This months Fashion Friday is all about Corsets.

Even way out here in the West corsets were worn by ladies of all ages and social status.

This excellent discussion of the Myths about Victorian and Edwardian Corsets at A Damsel in This Dress from 2014 by Izabella of Prior Attire covers many of the common Myths.

Here is a taste of the article.

Enjoy

Victorian Society of Alberta

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Corsetted Victorians and others – myths and reality

Posted on 12/19/2014 by A damsel in this dress

1851-60 blue ribbed silk corset,
Museum of London Prints.
Image Number 002188

“Oh my, this must hurt – how do you breathe in this?!” – Many re-enactors, (and modern corset wearers), will recognize that remark, whether as a comment under a picture or spoken at an event. I have heard my fill over the last few years, when dressed in Victorian kit, and the discussions that followed were equally interesting and illuminating for both parties.

Recently I have been browsing through Pinterest boards looking for images of 1895 corsets, and noticed several nice pictures – yet it was not the pictures that captured my attention, rather the comments and descriptions below that were even more arresting…..

Just a few examples:

* ‘They are lovely, but so uncomfortable’ ( on this pin )

* ‘This is a victorian corset which was used to create the perfect hourglasss figure. This is gorgeous but I can’t imagine wearing it. No wonder Victorian women passed out all the time! …They couldn’t breathe ‘ ( on this )

*’Vintage 1910-1918 Fashion Corsets….women used to be laced up so tight in these corsets that they sometimes endured cracked ribs…..can’t imagine! All for the sake of having a tiny waist….’ ( on this pin)

*’how many ribs do you think had to be removed so the ladies could wear this torture device?’ ( on this pin)

*Talk about taking appearance to extremes! In the 18th – 19th century, it was fashionable to either surgically remove smaller rib bones or crush the waistline into an impossibly small size in order to achieve a “waspish” waist. Incredibly dumb!’ ( on this)

There are more, but no doubt you get the idea…

Well, I have been wearing corsets for work and for going out for the last 7 years – and earlier-period stays for even longer…. I have also been making Victorian, Edwardian and modern corsets for the last 7 years ( I think I’ve made about 200 altogether) so have managed to learn a bit about the history of corsets and their day-to-day use….

Let us have a look at a few popular myths.

1898 Print Victorian Woman Spring Toilette Fashion Clothing Costume Dress Hat

‘Their waists were tiny!’

Some of them, probably yes – there are always people with smaller waists, especially when tight-lacing, but by no means was that the norm.

*Extant corsets have waist measurements from roughly 18″ to 30″ or more – and considering that they were not meant to be worn closed but with 2″ gap, and allowing 2-4″ tissue displacement (the so-called “squish” factor), the original waist circumference could be anything from 22″ to 40″ or more. Jennifer from Historical Sewing explains it very well in her own blog.

*optical illusion factor – crinolines, bustles, hip pads, bug sleeves, sloping shoulders and V-shaped blouse cut and decoration – with these, it was easier to emphasize the waist, which looked smaller when contrasted with hide hips and/or shoulders.

*extant clothing and corsets are usually small – this is true, but again, there may be several explanations for the fact that it is the smaller items that have survived to the present day:

primo – people did tend to be just a tad shorter than nowadays – so different proportions…

secundo – and that is just my theory – it seems to me that a lot of surviving clothes belonged to teenagers and very your ladies. I have owned, handled and seen a great deal of the clothing with labels pronouncing that they belonged to ‘Miss Smith’ or ‘Miss Brown’ – so at that time mostly unmarried, young women (of course there were exceptions). Since they were only worn for a limited time, once young miss outgrew them, (or got married and had babies etc), they were stored ready to be handed down as necessary to the next generation. Clothes that were worn by grown-ups don’t seem to survive that well – mostly because they were worn much more thoroughly, but also because they were remodeled, restyled, etc, so that the original gown could be used for many years.
This is just a theory, discussed with a few fellow costumiers, but there might be a little truth to it too – I would be interested in other people’s opinions!

*photoshop. No, really – at least the Victorian/Edwardian version of it. Most of the fashion plates from that era are drawings. It is easy to draw a tiny waist…. The reality however is a bit different. A quick search on Pinterest of Google images will show just as much – or better still, a book I happen to have here – Victorian Costume for Ladies 1860-1900, with over 350 original photographs. Yes, there were a few tiny waists in evidence ( and let us bear in mind that early attempts at editing was already done – by taking the photograph, concealing unwanted bits and taking the photograph of the retouched original – an excellent blog post on Victorian/edwardian photo shopping by Cynthia from Redthreaded here), but looking at the photographs from the era you will find that the majority of ladies are far from willowy. They look natural, with comfortable sizes of 10-18 or more….. the book is amazing, and recommended! Below a few snaps from the book:

Also, interestingly enough, have a look at the Victorian burlesque dancers – the lovely ladies are definitely much more substantial than our “size 0” models…..

Definitely worth a read.
Izabella posts lots of great information on her blog at Prior Attire and her FB page.

These two screenshots from Twitter address a couple of the myths as well.