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#victorian corset
thecozycuttlefish · 27 days
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I made a thing. I've never done corsetry before so I'm just as shocked as you are that it worked.
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dresshistorynerd · 2 years
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Hey! I love your blog!
I had a little question, if you don't mind: what kind of corsets would a lady would've worn while playing sports or doing stuff that would require her to bend or smth. I know corsets aren't the torturous devices they're made out to be but from what I do know, they probably wouldn't be the best option for when you need to be physically active.
Did they just skip wearing the corsets? Were there special garments that could replace it? Or were there special corsets made for such purposes?
Thank you, I really appreciate it! And thank you for the question, I'll never get tired of talking about corsets :D I will apologize in advance since I could answer quickly and say they had special corsets for sports, but I will go on a little tangent about all the different kind of corsets since there's more to it.
A little summary of different kinds of corsets
There were indeed a wide variety of corsets and most of themwere suitable for physical activities (even in late Victorian Era). I couldn't include everything here, but I'll highlight those I think are relevant for the discussion.
Corset developed out of stays in the early Victorian Era (somewhere around 1840s). Corset is just a different terminology for the supporting undergarment and doesn't really differ that much from stays in principle. Regency stays that were predecessors to corset were very much not restrictive. They rarely had any boning except in the front to keep the boobs separate and the stays from wrinkling. Regency fashion by nature concealed waistline and showed off boobs so the stays were very much only focused on that. During the Victorian era more boning was introduced to the now-corsets as the fashion started to emphasize the waistline. As the Victorian Era progressed forward the fashionable corset started to become more shapely with heavier and more restrictive boning (kinda, the development of the corset and the silhouette wasn't really this linear). However this was only for the corset used with fashion items, things a rich fashionable young lady would wear for outings. Everyone wore corsets, the working class women who did physical labor too. Therefore by the late Victorian Era corsets started to diverge creating increasingly large variety.
So boning is the most well known way to give shape to a corset. Steel bones are the most restrictive ones, but they were usually only used in the front closure and thin steel bones often next to lacing eyelets to give them strength. Baleen was most often used for boning. It's made out of the same tissue as finger nails, so it's very bendable and soft. The main way Victorian corsets gained their strong shapes was the ingeniously engineered panels that when put together created a 3D shape. Softer kind of structure than boning was achieved with cording and even quilting.
Fashionable upper class corset
So lets look at some corsets! Let's start with the peak fashion. This is a silk corset from 1884. On top of the steel bones of the closure it has at least two steel bones on the sides and heavy boning otherwise too. The wide bones are definitely steel and the thinner are probably steel too, but they could also be baleen. This corset was definitely used to show of the latest fashion in high society gatherings and not for too much bending.
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The people who wore this were the same type of fashionable people who might tight-lace for high society events and this corset would be excellent for that purpose. Tight-lacing is what it sounds, the practice of lacing tightly the corset to reduce the waist measurements. It would be uncomfortable and in long term could have health effects. Most people didn't do it for long periods though, why would they when they weren't even wearing the presentable high fashions most of the day.
Working class corset
But as said everyone wore corsets (even men but that is a story for another post) and that includes housemaids, which was one of the most physically demanding positions for women. Symington's Pretty Housemaid corset from 1890s was made for that purpose.
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Symington's corset company, which was created around 1850s, was one of the first clothing companies to adopt the sewing machine for mass production, making their corsets cheap and easily available. By the end of Victorian Era they were the leading corset makers. They had a wide variety of corsets for "normal" people, working class and middle class people, so their products show well what most people wore. Pretty Housemaid corset was marketed for domestic servants and it was marketed as cheap and strong. Corset actually supports back and helps lift heavy things, especially this corset with it's raised back, which is great for a servant. The Pretty Housemaid has only very few baleen bones (only the front has steel bone) most of them ending at waistline, and the rest is just cording. This all makes it very bendable but still supporting so great for hard physical labor.
Another example of 1890s Symington corset is this corset with no boning (except front closure) and only cording and (interestingly) quilting.
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Morning corset
Most people wore corsets somewhere between these and the first example. Not all upper class people wore steel boning, baleen was for them the norm too. But those who did also didn't wear that all the time. Morning corset was very lightly boned corset that was wrapped around the body instead of laced. It didn't shape the body at all and only gave some bust support and a bit of the fashionable silhouette. Here's an illustration of it from 1890s. It was used by upper class women inside home usually during long mornings while getting ready for the day and could be used when receiving close friends and family in the midday/afternoon.
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Ribbon corset
Ribbon corset was very lightly boned corset made out of ribbons instead of fabric. It was an under-bust corset and similarly to morning corset it's barely shaping. Apparently it started as a night corset. You might wonder why would someone need a corset during the night, and it would be the high fashion ladies who wanted to prevent themselves from getting bloated during the night so they would be able to reduce their waistline without some time for adjusting first. It was used similarly to morning corset too and became even more popular in the Edwardian Era. Ribbon corset made out of cotton tape were also used for sports (at least in Edwardian Era).
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Health corsets
In the late Victorian Era health and exercise were getting more popular and fashionable, as were women's rights. Working class women had always of course gotten their excercise from physical labor, but it became popular for upper class women to be athletic. For example upper class women started cycling, ice-skating, mountain climbing and playing tennis and golf. This change has happening at the same time as the Dress Reform Movement came to existence. They aimed to reform the restrictive beauty and fashion ideals of the time. They promoted very successfully sports clothing for women. It was also a backlash to the increasingly boned fashionable corset. This backlash was based partly on the very righteous dissatisfaction with the extremely high beauty standards for women, but also on pseudoscience and men whining women being too vain according to them.
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There were men writing about how corsets will squeeze the internal organs and change their position and shape permanently based on literally vibes alone. It was mixed with fair concerns about tight lacing, though very much blowed out of proportions. This is where the myth of corsets being torture devices survives to this day. So many of the sympathizers of the movement started developing their own suggestion for the reformed corset.
Here's an example of a woolen health corset. With the focus on health there was also a ton of pseudoscience about it (as there is today). One of the claims was that using wool against skin was healthy. And there is a fraction of truth to it. Wool is anti-bacterial, but the claim was that it was healthy as oppposed to cotton and linen. Linen, which is also anti-bacterial. The corset itself is very lightly structured and looks very soft.
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The Edwardian corset was actually born out of the same ideas. The S-bend corset, or straight front corsets as they called it, was supposedly a health corset. I don't really know what they though made it healthier and I would guess it's based on as much scientific rigor as the claims about the health risks of the previous corsets.
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Sport corset
Promoting sports corsets was also a part of the Dress Reform Movement. Sports corsets really became a thing in 1890s. Here's an example of one. It's not shaping and merely supporting. It barely has any boning, if at all, leaning on cording instead.
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Sports corsets never really reached a wide use. They were a kind of novelty and trend. Basically any corset without steel boning was suitable for a lot of physical activities and so only rich people who had the extra money to buy corsets for every use and even used the heavily steel boned ones really even bought the sports corsets. Of course some physical activities (like housemaid duties) would need more bending room than a typical middle/upper class baleen boned corset would allow.
Several modern dress historians and historical dress enthusiasts have tested out their reproduction corsets for various physical activities and recorded them. Here's a video where Bernadette Banner tests out Victorian exercise routine with her 1890s corset. And here's another where Karolina Zebrowska wears full Edwardian attire, including corset, for bouldering. The tl;dr is that both were pretty successful experiments.
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bennyssewingblog · 1 year
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Aranea Black shut down her website and all her free corset patterns are gone
I’m absolutely gutted... it sounds like shes getting out of the corsetry business completely. I really hope she is doing okay, this can’t have been an easy decision to make. I believe her Patreon is still up as of right now (Jan 21, 2023) but it will be shut down at the end of the month (from what I’ve heard).
The good news is that I’m part of a Reddit group that is essentially trading the free corset pattern files that they have already downloaded. One person is working on a depository of all her free patterns, which I will share when finished.
In the meantime, I have amassed quite a few patterns since last night, so if there is anything you wanted to download but missed the chance, please send me a message and if I have what you’re looking for, I’ll send you an email or Google Drive link.
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suitsyoumaam-blog · 2 years
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Getting tightlaced by Melanie Talkington
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source : youtube
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vintagefashionplates · 3 months
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In the eighteenth century, the corset imposed a more-or-less conical configuration to the upper torso. By the late nineteenth century, a more softly rounded female form was preferred. This extended even to the body in profile. The straight and rigid busks of the eighteenth century gave way to busks that not only curved into the waist but also rounded out over the belly. 
Designer: Maison Léoty (French) Date: 1891 Culture: French Medium: silk
Credit Line: Gift of Miss Marion Hague, 1945
(via Maison Léoty | Corset | French | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
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Details from Mathilde Helene Lundager (nee Biltoft) as a young woman, Rockhampton, ca. 1881
Original high res image located here: LINK
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porcelaineye · 4 months
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from lacis museum of lace and textiles
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pdxstitch · 8 months
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1870s and 1880s decorated corsets, from the collection of the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art
First image: circa 1880 European silk corset in very bright yellow. Trimmed with wide black lace at top and bottom. Decorated with black flossing and contrasting black gores across the bust.
Second image: circa 1880s American corset. Made of bright red cotton. Trimmed with white lace around the top, the bottom hem is bound in white. The whole corset has contrasting white or off-white topstitching. The front opening is embroidered with curving S-shapes in off-white thread. The corset has four triangular gores in the bust. The gores are decorated with more embroidery in abstract, curving shapes.
Third image: circa 1876 French corset in cream colored silk printed with pink flowers. Bottom hem is bound in the same floral silk. The top is trimmed with delicate cream-colored lace. There is a large hook fastener at center front, below the waist. This isn't commented on in the Met's description, but I would guess this would have been paired with an eye fastener on the inside of a bodice, to keep the bodice from shifting while worn.
Fourth image: circa 1880s British silk and cotton corset. Main fabric is dark (black) with all-over pattern of small, red, seven-petalled flowers (reminiscent of cherry blossoms). Top is trimmed with black lace.
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perfectlittleparcel · 23 days
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This corset just needs to be flossed then it can be shipped off- commission for a repeat customer. Top fabric is 100% silk, with a spoon busk, waist tape and false whalebone boning.
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thecozycuttlefish · 2 months
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mikuyuuss · 4 months
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POV: They are secretly judging you.
Zelink in victorian era au!
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suitsyoumaam-blog · 1 year
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Izabela Pitcher, part 4
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Source: Her instagram
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vintagefashionplates · 3 months
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Vintage handmade leather corset
Designer: Maison Léoty (French) Date: 1870–89 Medium: leather, steel
Credit Line: Gift of Miss Elizabeth Hicks, 1950
(via Maison Léoty | Corset | French | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
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marzipanandminutiae · 1 month
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Area Woman Wearing Custom "Pretty Housemaid" Corset; Comfiness Levels Off The Charts
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Brain : Shouldn't we be writing right now...?
Me : ...so I'm gonna make a 19th century corset entirely by hand!
Brain : But...
Me :
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autumn-may · 2 months
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Darkqua in a 1916 dress i found on pinterest
(reference below cut)
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Why do dresses from 1914-1917 go so hard. Why were they cooking
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