[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 produced a
rigid figure over which the dress would fit with perfect smoothness.
[Illustration: Steel Corset worn in Catherine's time.]
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.
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 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]
[Illustration: Forms of Corsets in the time of Elizabeth of England.]
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN CORSET.]
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