thumb|A drawing of a luxury [[hourglass corset from 1878, featuring a busk fastening at the front and lacing at the back]]

A corset () is a support garment worn to constrict the torso into the desired shape and posture. They are traditionally constructed out of fabric with boning made of whalebone or steel, a stiff panel in the front called a busk which holds the torso rigidly upright, and some form of lacing which allows the garment to be tightened. Corsets, also known as stays, were an essential undergarment in European women's fashion from the 17th century to the early 20th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries they had a conical, straight-sided shape. This eventually evolved into the more curvaceous 19th century form. By the beginning of the 20th century, shifting gender roles that allowed women to be more active outside the home, as well as the onsets of World War I and II (and the associated material shortages) led the corset to be largely discarded by mainstream fashion.

Since the corset fell out of use, the fashion industry has extended the term "corset" to refer to garments which mimic the look of traditional corsets. These modern designs may feature some amount of lacing or boning, but generally have very little, if any, effect on the shape of the wearer's body. Elasticated garments, such as girdles and waist trainers, are still worn today and serve a similar purpose in shaping the waist or hips, although they lack the rigidity of corsets. A corset brace is a type of orthotic resembling a traditional corset, used to support the lower back in patients with mild to moderate back pain.

Etymology

The word corset is a diminutive of the Old French word cors (meaning "body", and itself derived from the Latin corpus): the word therefore means "little body". The craft of corset construction is known as corsetry, as is the general wearing of them. (The word corsetry is sometimes also used as a collective plural form of corset). Someone who makes corsets is a corsetier or corsetière (French terms for a man and for a woman maker, respectively), or sometimes simply a corsetmaker. The garment to which the corset refers was variously referred to as (a pair of) bodies, stays, or a corset, depending on the time period. the most common and well-known use of corsets is to slim the body and make it conform to a fashionable silhouette.

16th-18th centuries

thumb|262x262px|Pair of stays, c.1780s. [[Fashion Museum, Bath, England. ]]

In the Tudor period, corsets, known then as "bodies", were worn to achieve a tubular straight-up-and-down shape, which involved minimizing the bust. These bodies, worn by women and men, were common into the 16th and 17th centuries and achieved their stiffened shaping with materials including steel, wood, or whalebone. They were constructed of two parts and fastened at the sides. Bodies evolved into the stays of the 17th century. Stays were believed to prevent body deformities and were sometimes worn as outer garments by the peasant class.

19th century

During end of the 1700s up until the 1820s, in reflection of the neoclassical style of dress, the demi-corset or short stays became popular,

thumb|Humorous illustration of a variety of corset styles and designs published in [[La Vie Parisienne (magazine)|La Vie Parisienne in 1881, including one for young girls (lower-left), one from the Regency era (upper-left), and one from the 18th century (upper-right). The caption in the gold frame reads: "The best thing is, without a doubt, not to wear a corset, but you have to be able to do without one, and that is, frankly, rare. One needs them, more or less (generally more than less); some corsets are beautiful, some are ugly and stupid."]]

An "overbust corset" encloses the torso, extending from just under the arms toward the hips. An "underbust corset" begins just under the breasts and extends down toward the hips. A "longline corset"—either overbust or underbust—extends past the iliac crest, or the hip bone. A longline corset creates the appearance of a longer torso and narrower hips. This style was common during the 1910s, when slim hips came into vogue, and later evolved into the elasticated girdle. A "standard" length corset stops short of the iliac crest. Some corsets, in very rare instances, reach the knees. A shorter kind of corset that covers the waist area (from low on the ribs to just above the hips), is called a waist cincher. A corset may also include garters to hold up stockings; alternatively, a separate garter belt may be worn. A corset supports the visible dress and distributes the weight of large structural garments, such as petticoats, crinolines, and bustles. This was associated with dandies, The practice was controversial, along with dandies in general. By the mid-1800s onward, men's corsets fell out of favor, and were generally considered effeminate and pretentious.<gallery mode="packed" heights="220">

File:Bianca LyonsCUT.jpg|Actress Bianca Lyons shows the exaggerated female curves achieved by corsets and padding, c. 1902

File:1898Das Album6.png|A woman models a corset in 1898

File:Calkins-corset-ad-1898.jpg|An award-winning advert from the back cover of the October 1898 Ladies' Home Journal

File:Edith (Amanda Nielsen).jpg|Amanda Nielsen in a corset

File:Invicorator belt.gif|1893 advertisement of corsets for men

File:A man in his underwear is having his waist pulled in by two Wellcome V0040671.jpg|"Lacing a Dandy," a satirical cartoon of a man being laced into a corset, 1819

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Support garments for the corset

thumb|A cotton corset cover from 1887.

Typically the corset was worn over light cotton underwear like a chemise, which was a thin cotton dress, or a combination, which combined the chemise and drawers into one garment. This served to absorb sweat and protect the corset and wearer from each other, and also to function as underwear and protect other garments from the wearer and their sweat. This is in part due to difficulties laundering these items: laundering would reduce the lifespan of an otherwise long-lasting garment and, during the 19th century, the steel boning and metal eyelets could rust if washed regularly. The other primary purpose of the chemise is to prevent chafing from the stiff, sometimes coarse materials used in corsets.

Beginning in the 1840s, corset covers were sometimes used. These served to protect outer clothes from the corset, to protect the corset from being damaged by boning in outer garments, The corset cover was generally in the form of a light chemisette, made from cotton lawn or silk. Modern corset wearers may wear corset covers for many of the same reasons.

Fetish

Aside from fashion and medical uses, corsets are also used in sexual fetishism, most notably in Bondage/Discipline/Sado-Masochism (BDSM). In BDSM, a submissive may be required to wear a corset, which would be laced very tightly and restrict the wearer to some degree. A dominant may also wear a corset, often black, but for entirely different reasons, such as aesthetics. A specially designed corset, in which the breasts and vulva are exposed, can be worn during "vanilla sex" or BDSM activities. Dress historian David Kunzle argues in his work Fashion and Fetishism that historical usage of the corset had a fetishistic dimension as some wearers reported feeling sexual pleasure from the use of the garment, and the corseted waist was highly sexualized by men and women alike. Artist Andy Warhol was shot in 1968 and never fully recovered; he wore a corset for the rest of his life. Historically, metal corsets have been used by doctors to correct issues with posture. Structure is provided by boning (also called ribs or stays) inserted into channels in the cloth or leather. In the 18th and early 19th century, thin strips of baleen (also known as whalebone) were favoured for the boning, while steel boning was more common in the mid to late 19th century. Spring and/or spiral steel boning or synthetic whalebone (plastic boning specifically designed for corsetry) are the preferred materials for higher quality modern corsets. Plastic is commonly used for modern fashion corsets. Other materials used for boning have included ivory, wood, and cane. The front of the corset is supported by a stiff, flat piece along the sternum called the busk which creates a smooth line in the front, usually made of wood or metal.]]

By the 19th century, corsets became one of the first garments to be manufactured in factories via assembly line. Each step was performed by a different group of people, often children. Heavy or messy work was done in house, such as cutting the fabric pieces and japanning the steels to prevent rust, and lighter work, such as sewing the bones in place, was taken home by piece workers, generally women who enlisted their children to help them. Workers in corset factories were among the most poorly-paid in London, and frequently could not make enough to meet their daily living expenses. After 1998, the category changed to "smallest waist on a living person." Cathie Jung took the title with a waist measuring . Other women, such as Polaire, also have achieved such reductions: in her case. Empress Sisi of Austria was known to have a very slender waist at 16 inches.

<gallery widths="140" heights="200">

File:Empress Elisabeth of Austria Sept. 2006 001.jpg|Empress Elisabeth of Austria, nicknamed Sisi, was known for her waist measuring 16 inches

File:Polaire, French actress.jpg|Polaire, a French actress known for her waist of 16 inches

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Health effects

right|thumb|X-ray of a woman in a corset

The negative physical effects of corseting have become widely spoken about, including a variety of myths. For example, the idea that Victorian women frequently underwent rib removal to achieve a smaller waist is baseless. However, wearing a corset does affect a number of bodily functions and can be deleterious to the wearer's health, especially when worn regularly over a long period of time; during the Victorian era stays were typically begun at or before the onset of puberty, with reported ages ranging from 7 to 13. In the 18th century, some writers regarded stays as being uncomfortable, even "nearly purgatory", but discomfort was seen as secondary to the outcome of fashionable dress. An experiment with historic reenactors into the impact of corset-wearing found that subjects reported a significant impact on comfort with reduction beyond 3 inches (about 10% of the waistline), which aligns with modern estimates of historical usages; some reported issues with shallow breathing or lower back pressure. Late-19th century S-bend corsets were reported to cause a greater impact than the curved-front mid-19th century style. In a study of 16 subjects, those with smaller-than-average (>32.5 in) waists were found to experience a greater reduction of lung capacity, but those with above-average waist sizes had more difficulty recovering to their initial lung capacity after the corset was removed; this replicated the results of historical studies. As women's social freedom increased during the second half of the 19th century, sport corsets began to be sold, designed for wear while bicycling, playing tennis, or horseback riding. These designs typically incorporated some form of elastic panelling or mesh.

This quote alludes to problems with the reproductive organs experienced by women who tightlaced, and demonstrates the difficulties of explaining this issue due to Victorian taboos around discussing sexuality. Reformist and activist Catharine Beecher was one of the few to defy propriety norms and discuss in any detail the gynecological issues resulting from lifelong corset usage, in particular uterine prolapse. Corsets were usually worn during pregnancy, often as long as possible, to suppress and disguise the appearance of the growing fetus. Both rectal and uterine prolapse occurred at a higher incidence during the Victorian era than today, with occurrences declining as the corset fell out of fashion.

16th and 17th centuries

In the late 16th century, what would later be known as the corset was called "a pair of bodys." It consisted of a simple bodice, stiffened with boning of reed or whalebone. In the 17th century, tabs (called "fingers") at the waist were added.

18th century

thumb|upright|Woman's corset (stays) –1740. [[Silk plain weave with supplementary weft-float patterning, stiffened with baleen; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.63.24.5.]]Stays evolved in the 18th century, during which whalebone was used more, and increased boning was used in the garment. The shape of the stays changed as well. While they were low and wide in the front, they could reach as high as the upper shoulder in the back. Stays could be strapless or use shoulder straps. The straps of the stays were generally attached in the back and tied at the front.

The purpose of 18th century stays was to support the bust and confer the fashionable conical torso shape, while drawing the shoulders back. At that time, the eyelets were reinforced with stitches and were not placed across from one another, but staggered. That allowed the stays to be spiral laced. One end of the stay lace was inserted into the bottom eyelet and knotted, and the other end was wound through the eyelets of the stays and tightened on the top. "Jumps" were a variant of stays, which were looser, had no boning, and sometimes had attached sleeves, like a jacket. Consequently, her husband, Samuel Barnes, designed "reinforced steels" for Egbert's corsets. Barnes filed a patent for the invention 11 years later, and Egbert collected the royalties on this patent for 15 years following his death.

The corset controversy was also closely tied to notions of social Darwinism and eugenics. The potential damage to the uterus, ovaries, and fetus was frequently pointed to as a danger to the race; i.e., the European race. Western women were thought to be weaker and more prone to birth complications than the ostensibly more vigorous, healthier, "primitive" races who did not wear corsets. Dress reformers exhorted readers to loosen their corsets, or risk destroying the "civilized" races. While supporters of fashionable dress contended that corsets maintained an upright, "good figure", and were a necessary physical structure for a moral and well-ordered society, dress reformers maintained that women's fashions were not only physically detrimental, but "the results of male conspiracy to make women subservient by cultivating them in slave psychology". They believed a change in fashions could change the position of women in society, allowing for greater social mobility, independence from men and marriage, and the ability to work for wages, as well as physical movement and comfort.

In 1873, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward wrote:

Despite those protests, little changed in fashion and undergarments up to 1900. The majority accepted corsets as necessary on some level, and relatively few advocated for it to be abandoned entirely. watch springs as boning, elastic or mesh paneling, and other features purported to be less detrimental to one's health. The style was worn from 1900 to 1908.

In 1910, the physician Robert Latou Dickinson published "Toleration of the corset: Prescribing where one cannot proscribe", in which he investigated the medical effects of corsets, including the displacement and deformation of internal organs. He found that, while some women could wear these garments without apparent harm, the vast majority of users sustained permanent deformations and damage to their health. The purportedly healthier S-line corsets still restricted costal breathing and exerted pressure downwards on the pelvis.

The longline style was abandoned during World War I, in part to save materials for the war effort. However, even prior to World War I, corsets had begun to fall out of fashion. Women's lives were increasingly active outside the home and in the workforce, which necessitated more simplified clothing. By 1913, the size and weight of a typical garment was significantly reduced; a 32-inch waist was considered acceptable where before a 20-inch waist was the standard. In 1968 at the feminist Miss America protest, protestors symbolically threw a number of feminine products into a "Freedom Trash Can." These included girdles and corsets, which were among items the protestors called "instruments of female torture". The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of popular fitness culture, and diet, plastic surgery (modern liposuction was invented in the mid-1970s), and exercise became the preferred methods of achieving a thin waist. The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s brought with it midriff-revealing styles like the crop top, and many women chose to forgo supportive undergarments like girdles or corsets, preferring a more athletic figure.

The corset has largely fallen out of mainstream fashion since the 1920s in Europe and North America, replaced by girdles and elastic brassieres, but has 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. In the fetish and BDSM literature, there is often much emphasis on tightlacing, and many corset makers cater to the fetish market.

thumb|[[Jean Paul Gaultier corset worn by singer Madonna in the 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour.]]

Corsets are frequently worn by actors in productions with historical settings or by historical reenactors. Modern historical fiction films and TV shows such as Bridgerton have renewed interest in corsets while also drawing attention to potential health risks as actresses including Emma Stone, Cara Delevingne, and Simone Ashley have complained about discomfort wearing them during the course of their careers. Into the present, the corset has been seen as a sign of patriarchal oppression; however, conceptions of the social role of the corset continue to evolve to consider how the writings of men have had an undue influence perception of historical corsetry. Sarah Bendall, a material culture and fashion historian, states, “men ridiculed the fashion or used it to make a moral point about how silly the women were - and that's what has been relied on.”

In the 1960s, then-vintage garments such as chemises, corsets, and corset covers became acceptable as outerwear; forms of these garments can still be seen today in modern undergarments and sleepwear.

<gallery widths="150" heights="200">

File:Corset-style tank top 2021.jpg|Corset-style top worn in 2021

File:Amanda-Lepore-wearing-a-Gabriel-Moginot-haute-couture-corset.jpg|Amanda Lepore wearing a corset designed by Gabriel Moginot

File:Photoshoot inspired by dark coquette fashion.jpg|A photoshoot featuring a blouse with corset-inspired lacing and hook-eye closures.

</gallery>

Special variants

thumb|150px|Singer [[Rihanna wearing a modified corset along with underwear as outerwear.]]

There are some special types of corsets and corset-like devices which incorporate boning.

Corset dress

A corset dress (also known as hobble corset because it produces similar restrictive effects to a hobble skirt) is a long corset. It is like an ordinary corset, but it is long enough to cover the legs, partially or totally. It thus looks like a dress, hence the name. A person wearing a corset dress can have great difficulty in walking up and down the stairs (especially if wearing high-heeled footwear) and may be unable to sit down if the boning is too stiff.

Other types of corset dresses are created for unique high fashion looks by a few modern corset makers. These modern styles are functional as well as fashionable and are designed to be worn with comfort for a dramatic look.

Neck corset and collar

A neck corset is a type of posture collar incorporating stays and it is generally not considered to be a true corset. This type of corset and its purpose of improving posture does not have long term results. Since certain parts of the neck are being pulled towards the head, a band in the neck, called the platysmal band, will most likely disappear. Like the neck corset, a collar serves some of the same purposes. The neck collar can be worn to allow minimal neck movement after road accidents, and is more accessible and cheap than physiotherapy. However, neck corsets and collars are more often used as a fashion statement or as an element of BDSM rather than physiotherapy.

thumb|center|BDSM neck collar and corset

See also

  • Bralette
  • Bustier
  • Corset controversy
  • Dudou, a Chinese undershirt sometimes known as a "corset"
  • Fainting room
  • Fetish clothing
  • Gibson Girl
  • Tightlacing
  • Waist cincher

References

Further reading

  • Corsets at Chicago History Museum Digital Collections ()
  • The Secret History of the Corset and Crinoline—A seminar by the Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Corsets in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
  • Leicestershire County Council Museum's Symington Fashion Collection
  • Spanx and the History of Shapewear Pirouette: Turning Points in Design (MoMA via YouTube)