History's Runway: A Red Sateen Corset, 1883

Corset of Leather and Whale Bone
England, 1883
The Victoria & Albert Museum

In the early 1870s, women’s fashions were changing, and, of course, men found new ways to torture ladies in their quest for beauty.  During this period, as the mildly uncomfortable crinoline was replaced by the incredibly cumbersome bustle, corsets changed shape.  While a wasp-ish waist was always in fashion, the fullness of a crinoline naturally made a woman’s waist look narrower.  But, enter the bustle which, in short, added girth to just the rear of a woman.  So, of course, in order to maintain the look of a narrow waist, corsets were redesigned to make them even more barbaric.

In order to achieve the fashionable slender silhouette, corsets became much longer and  rigid to conceal the layers of underwear, including the chemise and petticoat, which were worn beneath.

This red serge corset—built in 1883 of strips of covered whalebone--is cut from separate pieces and reinforced with leather. Whalebone is strong yet flexible (hey, it holds up a whale, doesn’t it?) and therefore seemed well-suited to shaping the body, essentially creating a cage around the torso, enclosing the upper body and accentuating the bust and hips.

The spoon-shaped, steel front piece is wider at the bottom than the top. This was supposedly meant to equalize pressure on the abdomen, making the corset more comfortable. In reality, however, it made the contraption more restricting as the corset could be pulled in more at the waist.