I was sleazing down the side streets of the dark web when I came upon this tik tok vid of a young bubble gummer who's schtick was putting on a Victorian era corset. She didn't have a stitch of fat on her (she must have been 17 or 18) - and she was in tight jeans and a boob tube the way most young internet hotties and tarties are these days.
She had to fold her stomach almost in half - y'know that cleft line that women get above their belly buttons? Her abdomen literally folded along that as she stuffed herself into it! By the time she got herself into it, she had a waist smaller than Barbie's - it was ludicrously smaller too, and didn't look good at all.
If I were a man of that era, I would have flat out forbidden the women in my circle to wear stuff like that. When it comes to matters of sexuality... women are their own worst enemies.
Corsetry - depends on whether or not you are going for waist reduction(tight-lacing) or a foundation for the heavy skirts, petticoats, hoops and whatnot that were fashionable at the time. I follow several people who have dressed in historic costumes for a living. They point out that without a corset you could not comfortably wear the amount of fabric that is in one of those dresses for long periods of time. It's pretty interesting what goes into the making of one of those dress and supporting garments. Tight-lacing was usually only practice by 'ladies of the night', mistresses, courtesans or very vain women. The average woman didn't have time for such silliness with all they had to do everyday to care for their families.
ReplyDeleteI lace my wife's corset during RenFaire season and never look forward to it. I usually ha e to start over to get the right fit. Men's outfits are much less constraining.
DeleteYup. You will spend less time suiting up an astronaut for a space walk than a Victorian era woman would spend getting ready for her day. I always wondered about that - you'd see them indoors or out with no real cold weather clothing. They really didn't need it because of all the layers. It must have been absolute murder in warmer temps though...
ReplyDeletewarmer temps--thus the fainting couches and smelling salts
ReplyDeletethey started corsetting very young
in many cases the skeletons became malformed and organs also because of restriction
therefore more childbirth deaths
have seen medical books with drawings of skeletons malformed by corsetry