So, first myth: corsets were invented by Catherine de Medici. WatchMojo, please do your research and for God’s sake list your sources - oh wait, you have none!
The corset in fact was developed … Read more
So, first myth: corsets were invented by Catherine de Medici. WatchMojo, please do your research and for God’s sake list your sources - oh wait, you have none!
The corset in fact was developed from a pair of bodies - fully boned, laced bodices worn in the 16th and 17th centuries. These are sometimes referred to as stays, but that’s also incorrect for this period. At this time, the term ‘stays’ could refer to the materials used to stiffen the garment - like whalebone.
Here’s a fun history lesson for you, WatchMojo: Catherine de Medici was alive from 1519-1589. That’s the 16th century. Did she invent it? No. Did she wear a version of it? Almost certainly.
Getting back on track, a pair of bodies supported the bust and shaped the upper body into a stiff inverted cone. It also provided the proper foundations to the outer garments at the time so they draped correctly over the body. Now were these underwear or outerwear? Both, apparently - it depended on a woman’s social status. Some even had detachable sleeves. I guess 17th century plebs were way ahead of the times.
Sometimes a pair of bodies weren’t even worn, as highly boned bodices became more popular in court wear in countries like France, and didn’t require separate bodies worn beneath. These were only worn by elite women, and even then only at certain times.
Now we reach the 18th century, and these undergarments are typically referred to as stays, so I will do so. Sigh, conventions, so pernickety. Stays were worn across all social classes, with lower classes wearing strapless stays that allowed for movement of the shoulders. In comparison, upper-class women would wear more restrictive stays, and whilst tight-lacing would occur, it was not a common practice. Suck it, every period drama ever where they yank at the corsets.
The average woman, however, wasn’t doing this. These were a support garment, not a medieval torture device, and lifted the bust, nipped in the waist and held the shoulders back, once again providing the foundations for outer garments. So like … ye olde timey Skims shapewear then.
If you didn’t wear the proper undergarments, you get … Emma Watson in the live-action Beauty and the Beast. I don’t want to hear the excuses, Emma. The film’s set in the 18th century; you wouldn’t have even worn a corset, and Belle as a peasant wouldn’t have tight-laced.
So no Hollywood, women weren’t routinely yanking their stays as tightly as possible to get a waist the size of a speck of dust.
In the later decades of the 18th century into the first of the 19th century, undergarments cycled through a revolving door including short stays, bust bodies and demi corsets. As the Pride and Prejudice superfan, and an adamant believer in the 2005 film’s superiority, I’m going to focus on Regency-era undergarments, mostly for efficiency purposes.
The previously longer structural undergarments started to become shorter with the changing fashionable silhouette. Waistlines had been creeping higher, as an empire waist became favourable with the prominent Grecian influence that defined womenswear. Unlike the prior silhouettes that emphasised the natural waist, these neoclassical dresses allowed women to do away with stays of the past as the waist was often hidden due to the column-like shape.
Imagine a woman wearing an ionic column and you’re 90% of the way there.
This led to the rise of the half-stays, which stopped under the bust for casual dress. However, in more formal settings, the full-length corsets were still preferred. These were laced in the back with a wooden busk at the front to separate and lift the breasts. Corsets at this time were often stiffened by quilting and cording to help provide support.
Corsetry didn’t simply come and go. It changed with the fashionable silhouette.
Come the Victorian era and once again Viccy strikes, with longer corsets becoming the norm again. These rounded the bust, held the waist and stomach in, shaped the hips and concealed other underwear - because Pirates of the Caribbean corsets are not worn on the bare skin, funnily enough, but with a chemise underneath. Practically, it’s easier to wash a shirt than a fully boned bodice.
Boning and cording were used to stiffen the garment - boning in particular made use of whalebone, which was actually flexible, so Victorian women could in fact breathe, contrary to common belief.
Myth busted: whalebone was not some medieval steel cage designed to prevent women from breathing.
God bless the sewing machine, and aniline dyes - read my piece on black to know more, shameless self-plug - and now starts the era of mass production, which naturally included corsets, many of which were covered in colourful silks. Mass production: Shein before Shein. Shoulder straps were dropped, and centre-front fastenings, split busks, gained traction. They need to bring these back for bras.
Edwin Izod develops steam moulding, which involved drying starched corsets on steam-heated copper forms, producing stiffer and rounder corsets. This whole time there’s also the petticoats, crinolines and bustles faff, but not my circus, not my monkeys. At least one other poor unemployed soul has talked about that on the internet at some point - watch that be me in 4 months’ time.
Anyway, the 1870s and 80s introduced tighter lacing, and a more exaggerated hourglass shape achieved by increasing the number of whalebone … boning, as well as spoon busks. That’s exactly what it said on the tin - the busk is now shaped like a spoon. Makes me yearn for the good old days when naming was simple, looking at you, Charing Cross Hospital.
Now this is where the Victorian corset myth becomes a little more complicated.
Yes, tighter lacing became increasingly fashionable in this period, and yes, corsetry could be used to create a more exaggerated hourglass silhouette. But that doesn’t mean every Victorian woman was permanently cinched into the smallest possible waist, as every historical drama would have you believe. In fact, whilst this was more common amongst the wealthiest and most fashionable women, even they generally weren’t doing it continuously. A la Bella Hadid at Cannes.
Take a deep breath in, breathe, and now we’re off again speeding down the 20mph road. All aboard the (slightly) toxic gossip Issy’s latest obsession train. Next stop: rational dress movement.
Why oh why did Viccy have to live so long? You’re making it so hard to think of fun transitions.
A variety of reformed corset styles emerged alongside the ‘New Woman’ ideals, which promoted health, physical activity and alternative ideas of beauty, all fuelling a push for a different approach to womenswear. Corsetry was, of course, the rule, not the exception; those with supposed health benefits and increased comfort became rather fashionable during this time.
Public opinions were, naturally, split like the busks, with some appreciating the added comfort, whilst others thought it just looked plain ugly. Examples of reformed corsets are ‘ribbon’ corsets made from fabric strips, and stays made of Aertex - a loosely woven cotton. Both these options allowed for increased flexibility and ventilation.
Even during the Victorian period, corsetry wasn’t one uniform garment or one universally accepted silhouette.
Finally we emerge from the cold dead grasp of Viccy into the Edwardian era. Shiver, I can still feel her hands on my wrist, and a voice telling me I moved too quick.
Viccy, you’ve had 3 whole paragraphs. Release me! Please!
If you’ve ever wanted to look like a pigeon, build a time machine back to the Edwardian era, cause that’s your best bet - or just be a furry. That works too, I guess.
In the classic trope of women’s bodies once again being a trend, hourglass figures are out and the S-bend, aka pigeon look, is in. As the name implies, the aim was for the female body to look like an ‘S’ from the side: the chest is pushed forward, creating the characteristic pigeon breast, waist is flattened and hips pushed all the way back.
We can see here that corsetry was used to create the fashionable silhouette of the time, so whilst the waist was still controlled, the tiny Victorian waist was no longer the point. The pigeon-breasted look wasn’t just about pushing the bust up; it manipulated the torso and pelvis so the entire chest appeared thrust forward. Naturally, padding becomes your best friend, as are visual illusions created by dense pleats and gathers creating fullness across your chest. Plus bustles, but I’ll need to down a whole bottle of gin before sifting through that mess.
Bum scrunch leggings, meet your much older sister.
Corsets didn’t always make women look ‘smaller.’ Sometimes they were used to make women look bigger in very … specific places. It’s called a hustle sweetheart.
We enter the era of the flappers, and well, now the latest trend is … to look like a prepubescent child. Huh.
Dresses of this period had a looser style and a straight cut from top to bottom - less Regency-era ionic column and more cereal box. Now once again the media would have you believe that women did away with their corsets, but that was decidedly not the case. And my job continues.
Corsets became very long and the aim was to slim the hips and thighs as much as possible to create the fashionable boyish look of the time. They were also worn under the bust at this time - breasts sitting naturally above the corset while the garment underneath created a smoother, straighter line through the torso. Lacing and elastic panels kept the shape whilst boning flattened the torso; heavy-duty versions came in two main forms, from a corset-girdle on one side to a longer corselette extending to the thigh.
Younger women tended to opt for the lighter corset + brassiere combination called a corselette, and the popularity of the underbust corset dwindled. Some thinner women would even forgo the brassiere, opting for just the chemise, and preferred Lastex girdles to flatten the stomach rather than relying on boning.
And for those who did not need to wear a corselette or simply did not want to, the new invention of the bandeau brassière was their best friend. Similar to its modern counterpart, it was a simple rectangle piece of fabric worn tightly across the chest with two 1-inch straps over the shoulders, with the intention to flatten the chest.
No, the flapper didn’t necessarily throw her corset in the bin.
The 1930s are calling and they want curves back again. For God’s sake, make up your darn minds. We just flattened the damn things. The 1930s ideal was still long and slender but with distinct curves, just not to the Victorian wasp-waist degree, and now we have the wonders and the joys of elastic to achieve this! Goodbye excessive boning, hello glorified shapewear! This is when my personal favourite dress makes an increasingly important appearance - the bias cut, which essentially moulds to the body, thus making foundational garments incredibly important for smoothing and shaping.
Guess what? Boobs are back! I guess you can never truly get rid of them. Unless you’re a celebrity getting them surgically evicted. Name your star, it’s all gone, and the public still has questions. Shudder.
1930s bras increasingly separated, supported and shaped the breasts, rather than flattening them. Cups became more defined, while elastic and new construction techniques allowed the garment to fit the body.
Once again corsetry doesn’t simply disappear - the name and construction changed, but its essence survives in other garments.
The corsets continued to be mid-thigh length, but began to include built-in brassieres, forming an all-in-one foundation garment - like a CC cream for underwear. These corsets usually had hook-and-eye fastenings on the side, and hid boned inner girdles or belts.
Girdles alone were also widely available in the 1930s, made from everything from coutil, rubber and rayon to brocades, cotton and elasticated fabrics. They could fasten with side hooks, front busks or lacing, and were often heavily boned and high-waisted, with elasticated side panels providing a little more flexibility.
In the 1940s, WW2 meant that zippers were prohibited in corsetry and steel hook-and-eye closures were limited, as supplies were needed to help with the war effort. This led to an increased use of lace-up fastening and elastic fabrics, and substance over style became the unofficial motto. As brassieres became more common, more women wore girdles and waist corsets, and the pendulum began to swing back to clearly defined waist and hips. Girdles at this time were often made of stretch fabrics and often synthetics. The all-in-one foundational garments became more the territory of mature and fuller-figured women.
Then Christian Dior unleashes the New Look in Paris in 1947, and suddenly we’re back to full skirts, tiny waists and exaggerated hips and busts.
Viccy, why can’t you just stay dead!
In order to achieve this, many women turned to a waspie - a short, tight-waisted corset/wide belt to cinch the midsection for an exaggerated hourglass silhouette.
The hourglass was the IT girl figure of the 50s, as seen on Hollywood starlets like Marilyn Monroe, and the icon herself is born - the bullet bra.
The corselets of the 50s ensured bust projection, a small waist and full hips as was fashionable. They were able to transform most figures with the invention and use of 2-way stretch fabrics and net, complex panelling and elasticated inserts. Meanwhile the designs of Camp Corsets, which featured fan lacing, buckles and steel stays, were also worn to achieve the iconic hourglass shape. When the fashionable body was curvier, foundation garments created curves. When it was flatter, they flattened. When the waist was hidden, the garments changed accordingly. When the bust became fashionable again, so did bust support.
Now in the swinging 60s we essentially have Spanx. Hurrah for spandex and Lycra!
Roll-on girdles and pantie girdles became the foundation garment of choice, replacing the corset. As freedom flourishes in the youth market with miniskirts and hot pants, both things I do admittedly love, corsetry became increasingly redundant in the mainstream, surviving more on the fringes of fashion - and, increasingly, in the kink community.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as they say, or in this case another woman’s, as in the 1970s, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren popularised fetish wear in the emerging punk scene, bringing corsets back from the dead.
Not you, Viccy. Stay - good girl.
Westwood later embraced the underwear-as-outerwear concept in her own eponymous brand, producing many famous corsets, including my favourite one in black silk satin with the dog print as seen on Faye Wong. Sorry, I should say Wong Faye. Another pop icon, Madonna, helped cement the popularity of 1950s-style corsetry in the mainstream with her Blond Ambition tour, which featured legendary costumes designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, including the famous cone bra.
All roads lead to Rome? Wrong. They all lead back to Viccy. Read less
