History of corsets
Encyclopedia
A corset is a garment that girds the torso
and shapes it according to the fashionable silhouette of the day. Most often it has been used for cinching the waist
and supporting the breasts.
Some women tended to wear corsets tighter than necessary and buy corsets with smaller waists, but most women, although they purchased an 18 or 20 inch waisted corset left a gap at the back closure to accommodate a more realistic 22-26 inch waist measurements. On average that would mean a corset reduced the figure by only an inch or two at most.
In fact, like today, in order to achieve the hourglass figure, many women took to adding volume to their bustlines to increase the ratio of bust to waist. Also, the full skirt
s, crinoline
s and bustle
s of the 19th century added to the width of the hips to make the waist appear slimmer.
By the middle of the 16th century, corsets were appearing as a commonly worn garment for women. These were made of stiffened multiple layers of linen with wooden busks or shafts that were inserted in a pocket at the front in order to keep the corset and figure straight. In this form, the corset survived until about 1860.
(around 1796) which de-emphasized the natural waist. Some form of stays was still worn by most women but these were often "short stays" (i.e. which did not extend very far below the breasts). By contrast, corsets intended to exert serious body-shaping force (as in the Victorian era
) were "long" (extending down to and beyond the natural waist), laced in back, and stiffened with boning.
By 1800 the corset had become primarily a method of supporting the breasts, as the waist was raised to just under the bust line. Corsets still slimmed the torso but this was not their primary purpose.
. 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.
first became popular. The corset differed from the earlier stays in numerous ways. The corset no longer ended at the hips, but flared out and ended several inches below the waist. The corset was exaggeratedly curvaceous rather than funnel-shaped. Spiral steel stays curved with the figure. While many corsets were still sewn by hand to the wearer's measurements, there was also a thriving market in cheaper mass-produced
corsets.
. Some doctors were found to support the theory that corsetry was injurious to health (particularly during pregnancy) and women who did tight lacing were condemned for vanity and excoriated from the pulpit as slaves to fashion. In reality, tight corsetting was most likely the cause of indigestion and constipation but rarely the cause for a plethora of ailments associated with tight corsetting at the time ranging from hysteria
to liver failure
.
The straight-front corset, also known as the swan-bill corset, the S-bend corset or the health corset, was worn from circa 1900 to the early 1910s. Its name is derived from the very rigid, straight busk
inserted in the center front of the corset. This corset forced the torso forward and made the hips protrude.
The straight-front corset was popularised by Inez Gaches-Sarraute, a corsetiere with a degree in medicine. It was intended to be less injurious to wearers' health than other corsets in that it exerted less pressure on the stomach area. However, any benefits to the stomach were more than counterbalanced by the unnatural posture that it forced upon its wearer.
The straight fronted corset was introduced to create the illusion of a slimmer waist by forcing the hips back and bust forward. This was thought to alleviate some of the pressure on the abdomen. However, by 1908 corsets began to fall from favour as the silhouette changed to a higher waistline and more naturalistic form. Early forms of brassiere
s were introduced and the girdle soon took the place of the corset which was more concerned with reducing the hips rather than the waist.
From 1908 to 1914 the length of the skirt slowly sank from waist to ankles, necessitating the lengthening of the corset at its lower edge. A new type of fashionable corset covered the thighs and changed the position of the hip, making the waist become both higher and wider. The new fashion was considered uncomfortable, cumbersome, and furthermore required the use of strips of elastic fabric.
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. Corsets fell from popularity during the late 1910s but forms of body shaping undergarments often called corsets continued to be worn well into the 1920s.
The development of rubberized elastic
materials in 1911 helped the girdle replace the corset.
The change in the economy after World War I also changed women's role in society. In the early 20th century, a young lady would typically have started wearing a corset around age 15, and live at home until she married around age 18. After the war, more young women sought an education, and in the Western world marriage was delayed into the middle to late 20s. Only overweight or pregnant women might choose to wear a corset, typically an underbust corset.
However, these garments were better known as girdles with the express purpose of reducing the hips in size. A return to waist nipping corsets in 1939 caused a stir in fashion circles but World War II
ended their return. In the late 1940s they were revived and were popularly known as 'Merry Widows'.. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s corsets remained a new revival. In the 1990s, fetish fashion
became popular and corsets made something of a recovery, often worn as top garments rather than undergarments. By 2010, the corset had recovered a new popularity in fashion.
Torso
Trunk or torso is an anatomical term for the central part of the many animal bodies from which extend the neck and limbs. The trunk includes the thorax and abdomen.-Major organs:...
and shapes it according to the fashionable silhouette of the day. Most often it has been used for cinching the waist
Waist
The waist is the part of the abdomen between the rib cage and hips. On proportionate people, the waist is the narrowest part of the torso....
and supporting the breasts.
Some women tended to wear corsets tighter than necessary and buy corsets with smaller waists, but most women, although they purchased an 18 or 20 inch waisted corset left a gap at the back closure to accommodate a more realistic 22-26 inch waist measurements. On average that would mean a corset reduced the figure by only an inch or two at most.
In fact, like today, in order to achieve the hourglass figure, many women took to adding volume to their bustlines to increase the ratio of bust to waist. Also, the full skirt
Skirt
A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs.In the western world, skirts are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions...
s, crinoline
Crinoline
Crinoline was originally a stiff fabric with a weft of horse-hair and a warp of cotton or linen thread. The fabric first appeared around 1830, but by 1850 the word had come to mean a stiffened petticoat or rigid skirt-shaped structure of steel designed to support the skirts of a woman’s dress into...
s and bustle
Bustle
A bustle is a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman's dress, occurring predominantly in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles were worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. Heavy fabric tended to...
s of the 19th century added to the width of the hips to make the waist appear slimmer.
16th to late 17th centuries
The earliest corsets were called "payre of bodies" and were usually worn with a farthingale that held out the skirts in a stiff cone. The payre of bodies, later called stays, turned the upper torso into a matching cone or cylinder. They had shoulder straps and ended in flaps at the waist. They flattened the bust, and in so doing, pushed the breasts up. 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.By the middle of the 16th century, corsets were appearing as a commonly worn garment for women. These were made of stiffened multiple layers of linen with wooden busks or shafts that were inserted in a pocket at the front in order to keep the corset and figure straight. In this form, the corset survived until about 1860.
18th century
The predominant forms of stays in the 18th-century was an inverted conical shape, often worn to create a contrast between a rigid quasi-cylindrical torso above the waist and heavy full skirts below. The primary purpose of 18th century stays was to raise and shape the breasts, tighten the midriff, support the back, improve posture to help a woman stand straight, with the shoulders down and back, and only slightly narrow the waist, creating a 'V' shaped upper torso over which the outer garment would be worn. However, 'jumps' of quilted linen were also worn instead of stays for informal situations. Jumps were only partially boned, did little for one's posture, but did add some support. Both garments were considered undergarments, and would be seen only under very limited circumstances. Well-fitting 18th Century stays are quite comfortable, do not restrict breathing, and allow women to work, although they do restrict bending at the waist (forcing one to protect one's back by lifting with the legs).Late 18th to early 19th centuries
Stays became much less constricting with the advent of the high-waisted empire styleEmpire silhouette
An Empire silhouette is created by a woman wearing a high-waisted dress, gathered near or just under the bust with a long, loose skirt, which skims the body. The outline is especially flattering to pear shapes wishing to disguise the stomach area or emphasise the bust. The shape of the dress also...
(around 1796) which de-emphasized the natural waist. Some form of stays was still worn by most women but these were often "short stays" (i.e. which did not extend very far below the breasts). By contrast, corsets intended to exert serious body-shaping force (as in the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
) were "long" (extending down to and beyond the natural waist), laced in back, and stiffened with boning.
By 1800 the corset had become primarily a method of supporting the breasts, as the waist was raised to just under the bust line. Corsets still slimmed the torso but this was not their primary purpose.
Transition to the Victorian
When the waistline returned to its natural position during the 1830s, the corset reappeared and served 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 fashionVictorian fashion
Victorian fashion comprises the various fashions and trends in British culture that emerged and grew in province throughout the Victorian era and the reign of Queen Victoria, a period which would last from June 1837 to January 1901. Covering nearly two thirds of the 19th century, the 63 year reign...
. At the same time, the term corset was first used for this garment in English. In the 1830s, the artificially inflated shoulders and skirts
1830s and 1840s in fashion
1830s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by an emphasis on breadth, initially at the shoulder and later in the hips, in contrast to the narrower silhouettes that had predominated between 1800 and the 1820s....
made the intervening waist look narrow, even with the corset laced only moderately.
The Victorian corset
When the exaggerated shoulders disappeared, the waist itself had to be cinched tighter in order to achieve the same effect. The focus of the fashionable silhouette of the mid and late 19th century was an hourglass figure, achieved by reducing the thickness of the waist through corsetry. It is in the 1840s and 1850s that tightlacingTightlacing
Tightlacing is the practice of wearing a tightly-laced corset to achieve extreme modifications to the figure and posture and experience the sensations of a very tight corset. Those who practice tightlacing are called tightlacers...
first became popular. The corset differed from the earlier stays in numerous ways. The corset no longer ended at the hips, but flared out and ended several inches below the waist. The corset was exaggeratedly curvaceous rather than funnel-shaped. Spiral steel stays curved with the figure. While many corsets were still sewn by hand to the wearer's measurements, there was also a thriving market in cheaper mass-produced
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
corsets.
Late 19th century
In the late 19th century concern about reports of tight lacing caused a movement for rational dressVictorian dress reform
During the middle and late Victorian period, various reformers proposed, designed, and wore clothing supposedly more rational and comfortable than the fashions of the time. This was known as the dress reform or rational dress movement...
. Some doctors were found to support the theory that corsetry was injurious to health (particularly during pregnancy) and women who did tight lacing were condemned for vanity and excoriated from the pulpit as slaves to fashion. In reality, tight corsetting was most likely the cause of indigestion and constipation but rarely the cause for a plethora of ailments associated with tight corsetting at the time ranging from hysteria
Hysteria
Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes unmanageable emotional excesses. People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to an overwhelming fear that may be caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part, or,...
to liver failure
Liver failure
Acute liver failure is the appearance of severe complications rapidly after the first signs of liver disease , and indicates that the liver has sustained severe damage . The complications are hepatic encephalopathy and impaired protein synthesis...
.
The Edwardian corset
Busk
A busk is the rigid element of a corset placed at the centre front.In stays, the corsets worn between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, the busk was intended to keep the front of the corset straight and upright. It was made of wood, ivory, or bone slipped into a pocket and tied in place with...
inserted in the center front of the corset. This corset forced the torso forward and made the hips protrude.
The straight-front corset was popularised by Inez Gaches-Sarraute, a corsetiere with a degree in medicine. It was intended to be less injurious to wearers' health than other corsets in that it exerted less pressure on the stomach area. However, any benefits to the stomach were more than counterbalanced by the unnatural posture that it forced upon its wearer.
The straight fronted corset was introduced to create the illusion of a slimmer waist by forcing the hips back and bust forward. This was thought to alleviate some of the pressure on the abdomen. However, by 1908 corsets began to fall from favour as the silhouette changed to a higher waistline and more naturalistic form. Early forms of brassiere
Brassiere
A brassiere is an undergarment that covers, supports, and elevates the breasts. Since the late 19th century, it has replaced the corset as the most widely accepted method for supporting breasts....
s were introduced and the girdle soon took the place of the corset which was more concerned with reducing the hips rather than the waist.
Post-Edwardian long line corset
After World War I
Shortly after the United States' entry into World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1917, the U.S. War Industries Board
War Industries Board
The War Industries Board was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies. The organization encouraged companies to use mass-production techniques to increase efficiency and urged them to eliminate waste by...
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
Brassiere
A brassiere is an undergarment that covers, supports, and elevates the breasts. Since the late 19th century, it has replaced the corset as the most widely accepted method for supporting breasts....
and girdles which also used less steel in their construction. Corsets fell from popularity during the late 1910s but forms of body shaping undergarments often called corsets continued to be worn well into the 1920s.
The development of rubberized elastic
Elastomer
An elastomer is a polymer with the property of viscoelasticity , generally having notably low Young's modulus and high yield strain compared with other materials. The term, which is derived from elastic polymer, is often used interchangeably with the term rubber, although the latter is preferred...
materials in 1911 helped the girdle replace the corset.
The change in the economy after World War I also changed women's role in society. In the early 20th century, a young lady would typically have started wearing a corset around age 15, and live at home until she married around age 18. After the war, more young women sought an education, and in the Western world marriage was delayed into the middle to late 20s. Only overweight or pregnant women might choose to wear a corset, typically an underbust corset.
However, these garments were better known as girdles with the express purpose of reducing the hips in size. A return to waist nipping corsets in 1939 caused a stir in fashion circles but World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
ended their return. In the late 1940s they were revived and were popularly known as 'Merry Widows'.. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s corsets remained a new revival. In the 1990s, fetish fashion
Fetish fashion
Fetish fashion is any style or appearance in the form of atype of clothing or accessory, created to be extreme or provocative. These styles are not usually worn by the majority of people on any regular basis. They are usually made of materials such as leather, latex or synthetic rubber or plastic,...
became popular and corsets made something of a recovery, often worn as top garments rather than undergarments. By 2010, the corset had recovered a new popularity in fashion.
See also
- CorsetCorsetA corset is a garment worn to hold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes...
- CorsetmakerCorsetmakerA corsetmaker is a specialist tailor who makes corsets. Corsetmakers are frequently known by the French equivalent terms corsetier and corsetière .Stay-maker is an obsolete name for a corsetmaker...
- TightlacingTightlacingTightlacing is the practice of wearing a tightly-laced corset to achieve extreme modifications to the figure and posture and experience the sensations of a very tight corset. Those who practice tightlacing are called tightlacers...
- BrassiereBrassiereA brassiere is an undergarment that covers, supports, and elevates the breasts. Since the late 19th century, it has replaced the corset as the most widely accepted method for supporting breasts....
- Corset controversyCorset controversyThe corset controversy is an ensemble of letters and articles concerning the corset that appeared in newspapers and periodicals in the 19th century.-Introduction:...
- GirdleGirdleA girdle is a garment that encircles the lower torso, perhaps extending below the hips, and worn often for support. The word girdle originally meant a belt. In modern English, the term girdle is most commonly used for a form of women's foundation wear that replaced the corset in popularity...
s - CorseletCorseletA corselet or corselette is a type of foundation garment, sharing elements of both brassieres and girdles. It may incorporate lace in front or in back...
tes - corsageCorsage (bodice)Corsage refers to the bodice of a dress. In the 19th century, corsage was a common term for a woman's bodice or jacket.In modern usage, corsage is often confused with a corset, but a corset is tighter...
s - Rib removalRib removalRib Removal is a surgical operation, usually performed on the lowest ribs to make the waist thinner. This is considered 'extreme' and is rarely formally documented...
External links
- History of Unmentionables Exhibit, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- The Antique Corset Gallery
- Lara Corsets & Gowns Historic Corset Silhouettes
- Regency Reproductions Regency Corsets
- Fashions of the Ages Period Corset Reproductions
- Corset Guide Video Corset Guide Video