History of corsets

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Contents

1 Corset (before 1500) 2 Corsets (1500-1970) 3 Iron corset covers, about 1500 4 The Stays, 1550? - from about 1890 5 The Victorian corsets, 1831 - 1901 6 The S-curve corset (1900 - ?) and the Straight fronted corsets 1903 - 1912? 7 The Pipe-shape corsets, 1912 - 1928? 8 Corset from 1993 to today 9 Nursing corsets 10 Maternity corsets

Corset (before 1500)

It is unclear whether corsets existed before 1500, as information on them is unreliable.

Many books say that Cretan women used the corset by 2000 BC because they made idols in the shape of a corset. These idols were originally two round pots bottom to bottom, the handle on the top pot being the nose on the idols and the edge line of bottom to bottom being the waist of the idols. The shape of the idols was traditional for idols, not the shape of Cretan women. The detail of the idols tell us that the old Cretan idols wore big loincloths, and the later idols have a tunic of open lace and a loincloth. The corset-shaped figure of the idols was a primitive Cretan style.

Virgins from 15th century sometimes wore a long tight lace outfit, but it was only a dress, not a corset.

Corsets (1500-1970)

In this period many different corsets were in fashion.

Corsets type definitions

name		start age	characteristic	breathing	comment
iron corset cover		1500	no compress	-
stays (narrow conical)		about 1550	low waist	fine?
stays (conical)		about 1575	lowered chest?	poor?
stays (narrow conical)		about 1700 again 1750	compressed lowered chest, low waist	poor
unstayed stays		about 1775		fine?
romanticism	ball-ball, hourglass	1815	low horizontal waist	medium	very rare
	"pipestem" corset	1830	pipestem waist	fine	very rare
Victorian (horizontal waist)	ice cone, ball-conical	1830	raised chest, low waist	fine	ballet, opera
	conical-conical, hourglass	1855	raised chest, high wasp waist	fine	edge in liver
	"oval chest"	1880	raised compressed chest, long concave waist	medium	flattened liver, not healthy
Edwardian (sloping waist)	s-curve, 'Gibson girl'	1900	raised expanded chest, high sloping waist	fine	floozie, edge in liver
	s-curve, 'Dagmar Hansen'	1910	low sloping wasp waist, raised expanded chest	fine	singer
	straight front	1902	very big loin curve, expanded chest. wasp waist	medium	edge in kidney, bad back
	straight front	1909	very high small loin, very high sloping waist	poor?	edge in kidney, bad back
pipe-shape		1910	expanded chest, no loin curve	fine
pipe-shape		1910	press buttock, no loin curve	fine	ugly, inconvenient
ice cone, ball-conical		1947	raised chest, low waist	fine	high shoulder
hybrid-corset		1970?	short pipestem waist	medium

Iron corset covers, about 1500

Iron corsets are Victorian Era corsetcovers made of metal. There are several in museum collections.

It is sometimes claimed that these were the everyday wear of women and girls throughout Europe in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. But they are more likely to be orthopedic instruments used by a very few women whose posture was not considered acceptable by the health and beauty standards of the time.

• It is likely that the Iron Corset was originally a type of armour worn only by men.
• The fact is as the "iron corset" was used both of men and women, but only on dress occasions. The iron was heavy, but the dress was also heavy, and the iron was padded underneath like armour. The silk of that time was very expensive but of poor quality and stretched poorly. It looked beautiful on the shining metal. The iron corset also worked as a bulletproof waistcoat, because assassination by knife in heart was a common risk.
• The padded "iron corset" and armour was known as a corset on women, and a waistcoat (vest) on men.

In these images, you can see a man and woman in corset with iron cover, covered by silk.

The Stays, 1550? - from about 1890

Stays are an old type of corsets. It is over the dress or skirt, hanging in the lower edge, opposite a corset which covers the hip. Typically a stay is made by hand and is older as 1860 or in some countries. By the time the stays were shorter and shorter and end up as a brassiere.

A set of stays has a normal shoulder strap opposite a waist cincher.

Corsets about 1550

stays ca. 1720

Stays 1855

Stays, common type. 1863

The Victorian corsets, 1831 - 1901

All people know a "Victorian corset"; but the British Victorian era was a long period from 1837 to 1901. In that time many corsets was in use, but the most common was the "horizontal waist" from about 1850 to 1899. The Victorian corsets for sale today are normally New Look corsets.

The S-curve corset (1900 - ?) and the Straight fronted corsets 1903 - 1912?

The straight-front corset (also known as the swan-bill corset and the s-curve corset) was a corset type worn from the start of the nineteenth century until around 1907. Its name derives from the very rigid straight busk that was used at the centre front.

It was the most complex shape of corset ever made, with high-quality corsets consisting of up to 48 intricately curved and shaped pieces. The straight-front corset was intended to be less injurious to wearers' health than other corsets, but when worn too tight these corsets were the most uncomfortable and harmful style of corset to ever have been widely popular. The silhouette given by the straight-front corset is familiar from the Gibson Girl of the period.

The straight-front corset was popularised by Inez Gaches-Sarraute, a corsetiere with a degree in medicine. The style was probably the result of several like-minded corsetieres and medical professionals. It was intended to create fewer health problems and to be less constricting than previous types of corset. The hourglass corset "suppress[ed] the bust", and the spoon busk, which often curved inwards for part of its length, "forced the organs downwards" claimed Gaches-Sarraute in her 1900 study Le Corset: Etude physiologique and pratique (The Corset: A Physiological and Practical Study).

Gaches-Sarraute suggested a corset that:

• freed the bust by starting below the breasts;
• supported, rather than constricted, the abdomen with a very rigid, straight busk and inflexible boning.

The first element was not problematic, although in order to create the 'monobosom' effect that was fashionable women started wearing bust supporters, the design of which eventually lead to the brassiere.

The second feature created more problems, though. When the straight-front corset was worn laced moderately tight, very little pressure was placed on the abdomen and some of the compression was transferred to the sides of the waist, where boning was lighter and more flexible. However, because of the extreme rigidity at the front of the corset it was possible to achieve greater reductions on waist size that with the hourglass corset. When tightlaced, the straight-front corset put a great deal of pressure on the lower abdomen. This caused the S-curve silhouette: the wearer's hips were thrust back, giving a deep curve to her lower back, and her chest was thrust forwards. In most cases, tightlacing in a straight-front corset caused lower back pain, breathing difficulties, and knee problems (through hyperextension). It has also been claimed that the pressure placed on the lower abdomen caused a prolapsed uterus, although this has not been proved.