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gallery Well-Rounded A history of corsetry, from whalebone to Lycra. Updated Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010, at 10:25 AM ET
In the late Middle Ages, women wore tightly laced bodices stiffened with paste to control and smooth their figures. In the 16th century, however, as the great voyages of discovery across the Atlantic revealed teeming new whale fisheries and rich silks and velvets requiring firmer foundations were imported from Italy and Spain, whalebone became a popular and common material for shaping both body and clothing. Also known as baleen, whalebone is not a bone at all, but the keratinous material found around the upper jaws of baleen whales, used to filter plankton and krill. It is robust but flexible, and can be cut into very narrow strips along the grain. Whalebones were inserted into the lining of outer garments, creating whalebone bodices or "bodies" that molded the torso into a rigid and conical V-shape. In the 17th century, these whalebone linings became distinct, separate understructures, known as "stays." The word corset was not used in its modern sense until the early 1800s, when corsetry--and the pronounced hourglass figure it created--came to dominate both fashion and social discourse on women's health and morality. To continue reading, click here. Eleri Lynn is a fashion curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and was the assistant curator of the V & A's major exhibition The Golden Age of Couture.Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Europeans Are Finally Slashing Their Cushy Government Programs. Will Americans Do the Same? Five Smart Compromises Pro-Lifers Can Make in the Abortion Debate Explainer: Why Do Auctioneers Talk Like That? | Advertisement |
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Culturebox: Well-Rounded
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