past-present...

        

           A Corset is a garment that girds the torso and shapes it according to the fashionable silhouette of the day. Most often it has been used for cinching the waist and supporting the breasts.

          In the 13th century a corset was worn, but as in later centuries it was sometimes worn as an outer garment over robes like a waistcoat is worn. From the 14th century onwards costume began to introduce new elements simply for the sake of variety and change rather than function. By the start of the 16th century Spanish fashions influenced Italian and English ladies. An iron hinged armour like corset was worn to flatten the body giving a smooth outline beneath gowns. The iron corset must have been exceptionally uncomfortable and heavy to wear and could only have been worn by Elizabethan ladies not doing any form of heavy work. Their only benefit seems to be that they produced the incredibly small waisted, elongated flat chested smooth line torso. Corsets of the late 16th century would be more recognizable to us today than the iron version. These later corsets incorporated materials such as whalebone, bone, wood and flexible steel. The patterns on the corsets showed the placement of the chosen support and were elongated after a fashion trend set by the boyish figure of Queen Elizabeth I.

          The predominant forms of stays in the 18th-century was an inverted conical shape, often worn to create a contrast between a rigid quasi-cylindrical torso above the waist and heavy full skirts below. The primary purpose of 18th century stays was to raise and shape the breasts, tighten the midriff, support the back, improve posture to help a woman stand straight, with the shoulders down and back, and only slightly narrow the waist, creating a 'V' shaped upper torso over which the outer garment would be worn. Well-fitting 18th Century stays are quite comfortable, do not restrict breathing, and allow women to work, although they do restrict bending at the waist (forcing one to protect one's back by lifting with the legs).

           Stays became much less constricting with the advent of the high-waisted empire style (around 1796) which de-emphasized the natural waist. Some form of stays was still worn by most women but these were often "short stays" (i.e. which did not extend very far below the breasts). By contrast, corsets intended to exert serious body-shaping force (as in the Victorian era) were "long" (extending down to and beyond the natural waist), laced in back, and stiffened with boning.
         By 1800 the corset had become primarily a method of supporting 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. In the 1830's, the corset was thought of as a medical necessity. It was believed that a woman was very fragile, and needed assistance from some form of stay to hold her up. Even girls as young as three or four, and probably directed by the best motives, were laced up into bodices.
         The most widespread use of corsets was in the 19th century.When the exaggerated shoulders disappeared, the waist itself had to be cinched tighter in order to achieve the same effect. The focus of the fashionable silhouette of the mid and late 19th century was an hourglass figure, achieved by reducing the thickness of the waist through corsetry. It is in the 1840s and 1850s that tightlacing first became popular. The corset differed from the earlier stays in numerous ways. The corset no longer ended at the hips, but flared out and ended several inches below the waist. The corset was exaggeratedly curvaceous rather than funnel-shaped. Spiral steel stays curved with the figure. While many corsets were still sewn by hand to the wearer's measurements, there was also a thriving market in cheaper mass-produced corsets.


         1900 illustration contrasting the old Victorian corseted silhouette with the new Edwardian "S-bend" corseted silhouette. The straight-front corset, also known as the swan-bill corset, the S-bend corset or the health corset, was worn from circa 1900 to the early 1910s. Its name is derived from the very rigid, straight busk inserted in the center front of the corset. This corset forced the torso forward and made the hips protrude. was popularised by Inez Gaches-Sarraute, a corsetiere with a degree in medicine. It was intended to be less injurious to wearers' health than other corsets in that it exerted less pressure on the stomach area. However, any benefits to the stomach were more than counterbalanced by the unnatural posture that it forced upon its wearer.The straight fronted corset was introduced to create the illusion of a slimmer waist by forcing the hips back and bust forward. From 1908 to 1914 the width of the skirt slowly sank from waist to ankles. And the corset had need to grow in the lower edge. A new type of fashionable corset covered the thighs. This corset changed the position of the hip, making the waist become both higher and wider. The new fashion was considered uncomfortable, cumbersome, and furthermore required the use of strips of elastic fabric.
         Shortly after the start of World War I in 1917, the U.S. War Industries Board asked women to stop buying corsets to free up metal for war production. This step liberated some 28,000 tons of metal, enough to build two battleships. The corset, which had been made using steel stays since the 1860s, further declined in popularity as women took to brassieres and girdles which also used less steel in their construction. Corsets fell from popularity during the late 1910s but forms of body shaping undergarments often called corsets continued to be worn well into the 1920s. The development of rubberized elastic materials in 1911 helped the girdle replace the corset. The change in the economy after World War I also changed women's role in society. In the early 20th century, a young lady would typically have started wearing a corset around age 15, and live at home until she married around age 18. After the war, more young women sought an education, and in the Western world marriage was delayed into the middle to late 20s. Only overweight or pregnant women might choose to wear a corset, typically an underbust corset.However, these garments were better known as girdles with the express purpose of reducing the hips in size. A return to waist nipping corsets in 1939 caused a stir in fashion circles but  World War II ended their return. In the late 1940s they were revived and were popularly known as 'Merry Widows'.In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s corsets remained a new revival. In the 1990s, fetish fashion became popular and corsets made something of a recovery, often worn as top garments rather than undergarments. In 2010, corset had recovered a new popularity in fashion.

Fashion history shows the first recorded corset came from Crete. The Cretan woman stood proudly bare breasted and the waist and hip corset shown in the header above is obviously a decorative part of her underwear.

For many centuries, both East and West, women and men have worn loose flowing robes. Elaborate layers of cloth indicated the rank or wealth of an individual. Sometimes to give shape to robes, the clothes were tied with a girdle or a sash. Later extra shaping was introduced by the use of a brooch or a pin. This type of clothing was popular among Greeks and Romans 3000 years ago.

Greek women were corseted. Under the Greek Chiton a leather band style corset was worn and this gave definition to the hips and bust. From birth, girls were swaddled. For six months their arms and legs were bound in swaddling cloths restricting their movement and keeping limbs straight. Adolescent Greek girls were forced to keep trim. Their Greek mothers used woollen bands to keep the developing body slim.