While it would be unseemly and immodest to show Intensity my corset, here is a half corset made to celebrate my Diamond Jubilee in 1887.
The corset is made from a grey/green sateen and is lined with white twill. It features both string and cane cording, which gives the corset its support. The wide Barmen edging was specially designed to match the garment. It is lightly boned above the waist with whalebone, has a spoon busk and strong, flat steels supporting the back lacing. The top edge of the corset is trimmed with lace decorated with crown motifs,
1) What is a Corset?
For hundreds of years women (and men) have employed restricting devices to mould their figure to the fancy of the day. In Queen Victoria's time, the corset reigned supreme - a body-shaping undergarment gripping the torso from bosom to hips. Expected to actually hold a woman up, it was stiffened with 24 steel or whalebone vertical stays. It closed at the front with metal fasteners and laced at the back as tightly as two maids or a strong husband could manage.
2) The Shape Must Undulate
While other centuries favoured the cone, the tube, the triangle, the Victorians went mad for the hourglass figure with a "wasp" waist, so tiny a man could circle it with his two hands. Remember Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, so proud of her 17 inch waist? Well Scarlett fell short of the ideal 16 inch hand span and a 13 inch waist, according to legend, was sometimes managed, all, apparently, without the women's heads exploding.
3) For the Mechanical Engineers
The pressure applied to women's bodies to attain this effect ranged from 20 to 80 pounds per square inch.
4) Too Weak to Stand Up By Themselves
Since women were considered too fragile and delicate to exist without help, the corset was considered a medical necessity to support the female body so that she could sit, stand and walk without falling over. Little girls, as young as five, were put into corsets and kept there for the rest of there lives, their future contours dictated by this unforgiving underwear.
