Lace up! Corsets throughout time…
The corset is one of the most misunderstood garments in fashion history. It’s an easy target for fashion revisionists: removed from the body it once adorned, the corset’s stiff structure, and it’s unforgiving gridiron bone frame, looks suspiciously like a medieval torture device: crude but effective. Corsets are made to shape, or even reshape the body, they are made to be tight and restrictive and therefore some view them as harmful and sexist form of clothing from the olden days. In reality, benefits of wearing a corset are both physical and mental.
Corsets help control back pain and correct posture, which releases the tension some may have in their necks and shoulders. This release of tension can further help with headaches and migraines, and even stop aches altogether.
Corsets can also minimize menstrual cramps. Dressed in a corset will put force on the abdominal section which contracts the uterine and this sort of pressure relieves pain in the abdominal section.
Wearing a corset boosts self-esteem and improves your self-image; some research has suggested that wearing a corset can help to ward off depression, panic attacks, as well as anxiety. Wearing a corset functions like a Deep Pressure Therapy. It is like a warm hug because of which a person feels protected. It comforts a person as it puts compression on the belly which counteracts the nausea symptoms associated with depression and anxiety.
There are also some negative sides worth noting, but they occur in extreme cases where one will aggressively reduce their waist circumference. Wearing a corset is not dangerous as long as you use what we call “safe and sane” corseting practices. This means finding a corset that fits your body type. The corset you wear should feel comfortably tight and not cause you pain. Go easy on how tightly you wear it because if you are too aggressive, it may cause a whole host of problems.
Whatever side of the line you fall on, though, the corset is much more than just a garment and many people appreciate corsets not just for the way they make a body appear, but for the craftsmanship and skill that can go into making them. Corsetry is an art form in itself.
The corset as we know it today was first created in the 15th or 16th century, but the roots go back much further. Binding the waists with belts to achieve a narrower profile was occurring even in ancient Crete, Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Assyria, potentially as far back as 2000 B.C.E.
These practices were not just for women; there is evidence young men were also taking part in these regimens. These garments were likely not boned as modern corsets are, but were instead layers of heavy fabric wrapped tightly or heavy hide pieces laced shut.
Tight-fitting laced garments become the height of fashion during the 13th and 14th centuries. Women wore gowns called “kirtles” with stiff fabrics sewn into the bodice to create a trim silhouette, while a man would don a surcoat – a garment worn as an overcoat that fitted smugly against the body.
In the 16th century, the corset gained popularity as a symbol of wealth and status. In the French court, Catherine De Medici banned her ladies-in-waiting from having waists thicker than 13 inches around. Steel framework corsets were introduced to help ladies get the desired shape.
The 17th century saw a return to more austere garments, and the rise in popularity of the busk – a decorated strip made from wood, ivory, bone or metal that fit inside the front of a corset and laced into place. A flirtatious women might give away her busk lacings to an admirer, but, if she received unwanted attention, the busk might also conceal a dagger. To modern eyes, they appear phenomenally uncomfortable. Busks generally ran from the breasts to the top of the pubic bone. The busk was supposed to keep the posture straight and upright, as well as helping to keep the breasts elevated and the belly flat. The longest, most extreme, examples must also have made sitting a challenge.
While the corsets in 17th century were of inverted conical shape, worn to create a contrast between a rigid quasi-cylindrical torso above the waist and heavy full skirts below, in 18th century, corsets were designed to raise and shape the breasts, tighten the midriff, support the back and improve the posture of a woman to help her stand straight. Well-fitting corsets of 18th century were far better than those of 17th century.
The reason was, they were more comfortable and did not restrict breathing. By 1800, the purpose of corset had become to support 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.
The term corset first appeared in English in the early 19th century, it derives from the Old French word corps, which means body. When introduced, a corset was an unboned (or very lightly) boned linen garment that laced up the front. They were less built-up than their sibling garment, stays. These early corsets were suitable for casual wear and for wear by pregnant women. Over the course of the 19th century, as fashion changed, the corset changed to keep up with it, evolving into the back-laced, front-busked item we know today.
When people think of corsets, the image that comes to mind is often nineteenth century tight-lacing. Rumors flew around that women were becoming ill and dying from the effects of lacing their corsets too tight; that women were even getting surgery to remove ribs. These rumors were false.
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”.
The corset shape changed, flaring out at the hips and ending several inches below the waist. Industrial practices also meant that, while most corsets were made by hand and custom-fitted to the wearer, there was a thriving market in cheaper mass-produced corsets.
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.
In modern days, corsets are frequently seen on the red carpet, in movies, and as formal and wedding wear. It may seem an unlikely trend, especially given the current spotlight on feminism, both on and off the catwalk, but this last bastion of fashion is undergoing a very modern retelling. Designers aren’t doing the whole whale-boned thing, but corset belts, T-shirts with corsets overlaid and shirts with corset lacing are very much in. Underwear as outerwear caught on and grew to be something as likely to be seen in your local shopping center as on stage.
