corset

Summary

Black twilled cotton figured with pink silk spots. Fronts in two shaped sections each side of boned centre front opening, fastening with five metal catches, lower edge dipping to sharply-pointed waistline; gusset for bust each side, separate section over hips; two more pairs of bones towards centre, side seam boned; back in two narrow sections each side, boned at seam and diagonally above waist, boned central opening with fifteen metal eyelet holes each side, the 7th and 8th from the bottom closer together, laced with green silk braid lacing; sharply-pointed waistline at centre back; black elastic suspenders attached to each side of centre back and front; top edge trimmed with black lace threaded with two rows of pink ribbon; white cotton inner waistband, stamped "Echt Fischbein garantiert" (translation: authentic whalebone guaranteed).

Display Label

Edwardian manufacturers produced sophisticated and complex corsets, which represented the accumulation of centuries of skill and experience. Technology had managed to perfect the hourglass shape, drawing in the waistline and accenting the bust, whilst the hips were compressed. The practical innovation of suspender belts to attach to the stockings were introduced after about 1900. Corsets could also be highly decorative, tempting buyers with patterned cover-fabrics, such as this seductive black and pink woven cotton. By the later nineteenth century, the Rational Dress Association and similar "artistic" and "aesthetic" dress movements were advocating much looser styles of corsets, or even the casting aside of corsets altogether. Admiration for a simpler, "purer" more classical silhouette meant that very restrictive corsetry became increasingly unpopular, backed up by medical opinion which publicised the most extreme examples of tight lacing. However, not until after the First World War and the adoption of the boyish looks of the 1920s did corsets substantially change from nineteenth century models.