Edwardian Corsetry Fashion History
Fashions
favoured the mature woman in the Edwardian era. It
exploited the curves of an
elaborately corseted figure. The Edwardian era was the last period in fashion
history when the
mature female
figure was every man's ideal.
Buxom ladies tortured their flesh to achieve an
hour-glass figure. Young or
old, all laced themselves so
tightly that they distorted their
figures into the exaggerated 'S' shape associated
with the era.
The
corsets favoured in the 1890s and 1900s were the 'health'
corsets initially designed to aid
women to breathe freely.
 Mme. Gaches-Sarraute
of Paris, a corsetiere
who studied medicine, designed a corset intended to aid health
instead of endangering it.
She
introduced the straight fronted busk which was aimed
at leaving the thorax free, but at
the same time designed to support and raise the
abdomen instead of compressing it
and forcing it downwards.
She rightly, aimed
at removing pressure from the
vital female organs and dispensed with the
constricting curve at the waist
which was customary in all previous corsets.
Medical books of the era gave images like these which suggested changes to the internal organs and skeletal frame
due to wearing over tightened corsetry. The Edwardians and
Victorians were quite capable of a little artistic licence too.
Ladies
would at last have been free to move and breathe easily, but the craze
for a small waist persisted and
its easy achievement was reinforced by the availability
of a maid. Pulled very tightly the
"health" corset produced a hand span waist, but
at the same time the straight
fronted busk forced the bust prominently forward, whilst
throwing back the hips, creating
the 'S' shape characteristic until 1907.
~
The
general
impression given was of an
enormous one piece bosom, referred to as a monobosom. Because
the bust was largely unsupported, ladies began to wear various styles of
bust bodices and added
other extra padding, even handkerchiefs, to increase the frontage
which hung low over the
waist.
The bust bodice was in use by 1905 in England and was the earliest
20th
century bra, but never got patented. One style of a monobosom health bust bodice
1902.
 After
1907 the wasp waist became less acute
and corsets became straighter.
 The
corset of 1907 achieved a long slim silhouette. The corset started just above
the waist and fitted well down the thighs. They often had elastic gusset inserts
which were supposed to increase comfort level.
As ever fashion won out and to
match the new longer slimmer dress styles of 1912, corsets increased in
length and almost reached the knees, making sitting down quite difficult.
Veblen's
comments on the corset is particularly relevant to the Edwardian woman:
'....
the corset is, in economic theory substantially a mutilation, undergone
for the purpose of lowering the subjects' vitality and
rendering her permanently and
obviously unfit for work.... the
corset, and the general disregard
of the wearer's comfort which
is an obvious feature of all
civilized women's apparel, are so
many items of evidence to the
effect that in the modern civilised
scheme of life the woman is still
in theory, the economic dependent
of the man, - that,.... she is
still the man's Chattel..... '
and further on he writes:-
'The
women of poorer classes,
especially of the rural population, do
not habitually use it except as a
holiday luxury. Among these
classes, the women have to work
hard, and it avails them little
in the way of a pretence of
leisure to so crucify the flesh in
every day life. The holiday use of
the contrivance is due to
imitation of a higher-class canon
of decency.... .it may be said
that the corset persists in great
measure through the period of
snobbery..... it continues in use
wherever and so long as it serves
its purpose as an evidence of
honorific leisure by arguing physical
disability in the wearer.'
Veblen's
theories aptly apply to the Edwardian lady, who was quite helpless in
many ways once laced into her
corset. Engagement in sports was certainly difficult,
although not impossible;
engagement in housework equally difficult and undesirable.
Wearing the corset merited the
assistance of another; a personal maid who could
pull and tug at the lacing,
reducing the normal circumference of the waist from 25
or 27 inches to 20 inches. The
corset was functional in that it prevented any function in everyday chores.
On a
young body with about two years training a handspan 16 inch waist which some
dressmakers considered
ideal, could be achieved. When
people wonder today how past women had such small waists they forget that those
women worked at wearing a corset daily in the same way as a woman today visits a
Gym to tone her thighs.
The
corset for the Edwardian woman was then, a status symbol showing she belonged to
the leisure class.
In
1911 elastic belts were first worn and were frequently adopted by younger women
when they were active during the First World War.
About
1910 the bust bodice became essential and could not be left off as less support was worn. By
1914
a simple
darted band a few inches wide with fine straps and worn under the bust and
covering the nipples was an alternative to other
underwear. It was a forerunner of the brassiere. The exact date of the
forerunners of the official bra designed by
Mary Phelps Jacobs in 1913 is
thought to be about 1908. Obviously there was a need for a separating bust
support at that time, but several countries maintain that they had versions of
the bra before her invention. However it was
Mary Phelps Jacobs who got
the record book attention because she was astute and clever enough to patent the
item in
1914, under the name of Caresse Crosby.
Link to Bras and Girdles Before 1950.
Once
the First World War was over, women's attitudes and fashions shifted. There could
be no return to the heavily boned corset as it had been in former times. The
world was ready for bras and girdles.
See 6 Edwardian Fashion
Plates
Sept 2004
For specific eras about shape and body manipulation click below:-
For superb Victorian or Edwardian
re-enactment costumes in USA, try the reproduction costume range at:
Footnote:-This page was partially based on content I
updated from a dissertation I first wrote in 1979. The
dissertation a Comparative Study Between the Rôles of the Edwardian Hostess
and the Edwardian Seamstress looked at the symbolism behind Edwardian dress
and the rôles of women in Edwardian society. In particular it examined the rôle
and high lifestyle of Edwardian society hostesses compared with the degrading
working conditions and impoverished lifestyle of the seamstresses that made
clothes for hostesses. Home
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