Vigo County Historical Society

When corsets were fashionable

The image of Scarlett O’Hara lacing her corset to attain a 17-inch waist made 20th century audiences wince.

For women of the 19th century, the corset was a necessary piece of underclothing to shape and constrict the torso. No dress could be worn without it. Therefore, women were dependent upon it in order to wear fashionable attire.

Critics against tight corsets were common from the late 17th century onward. One book which addressed the "corset question" was "The Freaks of Fashion" published in London around 1870. It covered the changes in corsets and crinoline "from remote periods to the present time" and professed in its introduction to be an "objective" treatment of the corset debate.

The "Freaks of Fashion" is on display in the Dressmaker’s Shop in the historical museum. In reality, "Freaks of Fashion" supports the conventional fashions of the day. It is steeped with testimony which repudiates against the corset. The author concludes that the corset is here to stay "so long as an elegant and attractive figure is an object worth achieving."

Any unhealthful consequences from tight lacing are faulted with the wearer not the "unfortunate corset" which generally gets all the blame. The book proceeds to describe a "corset equation" based on height and breadth of shoulders. These measurements ultimately determine the proper circumference the waist should be "to meet the requirement of elegance." For the average sized lady, a 17- to 19-inch waist (measured from outside the dress) was considered aesthetically pleasing and safe.

Although literature against tight lacing persisted, corsets reinforced with whalebone and metal were worn until the 1920s when straight, unwaisted clothes became fashionable.