Product Code Database
A corset () is a support garment worn to constrict the torso into the desired shape and posture. They are traditionally constructed out of fabric with boning made of Baleen or steel, a stiff panel in the front called a busk which holds the torso rigidly upright, and some form of lacing which allows the garment to be tightened. Corsets, also known as stays, were an essential undergarment in European women's fashion from the 17th century to the early 20th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries they had a conical, straight-sided shape. This eventually evolved into the more curvaceous 19th century form. By the beginning of the 20th century, shifting gender roles and the onsets of World War I and II (and the associated material shortages) led the corset to be largely discarded by mainstream fashion.
Since the corset fell out of use, the fashion industry has extended the term "corset" to refer to garments which mimic the look of traditional corsets. These modern designs may feature some amount of lacing or boning, but generally have very little, if any, effect on the shape of the wearer's body. Elasticated garments, such as Girdle and waist trainers, are still worn today and serve a similar purpose in shaping the waist or hips, although they lack the rigidity of corsets. A Back brace is a type of Orthotics resembling a traditional corset, used to support the lower back in patients with mild to moderate back pain.
In 1828, the word corset came into general use in the English language. The word was used in The Ladies Magazine to describe a "quilted waistcoat" that the French called un corset. It was used to differentiate the lighter corset from the heavier stays of the period.
For men, corsets were sporadically used to slim the figure. From around 1820 to 1835—and even until the late 1840s in some instances—a wasp waist (a small, nipped-in look to the waist) was also desirable for men; wearing a corset sometimes served to achieve this. However, by the mid-1800s onward, men's corsets fell out of favor, and were generally considered effeminate and pretentious.
After the early 1800s, the wasp waist silhouette came into vogue for women, and the advent of steel eyelets and boning allowed for stronger, more durable corsets that could create greater reductions in waist size. This period saw the creation of the curvaceous, nipped-in corsets that we most commonly associate with the term "corset" today.
During the 19th century, all infants generally wore some kind of stiffened waistband, and female children were transitioned to the corset at some point before or during adolescence. In some cases, mothers started their daughters wearing corsets in early childhood. The New York Times described the practice in its Fashion section in 1881.
An "overbust corset" encloses the torso, extending from just under the arms toward the hips. An "underbust corset" begins just under the breasts and extends down toward the hips. A "longline corset"—either overbust or underbust—extends past the iliac crest, or the hip bone. A longline corset creates the appearance of a longer torso and narrower hips. This style was common during the 1910s, when slim hips came into vogue, and later evolved into the elasticated girdle. A "standard" length corset stops short of the iliac crest. Some corsets, in very rare instances, reach the . A shorter kind of corset that covers the waist area (from low on the ribs to just above the hips), is called a waist cincher. A corset may also include garters to hold up stockings; alternatively, a separate garter belt may be worn.
A corset supports the visible dress and distributes the weight of large structural garments, such as the crinoline and bustle. Light linen or cotton shifts (also called chemises) were worn beneath corsets to absorb sweat and protect the corset and wearer from each other, and also to function as underwear and protect other garments from the wearer and their sweat. This is in part due to difficulties laundering these items: laundering would reduce the lifespan of an otherwise long-lasting garment and, during the 19th century, the steel boning and metal eyelets could rust if washed regularly. The other primary purpose of the chemise is to prevent chafing from the stiff, sometimes coarse materials used in corsets. At times, a corset cover is used to protect outer clothes from the corset and to smooth the lines of the corset. The corset cover was generally in the form of a light chemisette, made from cotton lawn or silk. Modern corset wearers may wear corset liners for many of the same reasons. Those who lace their corsets tightly use the liners to prevent burn on their skin from the laces.
Corsets are held together by lacing, usually (though not always) at the back. Tightening or loosening the lacing produces corresponding changes in the level of compression of the corset. Depending on the desired effect and time period, corsets can be laced from the top down, from the bottom up, or both up from the bottom and down from the top, using the bunny ears lacing method. Victorian corsets also had a buttoned or hooked front opening called a busk. If the corset was worn loosely, it was possible to leave the lacing as adjusted and take the corset on and off using the front opening. (If the corset is worn snugly, this method will damage the busk if the lacing is not significantly loosened beforehand).
By the 19th century, corsets became one of the first garments to be manufactured in factories via assembly line. Each step was performed by a different group of people, often children. Heavy or messy work was done in house, such as cutting the fabric pieces and japanning the steels to prevent rust, and lighter work, such as sewing the bones in place, was taken home by piece workers, generally women who enlisted their children to help them. Workers in corset factories were among the most poorly-paid in London, and frequently could not make enough to meet their daily living expenses.Leigh Summers (2025). 185973510X, Berg Publishers. 185973510X
Although the corsetmaking industry was dominated by men, a number of woman designers and inventors became known for their work in this field. Among them included Roxey Ann Caplin, who consulted her physician husband to create corsets with respect to modern knowledge of female anatomy. The field of corsetmaking was one in which new designs were continually submitted and , often with the desire to create ever stronger or stiffer corsets that were less likely to break.
Dress historian David Kunzle estimates that the average corseted waist size of the 1880s was approximately , with an uncorseted waist size of about . He argues that extreme reduction - tightlacing - was largely the domain of middle to lower-middle-class women hoping to increase their station in life, although the amount of reduction that constituted "tightlacing" was never precisely defined. A corseted waist of was considered "standard" and one of "severe" but not unheard of. Beauty writer Arnold Cooley complained that that while natural waist sizes were generally around 28 to 29 inches, most women did not allow themselves to exceed 24 inches, and that sizes of 22-20 inches were seen in "deluded victims of fashion and vanity." Statistics from 1888 indicate that the average waist size had decreased over the past 25 years, attributed to tightlacing itself as well as the lowered respiration and food intake permitted by corset usage.
Modern wearers are unlikely to achieve the same degree of reduction that was recorded in historical usage. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, corset training was usually begun during adolescence or even before. The slimmest waist sizes on record should be contextualized with the fact that they were seen in teenage girls, and were likely to have been reserved for special occasions such as dances.
Until 1998, the Guinness Book of World Records listed Ethel Granger as having the smallest waist on record at .Vogue cover model shocks with 33cm waist MADONNA magazine from August 31st, 2011 After 1998, the category changed to "smallest waist on a living person". Cathie Jung took the title with a waist measuring . Other women, such as Polaire, also have achieved such reductions: in her case. Empress Sisi of Austria was known to have a very slender waist at 16 inches.
Doctors warned corseted women against "everything that was worthy of the name exercise" to avoid strain, although some guides were written on light calisthenics to be done by young women who would presumably be wearing corsets. Typical exercises included stretching, dance steps, and skipping, largely focusing on moving the limbs and balancing. As women's social freedom increased during the second half of the 19th century, sport corsets began to be sold, designed for wear while bicycling, playing tennis, or horseback riding. These designs typically incorporated some form of elastic panelling or mesh.
Corsets were widely thought to contribute to tuberculosis. Prior to the advent of germ theory, some thought corsets directly caused the disease, as women were significantly more likely to contract and die from the disease than men in this era. Others thought corsets contributed to TB deaths due to impairment of lung function.
This quote alludes to problems with the reproductive organs experienced by women who Tightlacing, and demonstrates the difficulties of explaining this issue due to Victorian taboos around discussing sexuality. Reformist and activist Catharine Beecher was one of the few to defy propriety norms and discuss in any detail the gynecological issues resulting from lifelong corset usage, in particular uterine prolapse.Alice Bunker Stockham. Tokology 1898. Corsets were usually worn during pregnancy, often as long as possible, to suppress and disguise the appearance of the growing fetus. Obstetrician and writer Alice Bunker Stockham campaigned against the widespread practice of wearing corsets during pregnancy, writing sardonically: "The corset should not be worn for two hundred years before pregnancy." Feminist historian Leigh Summers theorized that some of the moral panic came from the common but unspeakable idea that tightlacing could be used to induce an abortion. Doctors often attributed the difficult births many Victorian women experienced to corsets, widely believing that "primitive" women who wore less restrictive garments had less painful births and were overall healthier and more vigorous.
Modern skeletal analyses indicate that corseting, particularly during pre-puberty (most girls began in early or pre-adolescence), led to underdevelopment of the pelvic inlet, which is consistent with reported difficulties in birth, although studies into this topic have been mixed. Surgery Professor Arthur Cleland of Glasgow reported that it was common, upon autopsy, to find atrophied ovaries in women who were upper class, shop assistants, or household servants, but not in those considered "rough" working class.
Chlorosis is a now-outdated term which referred to a disease thought to be caused directly by corsets, the symptoms of which correspond to what is now called hypochromic anemia. The illness, also known as green sickness, was associated with the onset of menarche and fell under the umbrella of "female complaints": problems attributed to the increasing demands that puberty brought onto the frail female body. The physician Frederick Parkes Weber posited that the disease may have been caused by corset wearing, noting that the illness never appeared in boys, that fat rather than thin girls were more likely to experience it, and that prolonged bed rest seemed to resolve the symptoms, while trips to the sea (during which corsets would still be worn) did not.
Corsets were originally quilted waistcoats, which French women wore as an alternative to stiff stays. They were only quilted linen, laced in the front, and unboned. That garment was meant to be worn on informal occasions, while stays were worn for court dress. In the 1790s, stays began to fall out of fashion. That coincided with the French Revolution and the adoption of Neoclassicism styles of dress. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, some men were known to wear corsets, particularly the widely mocked Dandy.
With the advent of metal eyelets in 1827, tightlacing became possible. The position of the eyelets changed. They were situated opposite one another at the back. The front was fastened with a metal busk. The corsets of the 1850s–1860s were shorter, because of a change in the silhouette of women's fashion, with the advent of the hoop skirt or crinoline. After the 1860s, as the crinoline fell out of style, the corset became longer, to shape the abdomen, exposed by the new lines of the princess or cuirass style.
In 1855, a woman named Frances Egbert had trouble with her corsets, due to the front steel pieces constantly breaking as a result of strain. Consequently, her husband, Samuel Barnes, designed "reinforced steels" for Egbert's corsets. Barnes filed a patent for the invention 11 years later, and Egbert collected the royalties on this patent for 15 years following his death. Following the case of Egbert v. Lippmann, the US Supreme court deemed Barnes's and Egbert's patent as "public".
The corset controversy was also closely tied to notions of social Darwinism and eugenics. The potential damage to the uterus, ovaries, and fetus was frequently pointed to as a danger to the race; i.e., the European peoples race. Western women were thought to be weaker and more prone to birth complications than the ostensibly more vigorous, healthier, "primitive" races who did not wear corsets. Dress reformers exhorted readers to loosen their corsets, or risk destroying the "civilized" races. On the other hand, those who argued for the importance of corsets cited Darwinism as well, specifically the notion that women were less evolved and thus frailer, in need of the external support of a corset.
The reformers' critique of the corset was one part of a throng of voices clamoring against tightlacing. Doctors counseled patients against it and journalists wrote articles condemning the vanity and frivolity of women who would sacrifice their health for the sake of fashion. Although for many, corseting was accepted as necessary for health, propriety, and an upright military-style human position, dress reformers viewed tightlacing, especially at the height of the era of Victorian morality, as a sign of moral indecency.
American women active in the anti-slavery and temperance movements, with experience in public speaking and political agitation, advocated for and wore sensible clothing that would not restrict their movement, although corsets were a part of their wardrobe. While supporters of fashionable dress contended that corsets maintained an upright, "good figure", and were a necessary physical structure for a moral and well-ordered society, dress reformers maintained that women's fashions were not only physically detrimental, but "the results of male conspiracy to make women subservient by cultivating them in slave psychology".Dress and Morality by Aileen Ribeiro, (Homes and Meier Publishers Inc: New York. 1986) p. 134 They believed a change in fashions could change the position of women in society, allowing for greater social mobility, independence from men and marriage, and the ability to work for wages, as well as physical movement and comfort.
In 1873, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward wrote:
Despite those protests, little changed in fashion and undergarments up to 1900. The majority accepted corsets as necessary on some level, and relatively few advocated for it to be abandoned entirely. The primary result of the dress reform movement was the evolution, rather than elimination, of the corset. Because of the public health outcry surrounding corsets and tightlacing, doctors took it upon themselves to become . Many doctors helped to fit their patients with corsets to avoid the dangers of ill-fitting corsets, and some doctors even designed corsets themselves. Roxey Ann Caplin became a widely renowned corset maker, enlisting the help of her husband, a physician, to create corsets which she purported to be more respectful of human anatomy. Health corsets and "rational corsets" became popular alternatives to the boned corset. They included features such as wool lining, watch springs as boning, elastic paneling, and other features purported to be less detrimental to one's health.
In the 1890s, Inès Gaches-Sarraute designed the straight-front corset in response to her patients' gynecological issues which were attributed to wearing corsets. The design was intended to reduce pressure on the abdomen and improve overall health. The new S-curve silhouette created by this design quickly caught on among fashion houses in the early 20th century. The style was worn from 1900 to 1908.
In 1910, the physician Robert Latou Dickinson published "Toleration of the corset: Prescribing where one cannot proscribe", in which he investigated the medical effects of corsets, including the displacement and deformation of internal organs. He found that, while some women could wear these garments without apparent harm, the vast majority of users sustained permanent deformations and damage to their health. The purportedly healthier S-line corsets still restricted costal breathing and exerted pressure downwards on the pelvis.
The longline style was abandoned during World War I, in part to save materials for the war effort. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, there was a brief revival of the corset in the form of the waist cincher sometimes called a "waspie". This was used to give the hourglass figure as dictated by Christian Dior's "New Look". However, use of the waist cincher was restricted to haute couture, and most women continued to use girdles. Waspies were also met with push-back from women's organizations in the United States, as well as female members of the British Parliament, because corsetry had been forbidden under rationing during World War II. The revival ended when the New Look gave way to a less dramatically shaped silhouette.
The corset has largely fallen out of mainstream fashion since the 1920s in Europe and North America, replaced by girdles and elastic , but has survived as an article of costume. Originally an item of lingerie, the corset has become a popular item of outerwear in the Sexual fetish, BDSM, and Goth subculture subcultures. In the fetish and BDSM literature, there is often much emphasis on tightlacing, and many corset makers cater to the fetish market.
Outside the fetish community, living history reenactors and historic costume enthusiasts still wear stays and corsets according to their original purpose to give the proper shape to the figure when wearing historic fashions. In this case, the corset is underwear rather than outerwear. Skilled corset makers are available to make reproductions of historic corset shapes or to design new styles.
Since the late 1980s, the corset has experienced periodic revivals, all which have usually originated in haute couture and have occasionally trickled through to mainstream fashion. Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood's use of corsets contributed to the push-up bust trend that lasted from the late 1980s throughout the 1990s. Those revivals focused on the corset as an item of outerwear rather than underwear. The strongest of the revivals was seen in the Autumn 2001 fashion collections and coincided with the release of the film Moulin Rouge!, in which the costumes featured many corsets as characteristic of the era. Another fashion movement, which has renewed interest in the corset, is the steampunk subculture that utilizes late-Victorian fashion shapes in new ways. In the early 2020s, corset-inspired tops and dresses began to trend as part of the regencycore aesthetic, inspired by television series like Bridgerton and The Gilded Age. These designs typically do not incorporate any form of boning.
Other types of corset dresses are created for unique high fashion looks by a few modern corset makers. These modern styles are functional as well as fashionable and are designed to be worn with comfort for a dramatic look.
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