Born on this date in 1519 was Catherine de Medici, the wife of French king Henry II. She is credited with inventing the corset, because she banned women with thick waists from her court. 10 things you might not know about corsets:
Actually, Catherine can’t have invented corsets, because women in ancient Greece wore them. Researchers have found evidence that corsets existed in the Minoan civilization of early Crete. The oldest depiction of one is on a figurine of the Minoan Snake goddess, and linen and wool corsets were also found in the tombs of human women in Crete.
The word corset derives from the Old French word “cors” meaning body. The literal translation is “little body”.
The craft of corset construction is known as corsetry.
In earlier times, they were known by other names. Similar garments in the late 16th century were called "a pair of bodys", and in the 17th and 18th century they were known as “stays”.
The most common use of corsets is to slim the body and make it conform to a fashionable silhouette. Hence a corset worn in Elizabethan times would be different to the ones worn by Victorian women, because fashions change. Victorian women didn’t necessarily want to make their waists smaller, just to make them look smaller compared to their hips. Padding around the hips was common as well.
Corsets were never worn directly next to the skin, but over a loose garment known as a shift or chemise. This was not only for comfort, but because corsets weren’t easily washable.
Small children would often be dressed in corsets, but this was to do with helping their bones grow properly rather than fashion. People believed that corsets prevented rickets. Another health myth the Victorians bought into was that it was very bad for you to have cold Kidneys, and a corset would keep your kidneys warm.
Warm kidneys aside, wearing tightly laced corsets was actually not good for you. They decreased lung capacity which made exercising harder. A corseted woman might get out of breath when doing even moderate exercise like dancing. Doctors of the time discouraged women from exercising for this reason. Corsets were widely thought to contribute to tuberculosis. They’d also constrict the stomach and digestive organs and cause problems in that area, too.
Napoleon Bonaparte hated corsets and actively campaigned to get rid of them. Not because he believed women should be comfortable and able to move, but because he thought they caused infertility and were therefore responsible for the decline of the human race.
As world wars led to women taking on men’s jobs, corsets fell out of fashion entirely. They are no longer everyday wear, although they might be worn as a fashion statement.
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