ALL LACED UP
We can argue all day about women’s place in society, but in one key respect, our lives are better than they’ve been in several hundred years: we don’t have to wear corsets.
(Note that I said HAVE to wear – if you corset by choice, it’s your business…and your ribcage!)
Corsets have been around in some form since at least the Minoan era. If you’re a museum buff, you’ve probably seen the figures of women laced into topless corsets and waving snakes. Those were probably ceremonial; neither the getup nor the snakes were especially practical for daily wear.
What we would recognize as modern corsets emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries as “bodies” or “stays,” a stiffened bodice that could be laced in to shape a woman’s body into the currently fashionable form. From that point, while the names might change, and the style certainly did, the corset was a standard part of a woman’s wardrobe.
At different times, the corset became longer or shorter, closed at the front, sides, or back, and fastened with anything from laces to hooks and eyes. Straps also went in and out of style. Materials changed, too. There’s a sketch from the 1500s of a truly frightening all-steel model Catherine de’Medici brought to France. Once the whaling industry took off, whalebone stays became standard for centuries, only to give way to steel again once most of the world lost its taste for slaughtering those magnificent mammals.
Since the corset was, to use a modern term, the main foundation garment, it evolved to suit the fashionable silhouette. For most of the 18th century corsets looked pretty much the same: a bodice with straps that ends with a tiny waist, often laced up the back, but sometimes at the front or sides. And then, at the end, when the French Revolution overturned everything, the old corset went the way of the ancient regime.
While some women did indeed run around in little more than linen shifts for a few years after that, most still wanted some kind of structure underneath, and that sensibility very quickly won. By the 1810s, many were wearing a light corset-y thing that stopped below the very high waist, much like a modern bustier.
From that point, the corset just grew.
During the mid-century hoopskirt era (another post for another day!) corsets were designed to create a tiny waist in the middle of all that crinoline. Then, as the “princess line” came in, the skirt moved back into the bustle, and the corset grew longer to smooth the hips. By the 1890s, corsets were a bit shorter and simpler.
And then things got weird.
Edwardian corsetieres (yep, the actual name for people who make corsets!) came up with a “spoon busk” that flattened the abdomen and sent the back into a popular “S-bend” look. Fortunately for everyone’s spine, that didn’t last. In the 1910s, corsets were heading back into the long, smooth look…and then all hell broke loose.
Literally.
World War I found women working in hospitals, munitions factories, and more…and corsets got in the way. Most of the time. Some observers, and even some women, saw their corsets as a kind of armor, protecting them from various outrages.
After the war, though, armor or not, corsets were just one more piece of the former world that went to the scrap heap. And when the flappers got a bit older and decided they needed more foundation, the (marginally more comfortable!) bra and girdle were waiting for them.
Corsets didn’t quite disappear, though. They’re still a popular part of many evening gowns…and other kinds of nightwear that are none of my business!
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments.
(Note that I said HAVE to wear – if you corset by choice, it’s your business…and your ribcage!)
Corsets have been around in some form since at least the Minoan era. If you’re a museum buff, you’ve probably seen the figures of women laced into topless corsets and waving snakes. Those were probably ceremonial; neither the getup nor the snakes were especially practical for daily wear.
What we would recognize as modern corsets emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries as “bodies” or “stays,” a stiffened bodice that could be laced in to shape a woman’s body into the currently fashionable form. From that point, while the names might change, and the style certainly did, the corset was a standard part of a woman’s wardrobe.
At different times, the corset became longer or shorter, closed at the front, sides, or back, and fastened with anything from laces to hooks and eyes. Straps also went in and out of style. Materials changed, too. There’s a sketch from the 1500s of a truly frightening all-steel model Catherine de’Medici brought to France. Once the whaling industry took off, whalebone stays became standard for centuries, only to give way to steel again once most of the world lost its taste for slaughtering those magnificent mammals.
Since the corset was, to use a modern term, the main foundation garment, it evolved to suit the fashionable silhouette. For most of the 18th century corsets looked pretty much the same: a bodice with straps that ends with a tiny waist, often laced up the back, but sometimes at the front or sides. And then, at the end, when the French Revolution overturned everything, the old corset went the way of the ancient regime.
While some women did indeed run around in little more than linen shifts for a few years after that, most still wanted some kind of structure underneath, and that sensibility very quickly won. By the 1810s, many were wearing a light corset-y thing that stopped below the very high waist, much like a modern bustier.
From that point, the corset just grew.
During the mid-century hoopskirt era (another post for another day!) corsets were designed to create a tiny waist in the middle of all that crinoline. Then, as the “princess line” came in, the skirt moved back into the bustle, and the corset grew longer to smooth the hips. By the 1890s, corsets were a bit shorter and simpler.
And then things got weird.
Edwardian corsetieres (yep, the actual name for people who make corsets!) came up with a “spoon busk” that flattened the abdomen and sent the back into a popular “S-bend” look. Fortunately for everyone’s spine, that didn’t last. In the 1910s, corsets were heading back into the long, smooth look…and then all hell broke loose.
Literally.
World War I found women working in hospitals, munitions factories, and more…and corsets got in the way. Most of the time. Some observers, and even some women, saw their corsets as a kind of armor, protecting them from various outrages.
After the war, though, armor or not, corsets were just one more piece of the former world that went to the scrap heap. And when the flappers got a bit older and decided they needed more foundation, the (marginally more comfortable!) bra and girdle were waiting for them.
Corsets didn’t quite disappear, though. They’re still a popular part of many evening gowns…and other kinds of nightwear that are none of my business!
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments.
date
newest »
newest »
The Corset, a Garment Fraught with Misconceptions
Often demonized as patriarchal torture devices, these garments were seen as a practicality in their day. Turn back the clock and you’ll find history is full of contradictions. In fact, until the 20th century, pink was a boy’s colour, high heels were invented for men and yes, they also wore corsets.
In fact, the coveted red-soled Christian Louboutin shoes were famously inspired by a French royal and notable trendsetter of the high heel, King Louis XIV of France. He passed a law ensuring only members of his court could wear the red-soled heels he sported, making it easier for 17th-century society people to recognize who was privileged and in favour with the King, and who was not– (doesn’t sound too far off from the Louboutin ethos today).
For centuries, the girdle was an important accessory for both men and women in ancient Greece and Rome. Men wore the girdle around the waist and served to hold up a tunic and keep a purse in place. Pockets weren’t yet invented, so the girdle was a practical way to keep items close at hand.
In the 18th to 19th centuries, some men got into the habit of wearing corsets in a bid to maintain a certain physical shape and image. In the 1700s and 1800s, the most famous outfits were trousers and jackets that fit the body tightly. In a bid to achieve that, some men secretly started wearing corsets.
Medically, they have also been used to offer back support for weight lifters and people with weak structures, such as Andy Warhol who is said to have worn a corset following his shooting in 1968 because his back had become weak.
We wouldn’t women to have all the fun.