Corset History

Corset History

The word corset is derived from old French "corset" being a diminutive of "body".


History of the corset

The origins of the corset is lost in antiquity. Women of ancient civilizations such as Crete, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Syria, wore a kind of corset to lift the bust, waist or refine sometimes also for certain sports that require support or constricting clothing.

But it was not until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that the use of corset spread like a garment worn by all women, regardless of social position. As shown in the Renaissance paintings, these early corsets were particularly stiff and uncomfortable, but its end was always the same (keep an upright posture, raising or flattening the bust, waist tuning) the skeleton of the garment was armed with iron rods or wood, whalebone also. Then the women and did use and "abuse" of the corset: tuning their waists to extreme measures.

The trend began in Spain and France over the late seventeenth century, here corsets became more elaborate and were an essential part of the image with voluminous skirts, coats and small ring woven into the corset pushing the chest up, the ideal image of a voluptuous woman in a social event. In the seventeenth century the garment was also used by men, boys and girls as young as 7 or 8 years, mainly in the higher social classes. The practice of "tight lacing" (string set) was too much popular, and remained in the coming years. The paintings of the time graphically realize that these ladies waists heavily carved pulling the laces of his corset.In the middle of s. Corsets XVIII was again the center of fashion as it did the transition to the famous Victorian corsets. Contrary to common conceptions of Victorian corsets, not all women pressed their corsets so far, let alone daily. Nor stirred his ribs surgically or tuberculosis caused them or hurt them in the column. However, the continued use of extremely tight corset, I could get to deform the lung cavity, and cause the removal of organs. The ladies of high society reserved the "tight lacing" for formal events such as dances or social gatherings. And in these moments was when, if exceeded, they can cause fainting (by reducing the rib cage that deprived the lungs receive the air necessary).The French Revolution brought down the disused garment as well as dictating the mandate of the Academy of Arts and Sciences: well-dressed women of France should not wear shoes, socks, corset or stockings. This attitude was not as long life, the French women looking for the ideal of Greek beauty again take up the corset to help in the effort. Although Napoleon hated the corset, which he called "The murderer of the human race", his two wives wore the garment. The reason for the hatred of Napoleon to the corset was political-military because he believed that the garment had negative effects on fertility and birth intentions massive military needed for future soldiers of the homeland.After World War II, women joined reacted against the requirement to emphasize the bust and hips, equality between the sexes became a feminine demand but the result was that the ladies masculinizaron and made efforts to look more and more the man. The hair was shortened, the shapes are smoothed, hips and all dissembled disturbing bulge that could interfere with differentiation was hidden. The fashion was short and the ladies took up the habit again to emphasize its forms in relation to the fall of a number of sexual taboos.

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