Corsets are universally popular, both with the ladies who wear them and the men who get to watch a woman in one. And it’s an enduring love affair, spanning some 4 centuries and countless variations. Even today designers, artists, fashionistas and fetishistas are finding new ways to reinvent the fantasy.
First, here’s a short look at the history of the corset….
Elizabethan
An early form of the corset was the Elizabethan “pair of bodies” which provided support and flattened the bust. It also provided a foundation garment over which a gown’s bodice (also called a pair of bodies) was worn. There are two surviving examples today. One is from the grave of Pfalzgrafin Dorothea Sabina von Neuberg from 1598 and the other is from Queen Elizabeth I’s effigy in 1603.
17th and 18th Centuries
From the end of the 17th century corsets or “stays” had changed slightly to give the wearer a more slender silhouette.
By the mid 18th century stays had curved whalebone to shape the front of the bust and across the back to flatten the shoulder blades. They were often covered in beautiful fabric or embroidery
18th Century Stays
19th Century
In the beginning of the 19th century stays were unfashionable and those that could did without them. However, those who were too large for the fashionable flowing, formfitting gowns and needed something to control their excess flesh continued to wear stays. When they came back into fashion around 1809-1810 they were called by their modern name: the corset. For the first time it was not a rigid body but a curved one. It was made “… from strong cotton material (jean, later know as coutil)”
Victorian Corset
It had shoulder straps until the 1840s and later, if the wearer needed them, for a little more support for the bust. Several new inventions helped corset manufacture during the 19th century: metal eyelets in 1828, the first front opening steel busk in 1829 and the spoon busk in 1873. White corsets were considered more ladylike. Corsets were also made in grey, putty, red and black but were always lined in white
Since the beginning of the 20th Century however, Corsets became less and less about everyday shape and fashion and began a slow course of developing into the sensual, mysterious, and thoroughly feminine fashion they are today. The rise of the burlesque scene in the 30′s and 40′s and it’s recent resurgence has seen new heights of popularity.
Mr Pearl
Corsets are curious things– they’re fetishized, misunderstood, and there’s much misinformation about them all. They’re the subject of heated debate when it comes to feminism, medical and anatomical reality, history, and more. This series is to expand upon that knowledge and to serve as a focal point for women (and men!) curious about corsetry… what it is, what it does, how it works, how to shop for one, and what to expect.
What IS a corset, exactly?
A corset is, historically, an undergarment that provides support and shape to a woman’s figure. In our modern age, it is worn both as outerwear or underwear and still provides shape and support to a body. A corset is typically made from 3-4 layers of fabric, laces up the back (or front, and sometimes both!), and is boned in key points, typically with steel. However, there are corsets (such as summer and swimming ones) that may be made with one layer of fabric or may be made to resemble a “cage.” Corsets come in a very large variety of styles, as corset styles varied with the fashions of an era.
Dita in a Mr Pearl Corset
IMPORTANT NOTE: A corset is NOT the same as a bustier or corset-style top. These are typically boned with plastic, made with a layer of fashion fabric, and are not meant to shape your body. These are purely fashionable garments only. Trying to wear a bustier or corset-style top as a proper corset can lead to more bodily damage than a corset can.
What does a corset DO?
You may be wondering what it means when I say a corset “shapes” your body. After all, control-top hose and a pair of Spanx can technically do that. A corset uses a certain amount of compression to redistribute the body’s fat. Most people associate a corset with creating a more curvaceous silhouette to a woman’s body, much like an hourglass. However, there are periods which create other shapes, such as a more cone shaped Elizabethan form (focusing on pressing a woman’s breasts upwards) or a tubular shape.
Corset by Mr Pearl
Extreme Corsetry
It seems that for almost as long as the corset has been cinching us in that there have been those out there who covet the extreme end of the
fashion spectrum Extreme Corsetry is still practised today by both men and women. Most often the goal is to achieve an extremely small waist by gradual constriction over a number of months or years. Mr Pearl (pictured above) is one of the most famous examples – his cinched waist is a mere 18″. His corsets are world-famous, even appearing in garments for Christian Lacroix.
Seen on catwalks, in fetish clubs, and even worn over jeans, the humble (and not so humble) corset is one of the most enduring pieces of fashion ever created.
