The-BlackBerry.com Brings You a Brief History of Corsets

Corsets bring up memories of 18th century maidens in bosom-spilling dresses at fancy parties. For hundreds of years, women allowed their shapes to be moulded, constricted, confined and contorted by corsets. Whether it was to get smaller waists, fuller bosoms, draw attention away from overly large bottoms, the corset is perhaps one of the most fascinating fashion garments at all times.

The very name inspires a twin mix of feelings females are all too familiar with – the pain of wearing a fashion combined with the pleasure of feeling so gorgeous in it. While 18th century corsets may have held true to this standard, by the 19th century, technology had paved the way for more comfortable undergarments for women. By the last century, unfortunately, the corset faded almost completely away.

Today, corsets are extremely popular as lingerie. At The-BlackBerry.com, we take your beauty seriously. With that in mind, the next time you don a fanciful corset, think of us all who’ve gone before you who “laced up for beauty.”

Types of Corsets: Corsets Through the Years

Following are some of the different types of corsets women – and men! – have worn throughout the years.

Iron Corsets: Thank goodness corsets have progressed beyond this point. Iron corsets were popular during the Victorian era of the 1500s. It is believed that iron corsets were worn by men and women, but only on dress occasions. The dresses worn by women of this time were heavy, as was the iron of their corsets. For men of this era, iron corsets served as perfect chest armour, as death by stabbing in the heart was popular at this time. Ouch!

Stays: Corsets known as stays were popular from the mid-16th century until almost the 20th century. Stay corsets were worn as an outer covering of a woman’s dress. Laced to the waist, it was different from more conventional corsets, which went beyond the hips. Stay corsets were precursors to what we now call a bra.

Straight-front Corsets: These were also referred to as swan-bill corsets and S-curve corsets. Popular from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth century, it is so named because of the rigid, straight busk that traverses its centre.

This is perhaps the first time some relief came into the fashion of corsets. It was designed to be more comfortable and less restricting. The straight-front corset was made popular by one Inez Gaches-Sarraute, a corsetiere with a medical degree in medicine.

The Birth of the Brassiere: The suggested changes made by corsetiere Gaches-Sarraute were the pre-cursors of what lead to the brassiere. Namely, she advised two changes: (i) That corsets begin below the bosom so that breasts were freed from constriction; and (ii) that corsets support the abdomen area.

Although the second part of the equation didn’t quite work out as planned, the fact that the uncomfortableness of corsets were addressed at all got some relief for wearers – and got us on the road to the pain-free brassiere we enjoy today.