Greetings, fellow historio-medico aficionados, and welcome to another installment of CPP Curiosities, The Center for Education's semi-regular series on interesting or unusual episodes in medical history.
This time around, we're happy to welcome CFE intern Joanna D'Avella who's here to offer their insights into the history of corsets.
Take it away, Jo!
Within our museum you will find two skeletons side by side and divided by a corset. These skeletons present the difference between an individual who wore a corset for a large portion of their life and one who may have never experienced one. At first glance, you will notice the elevated rib cage that looks as though the corset is still being worn, even in death. People still wear the garment today despite the health risks.
An hourglass silhouette has been a sought after shape in fashion for hundreds of years, which has had some dangerous consequences. Dating back to the 15th century, corsets have been in fashion longer than most undergarments. According to an article for the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, early corsets were “made out of rigid materials such as whalebone, horn, and buckram and are referred to as ‘whalebone bodies'. A stay or busk is placed vertically in the center of the torso to keep it straight. Commonly worn with shoulder straps, the corset extends the length of the torso, stopping just above the pelvic bone.” Over time, designers used bundles of reeds, and later plastic and metal, to achieve the snatched look, ditching the shoulder straps for tight laced backing. To purchase a corset, a person would need to go to a specific store to be sized to take maximum advantage of the corset’s waist-reducing abilities.
After a person put on a corset, it would then be tightened and secured through ribbons and hooks, either by the wearer or an assistant to achieve the desired shape, possibly accompanied by exclamations of “suck it in!,” or “I can’t breathe.” It is difficult for a modern observer to believe that corsets could be marketed to children and pregnant mothers, but there were corsets designed to cater to these crowds.
Marketing and Mirroring
“Manufacturers did indeed develop this profitable concept, and by 1929 Corsets & Brassieres included a monthly ’Junior Department’ in each issue. Juniors were girls between 12 and 18 years of age, and the column often dealt with the special care required for their commercial rite of passage.” Fight 376
Children model behaviors after cultural and societal norms they observe, particularly through parents and those whom they trust. Children would have been accustomed to seeing adults using corsets, later experiencing the societal pressures to follow the established fashion trend. Once a child was indoctrinated into the fashion trend, they were more likely to purchase and continue to purchase corsets for themselves and their children. Therefore, for those who sold corsets, starting their clientele young made for a prolonged retail experience. Children were also influenced by the adults surrounding them, such as their parents, shop owners, fitters, and indirectly from the fashion “icons” of the day. Not dissimilar to exposure to social media and the “ideal” standards of western beauty, children experienced toxic beauty standards from a very young age. As Dr. Jill Fields explained the painful process of fitting a child into a corset in a 1999 article:
"Each child is fitted as her individual need requires and for this work there are special fitters trained to care for the children. The younger girls do not like being disrobed and fitted, but now that the new silhouette is so apparent even the 12-year-olds are offering much less resistance”
Reviewing articles, descriptions, and advertisements for corsets, particularly those directed at children, one ponders why a child would need one. It is no surprise that children would be uncomfortable with the process, let alone the results. After a combination of marketing and the emergence of the hourglass silhouette as the “ideal” female form likely contributed to reducing a child’s resistance to the practice. This could be attributed to the successful marketing of the corset by fitters, shopkeepers, and parents; a surrender to the garment; or a fashionable Stockholm syndrome. As the silhouette became a part of the child's everyday life, having few to no breaks from the garment throughout their adolescence and adulthood became easier.
Maternity corsets
Even pregnancy was no excuse to retire the corset. If anything, it was a reason to buy a new one, and the concept of maternity corsets came with the popularization of corsets themselves. Pregnancy is a body altering experience; as the fetus grows, the mother’s organs shift to make room for growth. Maternity corsets were designed with fashion in mind, so that the expecting parent could look their best with the potential added bonuses of a “pregnancy glow” or hiding the pregnancy in the early stages. Hiding the pregnancy in its early stages could be due to fear, anxiety, or shame associated with the “bulge” in those stages, as the individual may or may not have wanted the pregnancy.
Regarding the physical toll of corsets, contemporary standards placed the blame not the garment itself but how the garment was fitted. Fields explains that “utilizing the strategy of incorporation, the new 1920s emphasis on the science and art of corset-fitting acknowledged past discomfort, but laid the blame on the fit, not on the corset itself.” (Fields p. 369) Medical concerns were at the forefront of this fashion trend, even in the early iterations. However, it was easier for fashion designers to blame the fit of the clothing rather than the clothing itself for the health problems that their customers experienced. The use of the corset for fashionable purposes strained internal organs without a child developing, let alone with a fetus present.
“Shame upon the fashions when they distort and disease the bodies...”
(Taliaferro, pg 9)
Corsets are not just a modern medical concern; physicians have been concerned for hundreds of years about the effects the garment has on the body. E Anthony, a contributor to the British Medical Journal states that “In an old female, whose thorax was so contracted below as to present the appearance of a barrel, and bore witness to the use of a very tight corset, the cartilage of the seventh rib…was in contact with that of the opposite rib…” (Anthony, pg 4) Medical issues extended from the shifting of the rib cage to the displacement of vital organs. Anthony goes on to explain the overuse of the garment may also cause the displacement of the uterus (Anthony, pg 4), uterine disease due to pressures (Anthony pg.5), and loss of muscle due to weakness. According to Anthony, wearing a corset during pregnancy can cause preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication caused by high blood pressure, due to prolonged pressure from the corset. Preeclampsia can lead to water retention in the limbs, can be detrimental to the pregnancy.
The Modern Understanding of Corsets and Their Use
There are few modern examples of maternity corsets and corsetry has largely shifted from fashion to medical applications. New research has linked medical corsets as a potential aid in treating scoliosis, lower back pain, and other such ailments. It is important to note that these corsets are designed for patients to treat their conditions, not to create an hourglass figure. Nevertheless, shapewear is still available in the form of waist trainers.
The main difference between the use of waist trainers and corsets is user intention. Corsets manipulate the body into an hourglass shape. Meanwhile, waist trainers are designed to shrink the waist alongside exercise. Side effects associated with waist trainers are similar to corsets, including difficulties breathing, nerve damage, weakened core, and weakened pelvic floor. Therefore, if an individual uses this product, it should not be worn excessively.
Since their creation, corsets have shaped the history of fashion as well as our perceptions of beauty. For centuries, people have longed for the iconic silhouette regardless of age, or stage of pregnancy. And even though marketing for corsets has shifted away from children and pregnant women, public beauty standards are still interlaced with the infamous fashion accessory.