History of corsets

thumb|Woman's stays c. 1730–1740. [[Silk plain weave with supplementary weft-float patterning, stiffened with whalebone. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.63.24.5.]]

The corset is a supportive undergarment. It was standard in women's fashion in Europe for several centuries and served to shape the body and support upright posture, evolving in form as fashion trends changed. Depending on the era and location, the corset has been called various terms such as a pair of bodies, stays, or corsets.

A pair of bodies or stays, as they were known at the time, first became popular in sixteenth-century Europe, and created in the wearer a conical shape with a flattened bust. The wasp-waisted garment that is now associated with the term "corset" reached the zenith of its popularity in the Victorian era. While the corset has typically been worn as an undergarment, it has occasionally been used as an outer-garment, as can be seen in the national dress of some European countries. The term "stays" was frequently used in English circa 1600 until the early twentieth century, and was used interchangeably with corset in the Renaissance. The term "jumps," deriving from the French word jupe "short jacket," referred to stays without boning, which were less structured and typically laced in the front.

Corsets have been used for centuries among the Circassians and Abkhaz tribes of the Caucasus region. They were used to "beautify" women and also to ensure modesty. Corsets were laced tightly with as many as fifty laces, and had to be worn from childhood until the wedding night. When the marriage was consummated, a groom had to slowly and carefully undo each lace to demonstrate self-control.

16th and 17th centuries

thumb|left|[[Henry III of France and Louise of Lorraine]]

thumb|upright|[[Iron corset from the late 16th century]]

For most of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries corsets were known, in English, as bodies or stays. These garments could be worn as under or outer wear. The women of the French court saw this corset as "indispensable to the beauty of the female figure."

In the Elizabethan era, pairs of bodies were typically made out of layered fabrics like linen and silk, starched, and stiffened with whalebone. A busk, typically made of wood, ivory, metal, or whalebone, was added to stiffen the front of the bodice. It was carved into a thin knife shape and inserted into the bodice, then fastened and held into place by laces, so that the busk could be easily removed and replaced. This phrase continued to be referenced through the end of the 19th century, although the term "stays" largely fell out of fashion.<gallery widths="140" heights="200">

File:C.1795 corset by Mills Jr of London 04.jpg|link=|1795 short stays from Mills Jr, London

File:Jumps, quilted linen with silk embroidery. Late 17th-early 18th century. 01.jpg|link=|A pair of quilted linen jumps, late 17th-early 18th century

File:Corset MET 1984.8 F.jpg|link=|Linen stays, circa 1780

File:Corset MET DP240328.jpg|link=|European corset from the mid-late 18th century

File:Corset MET 1973.88 B.jpg|Spanish corset circa 1700

File:Corset MET 1970.106.4 F.jpg|Late 18th century American stays

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Late 18th and early 19th century

During and shortly following the French Revolution, rationalists and classicists criticized the glorification of an artificial body shape, created by stays, as more beautiful than the natural human form. Fashion trended towards loose, thin dresses which resembled the shift dresses worn as undergarments by previous generations. Doctors and philosophers promoted the beauty of the natural female waist, and criticized the effect of wearing stays on female health as well as the health of the fetus, when worn during gestation. By the 1770s, "short stays" became the fashion. Lightly boned stays were still worn for formal occasions, but it was acceptable to forego them, even at highly formal settings such as at the royal court.

In addition, the manufacture of stays was turned over to the assembly line. Prior to this era, each corset was hand made by one person from start to finish, either at home or by individual craftsmen, called staymakers. ($34.85 in 2026)[https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1839?amount=1]

Mid- to Late-Victorian era

thumb|466x466px|Diagram of different busk shapes.

Styles of corset during the mid- to late-Victorian era changed drastically depending on the fashions of the time. Corsets during this era tended to be strapless with fastenings in the front and back. Corsets were often decorated with elements like boning in contrasting colors and lace trims. They believed a change in fashions could change the position of women, allowing for more social mobility, independence from men and marriage, the ability to work for wages, and better physical movement and comfort.

Along with dress reformists, doctors criticized the trends in corsets. Reformists claimed that lifelong corset-wearing had a variety of health risks. Obstetricians of this period connected lifelong corset-wearing to the difficult births that many Victorian women experienced.

Despite these protests, the corset did not fall out of fashion for many decades. However, corset manufacturers responded to the public health outcry by offering a variety of corsets which promoted "hygiene" (referring to the general health of the body, not cleanliness), introducing features such as elastic, buttons instead of metal clasps, or more lightweight fabrics, which became highly popular. However, these garments were better known as girdles, and had the express purpose of reducing the hips in size. <gallery>

File:Corset a membrane abdominale.gif|A diagram of a straight-front corset, 1902

File:Kalamazoo Corset Company 1912 0032 (16802978848) (cropped).jpg|Corset production, 1912.

File:USpatent1232282 1917.gif|A longline corset which primarily slims the hips and thighs, 1917

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Post-World War I

A return to waist nipping corsets in 1939 caused a stir in fashion circles but World War II ended their return as women entered the workforce en masse and material shortages again became widespread, necessitating sleeker, more utilitarian designs.

Post-World War II

In 1952, a corset known as 'The Merry Widow' was released by Warner's. Initially, the Merry Widow was a trademark of the famous Maidenform company, which designed it for Lana Turner's role in a 1952 movie of the same name. The Merry Widow differed from earlier corsets in that it separated the breasts, whereas corsets had held them together.

Both corsets and girdles remained popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s, especially with the creation of Christian Dior's "New Look" in 1947. The "New Look" silhouette featured full skirts and nipped-in waists which appealed to the nostalgia of post-World War II America. The style contrasted sharply from the more utilitarian styles that had been needed during wartime, when women entered the workforce en masse and fashion houses faced widespread fabric shortages. The glamorous Dior designs symbolized a return to femininity under post-war American prosperity.<gallery>

File:Fashions at Nyngan Picnic races - Nyngan, NSW, (between 1927-1930) - by unknown photographer (2968453258).jpg|alt=A black and white photo of four women standing side by side in a field. They all wear loosely fitting shirts and knee-length skirts.|Four women demonstrating the short skirted, straight-line silhouettes of the late 1920s.

File:Style4321girdlePink.jpg|alt=An illustrated diagram of a woman demonstrating the use of a girdle from the front and side view|Diagram of a girdle, 1930s

File:Christian Dior evening gown called "Zémire", Fall-Winter 1954 03.jpg|alt=A floor-length red gown. The bodice features a blazer-style jacket with a severe wasp-waist, and the skirt is floor-length, pleated, and bell-shaped.|A 1954 evening gown from Dior, exemplifying the New Look

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Late 20th century and onwards

By the 1960s, the advent of hippie culture and youth rebellion led the wasp-waisted silhouette to fall out of favor. Feminist activists protested against the restrictive nature of Dior's designs. 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. Dieting, 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. Women associated with the goth and punk subcultures experimented with corsets as outerwear, reclaiming the sexual symbolism and fetishistic, sadomasochistic associations of the garment.<gallery>

File:Whitby Goth Weekend (30143814363).jpg|alt=A goth woman wearing a black and white corset over a black blouse and white skirt.|A goth woman wearing a corset

File:Dominatrix Posing.jpg|alt=A woman wearing a black corset and garters, holding a riding crop|A dominatrix wearing a corset.

File:Corset-style tank top 2021.jpg|alt=A woman wearing a mustard yellow tank top with metal hooks in the front and a sweetheart neckline, inspired by corsets|Corset-inspired tank top, 2021

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History of corsets

16th and 17th centuries

Late 18th and early 19th century

Mid- to Late-Victorian era

Post-World War I

Post-World War II

Late 20th century and onwards

See also

References

Further reading