Family Steinam, Saratoga, by Julius Goldschmidt, 1890, from Metropolitan Museum of Art
I love talking about undergarments. They are one of my favorite fashion history topics, because they impact the rest of fashion history so much. Today I thought I’d touch on corsets.
Now I could write a whole book on corsets (some people have), but in today’s post I’d like to focus on how corsets affect posture and movement. Corsets are best known for the way they mold women’s bodies — supporting the breasts and constricting the waist. But corsets do much more than that, and one of those things is influence the way a woman stands, sits, and moves.
At my last job, we had a reproduction late 19th century corset I liked to try on female students. Students were always amazed that once they were laced into the corset, suddenly they couldn’t slouch, even if they tried. Only moments ago they had the kind of posture mothers hound their children about. When asked to sit, these students acted like proper ladies perching on the edge of a chair with perfectly straight backs.
Corsets not only alter the shape of the body, but they restrict and reinforce good posture.
Below I’ve assembled a timeline of seven corsets along with corresponding portraits showing how they affected women’s posture. You can see that as the shape of the corset changes, women’s posture changes as well.
corset, 1750-75, from Metropolitan Museum of Art | Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Fiodorovna by Alexander Roslin, 1777
In this 1750-1775 corset and comparable portrait, the upper body appeared rigid due to heavy boning in a V shape.
corset, 1810-50, from Metropolitan Museum of Art | Portrait of Charlotte and Elizabeth Sullivan, daughters of Sir Richard Sullivan by Reinagle Ramsay Richard, 1810
Later in the early 1800s, the corset became lighter without boning. It mostly functioned as a support for the bust. This allowed for a little more range of movement.
corset, 1839-41, from Metropolitan Museum of Art | Marquise de Béthisy as Orientalin, 1833
Corsets from the 1830s through the 1850s regained their stiffness through the waist when boning returned. However, these corsets allowed the shoulders to slope forward. The portrait above shows the popular stance of the period with slouching shoulders.
corset, c. 1876, from Metropolitan Museum of Art | On the Thames by James Tissot, c. 1874
But by the 1870s, new technology enabled corsets to be better fitted. The waist was elongated and slimmed and the shoulders rotated backward.
corset, by Maison Léoty, 1891, from Metropolitan Museum of Art | A Bar at the Folies-Bergere by Edouard Manet, 1882
In the beginning of the 1890s, the hourglass form reached its peak, as shown above. During this time, fashion focused on the bodice, so an even smaller waist was important, impacting the whole figure and its ability to move.
corset, by Worcester Corset Company, c. 1898, from Metropolitan Museum of Art | Mrs. Ralph Curtis by John Singer Sargent, 1898
By the late 1890s, corsets crept lower on the hip, shaping and restricting more than just the upper body.
corset, 1909, from Metropolitan Museum of Art | photograph, c. 1910-13
Then corsets changed dramatically around the turn of the century. As you can see by the 1910s, they extended even lower on the hips, became straighter, and pushed the body into an S shape — breasts pushed forward and hips back.
The 20th century tells the tale of the decline of the corset. Foundation garments evolved into new forms to shape the body in new ways and allow for an increase in movement. But that is best left for another post.
My name is Jacqueline WayneGuite, and I'm a fashion historian living in Chicago. I write about fashion, art and design, and my life.
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LOVE this. And being a bit ole history geek too, love the overlay with women’s history during these eras as well.
Thanks Sandra!
Fascinating! One question that popped into my head: what on earth did pregnant women do?
As far as I know, pregnant women mostly disappeared from the public when they started to show. I’ve seen some modified version of corsets and a little bit of maternity clothing, but they aren’t very prevalent in museum collections. Definitely an area for someone to research more!
This is so interesting. I particularly like the form given by the corset from 1876 and 1909 in the examples shown. Your post reminded me of wedding dress shopping, the salesgirls insisted that corsets were important for the posture, to stay straight. I thought it was them trying to sell yet another item, but now you are confirming this. (I guess it was a bit of both).
With my empire cut dress (similar in form to the dresses in the “Portrait of Charlotte and Elizabeth Sullivan”) you could however see the “boning” (is it still called boning? the metal support lines? ) through the thin chiffon, so I ended up wearing some kind of support that my mom brought from Mexico (without previously trying it with the dress). It was kind of like a bathing suit but made of a foamy kind of material, completely smooth so you couldn’t see the marks, as had happened with the real corset.
Of course the saleswomen were trying to sell you another thing, but they were also right that corsets help with posture. One of the reasons corsets fell in popularity was because the cut of clothing in the 20th century revealed more of the body underneath — not just physically exposing skin, but fabric clinging to the body to reveal the shape underneath. And so the same problem you had was something that women had back then. Hence the rise of girdles, which reshape the body in similar ways to the corset, but without the appearance of boning showing.
Since you mentioned that your mother got the foundation garment in Mexico, I’m wondering if what she bought was a faja. Did you see this article from the New York Times that was published last May on fajas? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/nyregion/with-fajas-tight-as-corsets-shortcut-to-hourglass-figure-is-rediscovered.html
Oh interesting article, I had not read it. And yes, what my mom got me was definitely a faja, and I think it was colombian too. It is different from the one in the picture in that it has straps, basically it looks like a swimsuit, but it does attach with hooks in the bag.
Thanks for illustrating us I really really enjoy your blog. I was in London last weekend and thought of you so much. At the Victoria and Albert’s museum, there is a whole exhibit on fashion history, then there is the Hollywood costumes exposition, and the Lolita’s in Japan exhibit that you mentioned. Also, the Atonement dress (so , so beautiful, and it really seemed buttery). In the end though we did not make it to Brighton (the roads were closed and the train services disrupted because of heavy snowfall), so I did not make it to the Biba exposition.
This is fabulous, I love this post! Great to see the corsets in the “timeline.” I made a few corsets while studying for my Fine Arts/Fiber Arts degree; I just couldn’t fathom having to WEAR one of these day in and day out. The most I could stomache was about a few hours.
Great post with beautiful images. I love that some were so elaborate and some so plain (although all probably very well crafted). My favourite here is the 1898 one by Worcester Corset Company.