[Illustration: The Corset in the 18th Century.]
1. The origin of the corset is lost in remote antiquity. The figures of the
early Egyptian women show clearly an artificial shape of the waist produced
by some style of corset. A similar style of dress must also have prevailed
among the ancient Jewish maidens; for Isaiah, in calling upon the women to
put away their personal adornments, says: "Instead of a girdle there shall
be a rent, and instead of a stomacher (corset) a girdle of sackcloth."
2. Homer also tells us of the cestus or girdle of Venus, which was borrowed
by the haughty Juno with a view to increasing her personal attractions,
that Jupiter might be a more tractable and orderly husband.
3. Coming down to the later times, we find the corset was used in France
and England as early as the 12th century.
4. The most extensive and extreme use of the corset occurred in the 16th
century, during the reign of Catherine de Medici of France and Queen
Elizabeth of England. With Catherine de Medici a thirteen-inch waist
measurement was considered the standard of fashion, while a thick waist was
an abomination. No lady could consider her figure of proper shape unless
she could span her waist with her two hands. To produce this result a
strong rigid corset was worn night and day until the waist was laced down
to the required size. Then over this corset was placed the steel apparatus
shown in the illustration on next page. This corset-cover reached from the
hip to the throat, and {102} produced a rigid figure over which the dress
would fit with perfect smoothness.
5. During the 18th century corsets were largely made from a species of
leather known as "Bend," which was not unlike that used for shoe soles, and
measured nearly a quarter of an inch in thickness. One of the most popular
corsets of the time was the corset and stomacher shown in the accompanying
illustration.
[Illustration: Steel Corset worn in Catherine's time.]
6. About the time of the French Revolution a reaction set in against tight
lacing, and for a time there was a return to the early classical Greek
costume. This style of dress prevailed, with various modifications, until
about 1810, when corsets and tight lacing again returned with threefold
fury. Buchan, a prominent writer of this period, says that it was by no
means uncommon to see "a mother lay her daughter down upon the carpet, and,
placing her foot upon her back, break half a dozen laces in tightening her
stays."
7. It is reserved to our own time to demonstrate that corsets and tight
lacing do not necessarily go hand in hand. Distortion and feebleness are
not beauty. A proper proportion should exist between the size of the waist
and the breadth of the shoulders and hips, and if the waist is diminished
below this proportion, it suggests disproportion and invalidism rather than
grace and beauty.
8. The perfect corset is one which possesses just that degree of rigidity
which will prevent it from wrinkling, but will at the same time allow
freedom in the bending and twisting of the body. Corsets boned with
whalebone, horn or steel are necessarily stiff, rigid and uncomfortable.
After a few days' wear the bones or steels become bent and set in position,
or, as more frequently happens, they break and cause injury or discomfort
to the wearer.
9. About seven years ago an article was discovered for the stiffening of
corsets, which has revolutionized the corset industry of the world. This
article is manufactured from {103} the natural fibers of the Mexican Ixtle
plant, and is known as Coraline. It consists of straight, stiff fibers like
bristles bound together into a cord by being wound with two strands of
thread passing in opposite directions. This produces an elastic fiber
intermediate in stiffness between twine and whalebone. It cannot break, but
it possesses all the stiffness and flexibility necessary to hold the corset
in shape and prevent its wrinkling.
We congratulate the ladies of to-day upon the advantages they enjoy over
their sisters of two centuries ago, in the forms and the graceful and easy
curves of the corsets now made as compared with those of former times.
[Illustration: Forms of Corsets in the time of Elizabeth of England.]
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