a b Swanson, Kara (18 April 2019). "The Corset. A History of Intellectual Property in 50 Objects, Claudy Op Den Camp and Dan Hunter eds., Cambridge University Press (2019)". Northeastern University School of Law Research Paper No. 307-2017– via SSRN. [ permanent dead link] According to Britannica , corsets were originally associated with the wealthy elite, yet were adopted by the bourgeoisie, or middle class, by the 17th century. These stiffening undergarments that pushed the breasts up came in many different materials and designs, such as iron corsets that were used for orthopedic purposes (not for torturing people). The popularity of corsets is reflected by paintings of royalty wearing the garment, such as Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici (who was also widely claimed to have introduced iron corsets). This story takes place in Victorian England and is told from the points of view of Ruth, an impoverished 16-year-old who is a skilled seamstress and who has been imprisoned on suspicion of murder, and Dorothea, a well-to-do young lady with an interest in phrenology who visits Ruth in prison as one of her charitable works. The book is published as "The Corset" in the UK.

Review: The Corset by Laura Purcell

You think women were working and running around unable to breathe just to please “society” as if they were separate from it? Men have never defined women’s fashion (hell, they wore corsets and high heels too in many eras!), and saying women were doing it for them and had no choice, gives them abysmally little credit. Some fashions at various times were even abhorred by men (bloomerism, wide hoop skirts)! And women wore them anyway. I received an arc of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing UK / Raven Books in exchange for an honest review. Hate to say it, but I agree with some of the comments about missed opportunities to discuss the fact that everyday women wore corsets, and they generally weren’t a horror. In the period I knew well, France from the Revolution to Waterloo, the “bustier” was very popular – sometimes they even wore an embroidered one OUTSIDE the gown. Its shape was much more in line with a modern brassiere, often with a rising pyramid lifting and separating the breasts. Many tied in front, for easy on and off, and their slim outline was better than a classic corset when worn under the thin muslin gowns of fashion. And it’s probable that, in the country, poor women still practiced some form of breast binding, just a wrap of linen for support. Reply The corset fell from fashion in the 1920s in Europe and North America, replaced by girdles and elastic brassieres, but survived as an article of costume. Originally an item of lingerie, the corset has become a popular item of outerwear in the fetish, BDSM, and Goth subcultures. In the fetish and BDSM literature, there is often much emphasis on tightlacing, and many corset makers cater to the fetish market. The story Ruth has to tell of her deadly creations – of bitterness and betrayal, of death and dresses – will shake Dorothea's belief in rationality and the power of redemption.

17th Century

Corset training was a ritual then. One fine day, if you try to get into a corset you will not get that really sculpted waist; in fact, you will not be able to lace it properly. It takes some months of corset training for the body to be fully laced into a tight-fitting traditional corset that satisfied the vanity of the lady and satisfied the dimensions of perfection that the society wanted. A Training corset was earlier used (from adolescent age) to train the waist to be a little smaller than it already was. It took several wearings to fit into the final corset. In part as a response to the perceived dangers of tight-lacing, but also due to women’s increasing interest in outdoor activities, “health corsets” became popular during the late 19th century. In 1884, A German physician, Dr. Gustav Jaeger (1832-1917) came up with wool sanitary corsets, described as flexible and elastic. They were also durable and respondent to movements. Dr. Jaeger claimed that the wool had curing capabilities and that it had cured him of his chronic health problems: excess of weight and indigestion. Another was created in 1887, a dermathistic corset with leather facing. It was marketed towards women who wanted better health and enjoyed a vigorous lifestyle. Edwardian Corset In 1855, a woman named Frances Egbert had trouble with her corsets, due to the front steel pieces constantly breaking as a result of strain. [14] Consequently, her husband, Samuel Barnes, designed "reinforced steels" for Egbert's corsets. Barnes filed a patent for the invention 11 years later, and Egbert collected the royalties on this patent for 15 years following his death. [14] Following the case of Egbert v. Lippmann, the US Supreme court deemed Barnes's and Egbert's patent as "public".

The Corset – Laura Purcell

Dow, Bonnie J. (Spring 2003). "Feminism, Miss America, and Media Mythology". Rhetoric & Public Affairs. 6 (1): 127–149. doi: 10.1353/rap.2003.0028. S2CID 143094250. This type of corset starts under the bust line and still creates the classic hourglass waist profile. 12. Mid bust corset By 1800’s, the corset had become primarily a method of supporting the breasts, as the waist was raised to just under the bust line. Corsets still slimmed the torso but this was no longer their main role. During the 1830s, the waistline has returned to its natural position, the corset now serves the dual purpose of supporting the breasts and narrowing the waist. The corset shape has now changed to the hourglass silhouette which is still sought out in today’s corsets and Victorian fashion. In 1839, a Frenchman by the name of Jean Werly made a patent for women’s corsets made on the loom. This type of corset was popular until 1890 when machine-made corsets gained popularity. Before this, all corsets were typically made at home and were off-course handmade. Victorian Corset If you want the truth about what it’s like to wear corsets/stays regularly, why not listen to the women who do just that ? This includes historical costumers and impersonators, but above all, the real women of the past who wore those every as naturally as we would wear a bra today, and still lead the lives that they lead & did the things that that they did, and didn’t once complain about it because it was actually COMFORTABLE. Reply The corset reached its greatest length in the early 20th century. At first, the longline corset reached from the bust down to the upper thigh. There was also a style of longline corset that started under the bust, and necessitated the wearing of a brassiere, a style that was meant to complement the new silhouette. It was a boneless style, much closer to a modern girdle than the traditional corset.Article contains a lot of misinformation on coursetry. Watch be reset banners videos on the topic to learn wh this information is inaccurate. Reply I swear to you…they’ll suffer for what they’ve done. All that you’ve endured will look like nothing - nothing! After I’m through with them.”

corsets: how a piece of clothing sparked The history behind corsets: how a piece of clothing sparked

During the early 1990’s Madonna famously wore fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier’s corset during her world tour in 1990. Known for his extreme fashions, Gaultier designed Madonna’s memorable one of a kind pink corset with a built in cone bra. This launched a huge trend and empowers women till today. Today But, tight-lacing was not synonymous with corsets of the Regency period, which “were made of soft cotton with stiffer cotton cording for support, and a slot in the front for a metal or wooden support called a busk,” according to Smithsonian magazine . Corsets were much more similar to modern bras with a variety of designs, as women could wear more comfortable corsets at home while wearing tighter corsets at a ball. This plays a striking contrast to a suffocating torture machine one may imagine after watching shows like Bridgerton. A corset dress (also known as hobble corset because it produces similar restrictive effects to a hobble skirt) is a long corset. It is like an ordinary corset, but it is long enough to cover the legs, partially or totally. It thus looks like a dress, hence the name. A person wearing a corset dress can have great difficulty in walking up and down the stairs (especially if wearing high-heeled footwear) and may be unable to sit down if the boning is too stiff. How scary to live during that time! Geez just learning what was in some of the fabrics/fabric colors made at that time gives new meaning to the saying: Beauty hurts. Why not wear a Victorian bone corset while you are at it and have someone tighten you in? As a result I don't seek out gothic novels, but occasionally I will read a review that piques my curiosity enough that I decide to give it a try. That was certainly a good decision in the case of this book.The surge of celebrities wearing corsets may be in style for them, but that didn’t necessarily cause the current popularity of corsets. As many celebrities wore them to award shows and the Met Gala, which is notorious for its large spectrum of anomalous outfits, it wasn’t considered clothing one would wear normally. For the public, corsets became somewhat associated with these outlandish celebrity outfits Originally these corsets were made out of cloth and silk but over time the aristocratic ladies started to reinforce their corsets with bones and tusks. The garment continued to evolve and pieces of wood and metal were also attached to most corsets to create more structure.