What the Dickens........?

Great expectations

Victorian Corsetry

Corsetry dates back thousands of years right throughout Europe.  The particular time when the corset became interesting and a part of everyday fashion, was the Victorian era.                                   

    

The 1830's saw the corset deemed as a medical necessity.  People used to think that that women where somewhat fragile and needed assistance in holding themselves upright.  Even the youngest of children aged three were made to wear the bodices.  By the time most of these girls hit their teenage years they could sit nor stand, without the aid of the reinforced, heavily boned corsets.  Internal organs where deformed due to the intense tightness and pressure, causing victorian women to faint and suffer from the vapors (an imbalance of the human organs causing illness).

Women were still deemed in this period to be the weaker sex, their minds and bodies were seen as weak.  The corset was believed to be morally and medically necessary.  The tighter the lacing the more virtuous you were seen to be, with the loose lacing the sign of a loose woman.  Women needed to be protected from fanciful men, by wearing the heavily layered clothing and corsets, getting undressed would be a long and trying task to any watchful eyes.

Working class women did not have to go through the torment of wearing tightly laced corsets.    

They were able to wear looser corsets and lighter clothes that weighed much less.  They needed to have more of a freedom so they were able to work and carry out daily household chores.

 

Questions have always been asked, How tight were the corsets laced?  There have been numerous reports that waists were between 18 and 14 inches, some even say 12 inches.  It is otherwise believed that most of these notes are nothing but fantasies and probably untrue. Corsets measured from museum collections from the period 1860 to 1910 measure between 20 and 22 inches.  There is no evidence to show how tightly people used to lace their corsets so they could easily be a few inches tighter.  Corsets were used to add shape to the body and also raise the bust.

Tight lacing was used, certain corset makers specialised in making the waist extremely small.  Men of the time began to develop a fetish for small waists, a fetish that was deemed acceptable.

                

Corsets have been used throughout centuries, you could say they were the wonderbra of today.  Even modern day women still wear corsets, although they are more likely to be part of sexy underwear, by companies such as Agent Provocateur.  Modern day women do not tend to layer their clothing like Victorian women did and would probably wear a corset on its own to go on a night out than put it underneath their outfit.  Celebrities such as madonna have worn corsets as part of their outlandish performances.

Madonna wearing Jean-Paul Gaultier

Agent Provocateur

Madonna wearing Jean-Paul Gaultier

Agent Provocatuer

There were many more cons than pros to wearing corsets.............................................

Cons:

Faints: Faints were often caused by getting sunstroke, but they were also enhanced by the difficulty women suffered from trying to breathe when wearing corsets.

Asphyxia: Breathing properly was extremely difficult.

Infertility: Because of the tightness of corsets women would suffer from continual miscarriages, with many of them becoming sterile for life.  Corsets wear not easy to wear when pregnant and many women would lose their babies.  Cases have been reported of babies with deformities and respiratory problems.

Sunstroke: Sunstroke was often caused by the amount of layers and the heaviness of the clothing in the hot temperatures.

Pros:

Corsets were used as a way of enhancing the hourglass figure and pushing up the bustline.