part Six;

Corset Revival CORSET REVIVAL

According to social shopping services such as Like To Know It and Lyst, searches for corsets have increased by more than 100 per cent since Netflix’s Bridgerton aired on Christmas Day. New data from eBay shows that 39 per cent more of us are in the market for a vintage piece inspired by the Regency-era romp, too. With a reported 63 million household views already, the series has spawned its own niche fashion trend – ‘Regencycore’, which encompasses all manner of ruffles, empire lines, elbow-length gloves and pearl-encrusted headbands. Binding it all together? Corsetry. This recent renaissance can be attributed to more than the obvious period dramas. Last summer saw Instagramworshipped celebrities such as Hailey Bieber and Dua Lipa embrace the ‘summer corset’, too. But as we all know, the tradition of waist-cinching stems back much further than that. The not-so-humble boned corset – simply structured with rigid lines and a bodice laced together in order to shape the torso – has a wildly controversial history. Long derided as a patriarchal instrument of torture that deformed the female body, historians now argue that there was no one experience of wearing a corset and that some women may even have found them positive. Corsets were worn by women – and sometimes men – in the Western world from the 16th to the early 20th century, although corsetlike garments can be traced as far back as 1600 BC.

(image)

2010

What began as a close-fitting sleeveless bodice evolved into an undergarment with stays made of whalebone, and then steel, that encircled the ribs and compressed the natural waist. The shape of the corset evolved over the centuries, alternating between longer varieties that covered the hips and shorter versions that centred on the waistline. Corsets helped shape the body into distinctive silhouettes, from the hourglass shape popular in the 1800s to the “S” figure of the 1900s.

as an undergarment was abandoned, but its focus was already internalised. Instead of relying on a garment, women turned to diet, exercise and plastic surgery to shape their bodies and trim their waists. Today, more severe corsets are still worn by enthusiasts and as part of fetishistic, cross-dressing and burlesque practices; and while they may no longer be part of the average woman’s everyday routine, they have never truly disappeared from fashion.

Discussions about the corset being detrimental to women’s health came to a head in the 19th century, when the popularity of the corset was at its peak. Available in a wide variety of price points, corsets were worn by upper and middle-class women and, increasingly, by working-class women as well. Some doctors blamed the corset for respiratory diseases, deformity to the ribs, damage to internal organs, birth defects, and miscarriages, while others approved of “moderate” or “health” corsets that were less rigid and helped support the body. Fashion historians Valerie Steele and Colleen Gau have argued that while corseted women may indeed have suffered from depleted lung volume and changes in breathing patterns, this would not necessarily have led to respiratory diseases. It may have caused fainting and lowered vitality, though. Steele also argues that examples of tight lacing, or the practice of fastening corsets to create the smallest possible waist, cannot be taken at face value. The letters, descriptions, and images that describe this practice may have represented sexual fantasies, she says, rather than descriptions of authentic experiences.

In the 1970s, Vivienne Westwood began using corsets as part of her historicist punk aesthetic; imagining her corsets to empower women rather than bind them. Jean-Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler incorporated corsets into their designs in the 1980s, and who can forget Madonna making Gaultier’s pink satin corset famous during her 1990 Blond Ambition tour? Since then, Stella McCartney, Yves Saint Laurent, Tom Ford, and Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga have all experimented with corsets or corset-like tailoring in their designs, sometimes layering corsetry over garments rather than under them, subverting the piece from underwear to outerwear. Always holding court in fashion photography, too, corsets have evolved from patriarchal into a symbol of free female sexuality, arguably coming full circle by being depicted in modern period dramas that centre the characters of women, such as Bridgerton and The Great. Like all good things, they had an arduous journey to get there.

The invention of elastic in the 1920s gave rise to flexible sports corsets, used by women attracted to a new, active lifestyle. However, ads for corsets and articles about the newest corset styles appear in Vogue throughout the early 20th century, showing that women still sought these external garments to shape and support their body alongside girdles, compression underwear and brassieres. With the shift towards sport and healthy lifestyles in the 1960s and 1970s, the corset

CORSET REVIVAL

Corset from 1990, Vivienne Westwood, Victoria and Albert Museum Collection.

Waist Trainer from 2020, SKIMS.

Index Bra

Brassieres

24-27

Busk

12-13

Caresse Crosby

25, 27

Catherine de Medici

Crete

8,9

Duchess Georgiana of Devonshire

Edwardian corsets

18-21

Fascia

Girdle

9, 24-27

Kirtle

INDEX

12-13

Long stays

Mitra

Pair of bodies

10-13

Pfaltzgrafin Dorothea Sabine von Neuberg

Queen Elizabeth

Queen Victoria

Regency stays

S-bend Corset

21, 29

Short stays

Snake Goddess

Stays

14-17

Strophium

Tight-lacing

19-21

Victorian corsets

18-21

Whalebone

9, 11,15, 17, 20

Zona

Appendix Images sourced from: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum Phelps Family History SKIMS The Metropolitan Museum of Art Underpinnings Museum Victoria and Albert Museum Collection Westminster Abbey Library Wikipedia Commons

APPENDIX

Some resources integral to my discovery of fashion history & corsets: Abby Cox on Youtube Bernadette Banner on Youtube Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century from the Kyoto Costume Institute Karolina Żebrowska on Youtube The Chronicle of Western Costume by John Peacock What People Wore When by Melissa Levinton

Bibliography Ashford, Jenny. “A Short History of the Corset.” Goddess of Hellfire, Wordpress, 12 Mar. 2015, goddessofhellfire.com/2015/03/12/a-short-history-of-the-corset/. Bass-Krueger, Maude. “The Corset's Recurring Comeback Goes Further Than 'Bridgerton'.” British Vogue, British Vogue, 21 Jan. 2021, www.vogue.co.uk/article/history-of-the-corset. Bendall, Sarah. “Bodies or Stays? Underwear or Outerwear? Seventeenth-Century Foundation Garments Explained.” Sarah A Bendall, 3 Jan. 2019, sarahabendall. com/2019/01/01/bodies-or-stays-underwear-or-outerwear-seventeenth-century/. “Corsets Have a Long History.” Corset Fitting in the Retail Store, by Edith Base, Pitman, 1950. Cunnington, C. Willett. History of Underclothes. Dover Publications, 1992. Ewing, Elizabeth. Dress and Undress: A History of Women's Underwear. Drama Book Specialists, 1978. Hatch, Donna. “Regency Stays: Facts and Myths.” Donna Hatch, Donna Hatch, 2 Jan. 2021, donnahatch.com/regency-stays-facts-and-myths/. Hill, Colleen. “Strapped in: the Origins and Evolution of the Bra - The Museum at FIT Google Arts & Culture.” Google, Google, artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/strapped-inthe-origins-and-evolution-of-the-bra-the-museum-at-fit/-AKS37Ef4_X7JA?hl=en.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Larsen, Erinn. “A Brief History of the Corset through 1950.” Refashioning History, Wordpress, 18 Feb. 2017, refashioninghistory.com/2017/02/15/a-brief-history-of-the-corsetthrough-1950/. Leed, Drea. History of the Corset, The Elizabethan Costume Page, www.elizabethancostume. net/corsets/history.html. “Lord & Taylor Department Store Corsets.” Victoriana Magazine, Victoriana Magazine, www. victoriana.com/corsets/lordandtaylorcorsets.html. Lucy. “S-Bend Edwardian Corsets.” Lucy's Corsetry, Lucy's Corsetry, 26 Feb. 2021, lucycorsetry.com/research-corset-brands/guided-galleries/s-bend-edwardian-corsets/. McKellar, Tahlia. “Corset Timeline.” History of Corsetry, Weebly, tahliamckellartextiles. weebly.com/corset-timeline.html. Ospina, Marie Southard. “The Evolution Of Shapewear From Ancient Crete To 2016 Proves One Thing.” Bustle, Bustle, 11 Feb. 2016, www.bustle.com/articles/140999-the-evolution-ofshapewear-from-ancient-crete-to-2016-proves-one-thing. Seleshanko, Kristina. Bound & Determined: A Visual History of Corsets, 1850--1960. Dover Publications, 2012. Stowell, Lauren. “18th Century Stays - Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.” American Duchess, American Duchess Inc., 12 May 2017, blog.americanduchess. com/2016/05/18th-century-stays-who-what-when-where.html#:~:text=Ladies%2C%20 now%20it%27s%20time%20to,Simplicity%2018th%20Century%20inspired%20 patterns!&text=%22Stays%22%20are%20what%20we%20call,the%20gown%20worn%20 on%20top. Tortora, Phyllis G., and Sara B. Marcketti. Survey of Historic Costume. Fairchild Books, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2021. “Victorian Corset.” Victoriana Magazine, Victoriana Magazine, www.victoriana.com/corsets/ Victorian-corset.html. Żebrowska, Karolina. How Victorian Men Taught Us to Hate Corsets: The Biggest Lie in Fashion History. YouTube, YouTube, 28 Mar. 2020, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=zNwTqanp0Aw&ab_channel=Karolina%C5%BBebrowska.

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