The Corset - A Symbol Of Powerful Female Expression
Author: Mike Mansfield
Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Beyonce and a score of other celebrities in current pop culture have repeatedly brought the corset "out from under" and into the limelight over the past couple of decades. Whether a leather corset for an erotic spectacle on stage, a beaded one for the Red Carpet or lacy and casual for lunch with friends, the image harkens back, ever so subtly, to one of the first powerful ladies to don a corset, Queen Elizabeth I of England. That's not to imply of course that Queen Elizabeth's corsets were such blatant fashion statements as these women's, but underneath it all, was there more being said than meets the eye? And it may not have been any of these celebrities' intention to associate herself with powerful women of eras past necessarily, but it's not a far stretch to say that this fashion statement speaks volumes and brings with it to its wearers a powerful history of female expression that spans centuries.
For a simple item of clothing, corsets have stirred many opinions as to their function and the role they play in the female wardrobe. In eras past, as a required fashion staple, corsets were sometimes considered to be the epitome of conservative male oppression of women with their restrictive binding. In current times however, fashion designers are less likely to consider corsets as a figment of male domination and instead covet them as a timeless fascination with shaping the female body and today's wearers can surely be considered to be clearly exhibiting the ultimate form of confidence and feminine expression. Still, others who couldn't care less about a corset's cultural implications or their ability to shape a body consider them to be ideal under-garments supporting the back in a comfortable way—a very practical fashion in this sense. Of course, no fashion would be worth its weight without a little controversy and on this point, corsets have delivered.
Corsets basically evolved into the modern bra. But there clearly remains a fashionable allure for the earlier predecessor. Described today as gorgeous, ultra-glamorous, and sexy, corsets are available in a variety of styles and colours, fabricated from all types of materials. They're often boned as were early patterns. But now, three things make modern corsets distinctly different from 16th and 17th century patterns. Today they range in size from small to 3X and above. Corsets are worn as outerwear, with jeans in casual settings and glamorized for evening wear. They are often used as lingerie, and unlike their predecessors, they're designed to be comfortable and easy to get in and out of quickly.
In recent corset news, confirming the fascination with these garments, celebrities have custom designed embellished leather corsets and those made from other unusual and creative materials that have been auctioned for upwards of $1000 and beyond, to benefit charity. Not only are corsets sexy fashion, but they have become a very profitable endeavour!
On the lingerie front, leather corsets or those made from classic lace or racier PVC are popular today and available in a variety of styles and sizes as well. Just like their outerwear counterparts, a myriad of designs are created to accentuate the curves of the female physique and they are consciously designed to flatter the wearer. Many lingerie corsets now have optional G-strings and detachable garters. Other options include front zippers, lace up backs, hook and eye front closure, and adjustable shoulder straps. Sometimes Lycra is added for more comfort and many patterns are lined in silk or satin.
It's unlikely that the "powerful women of eras past" would have considered one of these garments as a staple in their wardrobe. But as for the women of today, current day corsets, from the simplest to the most elaborate, are one way of exuding powerful feminine expression on the outside and underneath.
Articles and Thoughts on all things Corsets.
Corset Overview
A corset is a garment worn to mould the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or orthopaedic purposes (either for the duration of wearing it, or with a more lasting effect). Both men and women have worn and still wear corsets.
The most common use of corsets is to slim the body and make it conform to the fashionable silhouette of the time. For women this most frequently emphasises a curvy figure, by reducing the waist, and thereby exaggerating the bust and hips. However, in some periods, corsets have been worn to achieve a tubular straight-up-and-down shape, which involves minimising the bust and hips.
For men, corsets are more customarily used to slim the figure. However, there was a period from around 1820 to 1835 when an hourglass figure (a small, nipped-in look to the waist) was also desirable for men; this was sometimes achieved by wearing a corset.
A corset encloses the torso, usually extending from the under the arms to the hips. Some corsets extend over the hips and, in very rare instances, reach the knees. A shorter kind of corset, which covers the waist area (from below the ribs to just above the hips), is called a 'waist clincher'. A corset may also include garters to hold up stockings (alternatively a separate garter belt may be worn for that).
Corsets are typically constructed of a flexible material (like cloth or leather) stiffened with boning (also called ribs or stays) inserted into channels in the cloth or leather. In the Victorian period, steel and whalebone were favoured. Plastic is now the most commonly used material; steel is preferred for high-quality corsets. Other materials used for boning include ivory, wood, and cane.
Corsets are held together by lacing, usually at the back. Tightening or loosening the lacing produces corresponding changes in the firmness of the corset. It is difficult — although not impossible — for a back-laced corset-wearer to do his or her own lacing. In the Victorian heyday of corsets, a well-to-do woman would be laced by her maid, a gentleman by his valet. However, many corsets also had a buttoned or hooked front opening. Once the lacing was adjusted comfortably, it was possible to leave the lacing as adjusted and take the corset on and off using the front opening. This sensible method is incompatible with tight lacing, which strives for the utmost possible reduction of the waist. Current tight lacers, lacking servants, are usually laced by spouses and partners.
In the past, a woman's corset was usually worn over a garment called a chemise or shift, a sleeveless low-necked gown made of washable material (usually cotton or linen). It absorbed perspiration and kept the corset and the gown clean. In modern times, an undershirt or corset liner may be worn.
Corsets and waist reduction
By wearing a tightly-laced corset for extended periods - a practice known as tightlacing - men and women can learn to tolerate extreme waist constriction and reduce their natural waist size. Tightlacers usually aim for 40 to 43cm (16 to 17 inch) waists. The Guinness Book of World Records records two instances of women reducing to 13" waists: Ethel Granger and Cathie Jung. Other women, such as Polaire, also claim to have achieved such reductions.
These are extreme cases. Corsets were and are usually designed for support, with freedom of body movement an important consideration in their design. Present day corset-wearers usually tighten the corset just enough to reduce waists to dimensions that range from 18" to 24".
Corset comfort
Moderate lacing is not incompatible with vigorous activity. Indeed, during the second half of the nineteenth century, when corset wearing was common, there were sport corsets specifically designed to wear while bicycling, playing tennis, or horseback riding, as well as for maternity wear.
Many people now believe that all corsets are uncomfortable and that wearing them restricted womens' lives, citing Victorian literature devoted to sensible or hygienic dress. However, these writings were most apt to protest against the misuse of corsets for tightlacing; they were less vehement against corsets per se. Many reformers recommended "Emancipation bodices", which were essentially tightly-fitted vests, like full-torso corsets without boning. See Victorian dress reform movement.
Some modern day corset-wearers will testify that corsets can be comfortable, once one is accustomed to wearing them. A properly fitted corset should be comfortable. Women active in the Society for Creative Anachronism and historical reenactment groups commonly wear corsets as part of period costume, without complaint.
Modern history
Book cover for Fetish Fashion: Undressing the CorsetThe corset fell from fashion in the 1920s in Europe and America, replaced by girdles and elastic brassieres, but survived as an article of costume. Originally an item of lingerie, the corset has become a popular item of outerwear in the fetish, BDSM and goth subcultures.
There was a brief revival of the corset in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in the form of the waist cincher. This was used to give the hourglass figure dictated by Christian Dior's 'New Look'. However, use of the the waist cincher was restricted to haute couture, and most women continued to use girdles. This revival was brief, as the New Look gave way to a less dramatically-shaped silhouette.
Since the late 1980s, the corset has experienced periodic revivals, which have usually originated in haute couture and which have occasionally trickled through to mainstream fashion. These revivals focus on the corset as an item of outerwear rather than underwear. The strongest of these revivals was seen in the Autumn 2001 fashion collections and coincided with the release of the film Moulin Rouge!, the costumes for which featured many corsets.
The majority of garments sold as corsets during these recent revivals cannot really be counted as corsets at all. While they often feature lacing and boning, and generally mimic a historical style of corset, they have very little effect on the shape of the wearer's body.
Advantages and disadvantages of corsets
Corsets can reduce pain and improve function for people with
back problems or other muscular/skeletal disorders.
Some large-breasted women find corsets more comfortable than brassieres,
because the weight of the breasts is carried by the whole corset rather than
the brassiere's shoulder straps. (Straps can chafe or cut the skin.)
Corsets can instantly improve the figure without dieting, slimming drugs, or
cosmetic surgery.
Corsets can make the wearer feel hotter. They have been most often worn in cool
climates.
The best corsets are custom-made. The more closely clothing or lingerie clings
to the body, the more carefully it must be fitted to look and feel right. In
modern times, when labour costs much more than materials, custom clothing can
be extremely expensive. Even finding a competent corsetiere can be difficult.
A badly fitting corset can chafe, impede digestion, even pinch nerves.
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Corset History
16th Century- The Birth
In these days iron was in the leading mans fashion. The upper class man preferred a highly polished decorated breastplate to demonstrate and show off his high status in society.
This style was taken over by the ladies, not in the form of a iron breastplate, but they shaped there silhouette by uses of a garment made of fabric or leather with sewn in pieced of wood or metal for stiffness. This design was not meant to create a small waist or raised breasts. This century asked for “no bust” the bust had to be pressed flat to hide any ounce of sexuality.
Fabrics: Brocades, velvets, silks, satins, taffetas
Colours: Black and warm colours, such as yellow, honey, gold, red and brown
17th century- Things Tighten up
Things started to change around the middle of the century. Lighter material was used, preferably whale bone and a little more space was given for the bust. Corsets were used for tight lacing now, especially in France.
A straight rod made of wood or metal was often inserted into a vertical pocket of the corset, just in front of the breastbone. If it became too uncomfortable at dinner for example, the rod could be removed.
In early 17th century a change took place. Women were allowed to carry out the craft of tailoring. They were certainly more familiar with their own bodies.
18th Century- Things Tighten up Further
Sometimes up to 100 thin pieces of whale bone where used to create a corset. Valuable fabrics were used and corsets sometimes became the outer garment. The design called for shoulder straps. The tight lacing began to get smaller as woman wanted a more hourglass shaped figure. A woman believed that your waist size should not exceed your age and you had to be married by the age of 21. Front busk hooks weren’t available so a lady was laced up by her maid everyday.
The skill of the stay-maker had reached a very high standard and was now totally separate from dress-makers.
Fabrics: Satin, silk, chintz, muslin
Colours: Pretty pink blue grey yellow
19th Century- Mass Production
Corsets in this time were laced down to the waist only because below the waist petticoats and hoop skirts were worn.
The wale bone was replaced with steel busks, springs and wires. Corsets got more and more technical, the front fastening replaced having to lace up everyday. And mechanically inserted metal eyelets replaced manually sewn ones.
Since 1846 the corset became a mass product. Almost all women brought one. The woman used the corset mainly to support the breasts and other maternal round ups. It gave a housewife with six children the chance to keep a respectable posture.
Since the tummy was so rigidly squeezed in and forced down, a spoon busk, or a pear-shaped front busk, was commonly used.
In 1878 garters were attached to the bottom of the corset and clippings onto the stockings
Fabrics: Wool, taffetas, cotton, silk, poplin, velvet,
satin, brocade
colours: Soft subdued black, apricot, peacock blue 20th Century- The En
World war one finished the big time of the corset. The development of the bra and girdle took over the main objectives of the corset.
In the 1960’s corsets were seen as a symbol of oppression for woman, as some thing that men wanted woman to wear to shape women in the ideal feminine shape and not the natural one.
From then on corsets could only be seen with the movie stars, in theatres or as sexy lingerie for fetishists.
21st Century
Today there is a greater variety of corsets than ever before with new fabrics, old and new designs. Times are over when it was a ladies duty to wear a corset. In the 21st Century it is a symbol of individualism and beauty in the eyes of men and women.
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More History
In the 1830's, the corset was thought of as a medical necessity. It was believed that a woman was very fragile, and needed assistance from some form of stay to hold her up. Even girls as young as three or four, and probably directed by the best motives, were laced up intobodices. Gradually these garments were lengthened and tightened. By the time they were teenagers, the girls were unable to sit or stand for any length of time without the aid of a heavy canvas corset reinforced with whale bone or steel. The corset deformed the internal organs making it impossibe to draw deep breath, in or out of a corset. Because of this, Victorian women were always fainting and getting the vapours. Women were thought of as the weaker sex, therefore their minds and bodies were weak. So the corset was deemed morally and medically necessary. Tight lacing was considered virtuous - a loose corset was probably a sign of a loose woman.
To keep her innocence and virtuousity, a lady had to be chaperoned everywhere she went. She could not read or see any plays lest it excite her imagination. Even Shakespeare was thought unsuitable for ladies. A woman needed to protect herself from lustful men (and her own morality) by wearing heavily reinforced layers of clothing and tight corsets that made getting undressed a long and difficult task.
Working-class women (except when dressed for special occasions) did not go through the discomfort of wearing tightly laced corsets. They wore looser corsets and simpler clothes, with less weight. The higher up in class a lady was, the more confining her clothes were. This was because they didn't need the freedom to do household chores. Paid servants took care of such cumbersome matters.
Thanks to contributor Anders Dinsen for the following extract: (He wrote this referring to Valerie Steele's book "Fashion and Eroticism, Ideals of Feminine Beauty from the Victorian Era to the Jazz Age". Oxford University Press, 1985.) The corset is an interesting garment, which to most people in our modern world seems a very strange piece of underwear. We have all heard about the times when women were encased in long stiff corsets, reduced to nothing but objects of beauty, unable to perform any task. This is, however, only a part of the historical facts about that time - and about corsets. When talking corsetry, the most interesting period of fashion is the period from 1820 to about 1910. But the corset is much older than that. In Europe, it has been in general use as an undergarment since the middle ages, but it probably dates several thousands of years back. The corset has at all times been used for shaping the body, most often for compressing the waist, but sometimes for raising the bust.The most widespread use of corsets was in the 19th century. Contrary to common belief, almost all women of every class wore corsets in those times. Fashion was formed by the upper class, so they were the primary users of the 'fashion devices' like corsets and the crinoline, but the working classes followed the trends of fashion to as high a degree as possible.
For example, the Courtaulds Company instructed its workers in 1860, that: "The present ugly fashion of hoops or crinolines ... is ... quite unfitted for the work of our factories. ... We now request our hands at all factories to leave hoop and crinolines at home." [Steele, p. 75].
A compelling question is of course, how tightly were the corsets laced? There are many reports of waists between 18 and 14 inches - even 12 inch waists are mentioned. [Steele, p. 163] However, it is believed that most accounts of these very small waists represent fantasies. Measurements of corsets in museum collections indicate that most corsets of the period 1860 to 1910 measured from 20 to 22 inches. Furthermore, those sizes do not indicate how tightly the corsets were laced. They could easily have been laced out by several inches, and probably were, because it was prestigious to buy small corsets. So ordinary corsets were not so tight after all, and contrary to common belief, the construction of the corset with the metal busk for front closure and the lacing in the back, enabled the bearer to lace herself in. She did not need a maid or husband to help her. Severe tight-lacing was practiced, and some corsetieres specialized in cultivating very small waists. Some men developed a fetish for small waists, a fetish which was regarded as quite acceptable. Small waists and the corset probably played about the same role as full breasts and the Wonderbra play today.
Finally, another reference, which deals with the fetish of corsets: David Kunzle: Fashion and Fetishism, A Social History of the Corset, Tight-Lacing and Other Forms of Body Sculpture in the West. Rowman and Littlefield, 1980.