Hello my beautiful doves. I'm sure a lot of you, if you watch the same kind
of videos I do on YouTube, have noticed the obsession that the
fashion historian/historical costumer community has with corsets. Whether that be wearing them, sewing them, myth debunking, or my favorite category,
which I feel like I belong to the most, berating period dramas for not having them
or wearing them correctly. - Oh, brother, this guy stinks! The history of the corset,
especially in the Victorian Era has been widely covered all across YouTube. And I'm not really
someone who wants to do a subject that someone else
has already talked about. You know, there's so many other things
that people haven't talked about and there's just so much
information out there. I'd rather just put my time into giving a
video that no one else has really done before, or a very small group of
people have done already. One of my favorite things
about fashion history, though, is recognizing trends
across the centuries and looking back at past styles
that are in fashion today. So, for today's video, I want to explore with
you all the modern history of the corset. So, basically, anything from
the 20th Century onwards. And I also want to talk about the most recent
corset comeback in the last couple of years. This is going to be kind of brief, because I'm basically condensing
a hundred year time period into a couple of minutes, so... Take that with a grain of salt. I also highly recommend reading "The Corset: A Cultural History",
by Valerie Steele. This book was my biggest resource
for this section of the video and it's just a very
conclusive resource overall. So, let's start at the very beginning: In the 1900s, the corset was going very strong. It was still super resilient! The only thing is that, gradually,
the idea of sport and exercise was starting to take traction. Like, specifically,
sport and exercise for women. And also, French designers
started to create more... Loose shapeless garments. Paul Poiret, a famous couturier, created garments that look very reminiscent
of the Directoire silhouette of the 1790s, and he also took a lot of styles from Asia,
such as robes and wide pantaloons. Another couturier, Madeleine Vionnet
claimed to be one of the first to get rid-- Oh, sorry, no. She claimed to be THE FIRST
to get rid of corsets, showcasing a collection of
uncorseted mannequins in 1907. Just so you know, Poiret and
Chanel have also claimed to be the first to get rid of corsets, so... Who's to say
who's the one who really did it? - [Both] It's still a mistery! In Madeleine's words, she said: "I have never been able to
tolerate corsets myself. "Why should I have inflicted
them on other women?" The silhouette in vogue was moving from the pigeon-breasted small wasted look
of the Edwardian Era, into the very straight
slim silhouette by the 1920s. And because of this new loose silhouette,
boned rigid corsets were losing favor. Slimness is all relative, though. I feel like a lot of people think
1920s women were really thin because of fashion illustrations
of the time period, but in actuality, if you look at the
miss America winners of the 1920s, they don't look that different
from most women today. It's hard to say how many women exactly
adopted this style at the beginning, because of deep seated issues
with the corset, like Madeleine Vionnet, versus how many women just adopted
the trend because it was in style and they wanted to stay fashionable. But after World War One, that's kind of when we start seeing fashion as
a vehicle for changing socio-political ideals. And this was definitely emphasized by the
lifestyle that young women started to take up: Dancing, smoking,
having sex more freely, and, very scandalously,
arguing with men. The term "corset" was,
to no surprise, starting to grow a bad stigma. As we entered the post-war Era, young women of the time
started to view the corset as this restrictive unhealthy garment
that belonged to the old regime of their mothers and grandmothers. By the way, I'm talking about
boned corsets right now. I'll get to elasticized ones in a bit, but the corsets worn in the Edwardian
and Victorian eras were boned. And young women were turned off
by the rigidness of these old corsets, because they inhibited them
from being able to dance and to exercise, which, as I said before,
was becoming a higher priority. In the book "The Secrets of Distinctive Dress",
the author Mary Brooks Picken writes: "In days gone by,
women of leisure did not exercise. "Few of them lived past the age of 45. "Why? Because they wore ugly,
tight corsets that gave no freedom "and they were so frail, so delicate,
that when illness assailed them. "They were as susceptible to it
as a drunkard is to pneumonia". Some doctors also sensationalize the health dangers of bone corsets in
advice columns and newspapers; but, obviously, we know now that what
they were saying was misinformed, because misogyny has led the female
body in becoming a scientific mystery. So, to keep up with the times,
manufacturers started producing corsets advertised as "foundation garments". These garments were elasticized
instead of boned, and companies, manufacturers,
started advertising them as a way to stay thin
to match the new stylish silhouette. Because, if you were curvy, sucks for you. You were the hot thing 10 years ago, but now get with the program. We've moved into
a new style of dress, so that means we've moved
into a new standard of beauty. And you got to put on a girdle
if you want to create those straight lines that you genetically don't have. So "control garments"
never really went out of style, because body standards as a concept
never went out of style, unfortunately. In march, 1938, Fortune published
an article called "The Corset" and in it they say: "At least 60% of American women
above the age of 15 are overweight "or grievously lack symmetry
in the vicinity of bosom, waist or hips. ""They must -assuming they are
vain enough and rich enough to care- "wear some sort of corset regardless
of what the prevailing mode may be". The 1930s saw a growing interest
in a more form-fitting silhouette. This return to a more feminine silhouette was in part because of the
starlets of the silver screen. Wartime crisis meant that women were
expected to wear more utilitarian garments, because they had to take up jobs and this led to a nostalgia for more
extravagant Victorian silhouettes. Kind of similar to how cottagecore
was really popular, especially last year, because everyone was stuck at home
and that led to a lot more escapist fantasies. After World War II,
Dior delivered on this romantic nostalgia and his new look collection portrayed
a new hyper feminine silhouette with an emphasis on the hourglass shape, AKA, perky boobs, wide hips
and a teeny teeny waist. Many of these new look dresses
and copycat dresses were designed to be worn over waist pinchers,
which were small boned corsets. Throughout the 1950s
and well into the 1960s, most women, regardless of their weight,
were still wearing foundation garments and this is because advertisers
started also advertising the "health benefits"
and the "youthful benefits" of wearing a foundation garment. Women were also concerned
about looking respectable and looking respectable meant
that your body, like, your flesh, couldn't move. Men are allowed to jiggle
while they walk, because they're men, but women have to be stiff as a board,
but also supple and soft because... You tell me why. One woman said that she wore panty
girdles in the ninth grade in 1962 because, quote: "God forbid someone should
see something move". End quote. During the late 60s, society started
to shift away from foundation garments this also coincided with when the second
wave of feminism started to take traction. Instead, women started prioritizing
diet and exercise more heavily. The hippie movement
also helped with this shift. The hippies believed that fashion
was conformist and artificial, and instead they called for honest
and natural modes of dress. And then, in the 70s, that's when we started seeing
the corset as an over garment, worn on top of clothes,
or sometimes worn just as clothes, most popularly by the punks Punk culture started in both the
US and the UK around the same time, but they have slightly somewhat
different origin stories, from what I've read: In the UK, punk was mainly a movement
of frustrated working-class young people who were reacting against the
economic depression at the time. In the US, punk emerged
generally among the middle class, who were anti-mainstream,
anti-suburban American culture. A lot of the popular styles
that the punks embrace were based on the styles that
punk rock bands were wearing. The 'Ramones', for instance, wore shredded Levi's 505 jeans
and black leather jackets; and Richard Hell, the guitarist
from the band 'Television' is credited for the t-shirt safety pin look. Obviously, it's super hard to track
what person was the first person to wear any kind of style, but because
of the publicity that these musicians had, a lot of people who adopted styles, adopted them because these
musicians were wearing them. According to the photographer Jenny Lens,
that is a great name for a photographer, she says that: "Punk fashion stems from just
not having that much money". She said the holes in Joey's knees
were from wear and tear and Dee Dee Ramone wore a jacket
with frayed wrists, also from wear. In her words: "It was shameful back then to run
around with holes in your jeans, "and the 'Ramones' said,
'fuck that, that's who we are!' " Young women who belonged in
these alternative subcultures started to wear corsets
as over garments and in general underwear as outerwear
as a symbol of rebellion and sexual perversity. The mainstream 70s look also
championed, loose, flowy clothing and so wearing something tight
and constricting was very anti-mainstream. Also, because of mass misinformation about
corsets and how "oppressive" they are to women-- You know, this misinformation
still circulates around today, so of course it was
circulating around in the 70s. Because of this, and because corsets
were no longer part of the mainstream, a lot of young women in these
alternative subcultures started to wear them
as a way of reclamation. The sexual perversity factor, of course,
comes from the fact that corsets have a long history in being
part of fetish communities. For instance, the
"English Women's Domestic Magazine", which ran from 1867 to 1874 is full of stories on Victorian tight lacing, and many historians believe that the
submissions were mostly sexual fantasies. In summary, as stated by Patricia Maeda,
a woman's wear editor at Fashion Snoops: "By showing the corset as
outerwear rather than underwear, "it was like they were making
what was previously unseen, seen". Now, of course, I have to
mention Vivienne Westwood. She's a British fashion designer who is
also like, the matriarch of punk fashion. In the 70s and early 80s,
she designed clothing at a boutique she owned with her
partner Malcolm McLaren. It went under several
name changes and revivals, until 1984 when the store closed. In her boutique days, she made
rock and roll inspired clothing, punk clothing and fetish wear. In the late 80s, she started making
corsets for her couture collections under her own name. Vivienne Westwood is one
of my favorite designers! As someone who loves 17th and 18th
Century European fashion history. She uses references from that time period
so much in her work and it's amazing! Her most popular corsets today are the corsets with Rococo Era
painting prints on them. These resell for like upwards
of four thousand dollars now, so... For now, I can only dream
of the day I can wear one. The beauty of this corset is,
of course, the amazing shape. They're designed after 18th Century stays,
so they actually flatten and raise the bosom. Jean Paul Gaultier is
another big designer who contributed to the late
20th Century corset revival. His most popular corset is probably this one that
he created for Madonna's 1990 Blond Ambition Tour. His corset is based on the 1950s elasticized
bustier with the cone-shaped cups. Gaultier is a designer who emphasizes sexuality and blends masculinity and
femininity in a lot of his designs. Madonna wearing the
corset with a tailored suit really drove the message home that the corset
was her symbol of female sexual empowerment. Obviously Vivienne Westwood
and Gaultier's influence the core set trickled down through
the fashion industry as a trend. The corset had a brief comeback in the 2000s
with celebrities including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Janet Jackson rocking them. These corsets definitely took on a more
boudoir satin and ribboned adorned look, but this is probably because of the
success of the 2001 movie 'Moulin Rouge'. According to a Refinery29 article, the corset comeback started on the Spring/Summer
2015 runways with Gautier and Givenchy. Then, in fall 2016,
Alexander McQueen sent down the runway a collection of
embroidered gowns with skeleton boning and Prada, Loewe, Louis Vuitton and Balmain sent down their own
loosely inspired corset takes. What I've noticed is that,
for the most part, corsets from the 2015 to 2018
Era seemed to be more flexible. So, no elastic and no boning. To put it simply: They were fabric belts
with lacing details. As described in the article: "Today's version of the corset isn't just
about being perceived as sexy and alluring. "The 2017 version is built for modern life, "for weekday subway rides,
brunch marathons, "and probably your Instagram account, too". But the 2019 to 2021 corset revival look definitely relies more on
the very classic boned look. The early adopter Bella Hadid wore a custom
Mugler corseted cat suit in September 2018, and on the Fall/Winter 2019 runway, Dion Lee, Etro
and Saint Laurent incorporated structured core sets. It's kind of hard to pinpoint why
exactly a certain trend comes back. There's multiple reasons,
and I've talked about it a little bit earlier in other videos as well,
the idea of trend cycles and how trends recycle,
like every 15 to 20 years. But I'm gonna break down a couple
of different things that have been happening in the last couple years that
I think added to the corset come back. So, for one, waist training
has gained popularity, mostly thanks to the
Kardashian-Jenner clan. There's some articles out there
about doctors warning against waste training, and I don't know too
much about waste training, so I don't want to go on
the record saying anything, in case you guys like,
listen to me and put yourselves at harm. But what I do know is that
beauty standards are harmful. Of course there are people
who are naturally hourglass, naturally curvaceous
in all the "right places", but a lot of people are also not that. And it is just ridiculous to expect women
to just be able to hop onto these trends when it's their literal bodies
that they are genetically given. And it really sucks to think about how a lot of
garments only become trends in the first place because they emphasize
the "new trendy body shape". For instance,
in the late 90s and early 2000s, the very thin look was in and low rise jeans definitely became a trend with
this model thin body in mind. I cannot tell you how many times
I heard the term "muffin top" and how insecure it
made so many people feel, especially so many girls feel. And, if you don't know
what a muffin top is, it's basically just like,
the fat that kind of bulges over. Your waistband. And it was mostly just made
apparent by low-rise jeans. So, I don't think corsets are oppressive
to non-curvy women the way that low-rise pants repressive
to women over a size two, because, in theory, everyone
can wear a corset right. Like, to achieve a more
proportionally thin waist. But, that's also the whole point: Corsets create a small waisted look,
which is the fashionable body type right now! On a less negative note,
another thing is just that we, as a Western society,
are way more sexually liberated now than we've ever been before. And some elements of club wear
and fetish wear are definitely more accepted as they wear, depending of course where you live. Let me tell you, in New York City,
I do not bat one eyelash if I see someone walking around wearing a satin corset, or a leather harness, or a leather o-ring choker... And if you don't live in a big city,
like, if you live in a small town, you don't really see people
dressed like that outside, I'm sure you've seen some
people on Instagram or Twitter wearing sex worker
inspired fashion. Another reason for the corset revival is
thanks to the different youth aesthetics, particularly cottagecore
and regency core. These aesthetics derive inspiration
from historical silhouettes in general. Cottagecore, which I
mentioned a little bit earlier, has kind of existed since Marie
Antoinette started wearing gold dresses, but as a term, I believe its
origin traces back to 2017, and then it only grew
in popularity in 2019. Hallie Spradlin, accessories
director at Fashion Snoops, talks a little about her theory of
how cottagecore grew in popularity and I pretty much agree with it. She says: "When things feel chaotic and out of control, "people tend to revert back
to comfort and familiarity, "taking stock of the things that are important
and deemed essential to their well-being. "Though cottagecore started
sprouting before the pandemic "because of eco-anxiety and other
distressing societal factors, "it feels especially relevant and
comforting now to dream of retreating "to a cottage in an overgrown forest, "perhaps with a deer or a magical
fairy as a friendly neighbor". So, my cottagecore inspired style
was definitely more in 2019, than in 2020,
but I will say that in 2020, when I had moved back home with
my mom because of the pandemic, I found a lot of comfort in watching
TikTok about gardening and bread making... I definitely use these TikToks
and these YouTube videos around these subjects as coping mechanisms for
dealing with my, now, very slow lifestyle. And I was also on social media a lot,
because I was quarantining, so I wasn't seeing anyone
and I only had like, my mom and my brother and I just craved
so much social interaction. And I felt like social media was the
only way to fill that kind of emptiness, but it's also a double-edged sword,
because social media is also SO draining. And I think technology
itself can be super draining. And I was hating it as well. Like, I would look at my screen time
and be like, "oh, you spent 15 hours
on your phone today", and I'd be like, "that's horrific!" So, I developed this love-hate, this very fervent love-hate
relationship with technology. I already had it, but it just got so much worse
over the pandemic. So I think fantasizing that you're this
beautiful nymph living in a remote village, growing your own strawberries,
singing to your cows, instead of the reality,
which is, if you were like me, an unemployed person
who moved back home with their parents and is staring at the blue light of their
phone screen till 3 a.m. every night... Yeah, I don't think it's too bizarre
of an escapist fantasy! As a side note, I'm just explaining
why I think the aesthetic took off and I have definitely also
read a lot of criticisms that some people have towards cottagecore and I think that's all valid,
for instance. A lot of the criticisms talk about
how cottagecore hyper-romanticizes rural life and farm labor,
as well as settler colonialism. Look, there's definitely a difference between
fantasizing about living among the trees and forming a connection with nature
and being isolated and happy; and the other hand,
which is... Fully believing city life is regressive and that
people who "choose" to live there are beneath you, because, in reality, a lot of people in cities
don't necessarily choose to live there. In an article called
"Cottagecore, colonialism and the far-right", Claire Ollivain writes about
how the aesthetic is, quote: "A projection of the urban and carries
with it the colonial assumption "that land is 'up for grabs'. "An aesthetic that promotes a life of
self-sufficiency in rejection of the city "carries with the danger of
encroaching on Indigenous country "when Traditional Owners aren't consulted". Another very disturbing example is how nazis
created propaganda that circulated around creating a pastoral, idyllic, aryan community. Just to reiterate: It's fine. If you like cottagecore,
that's not the point of what I'm trying to say. But I will say that we need to be cognizant of
the historical precedence behind these aesthetics and be careful of the way
we phrase our rural idealism, so that it doesn't go into eco-fascist territory. Also, there needs to be more
inclusion of black and brown people in this predominantly white aesthetic, because it's really not a good look otherwise, considering the history of pastoral
fantasies and its ties to white supremacy. Back when I was really into the style, my favorite clothing staples were corsets, Austrian blouses, prairie skirts and bonnets. I feel like the look I was really going
for was the 18th Century milkmaid. And I think that was the wavelength a lot
of cottagecore people were on as well. I would say that cottagecore as
corsets were unique in that they, generally, had front lacing details; were made of organic fabrics,
like linen or cotton; and, if they had prints on them,
the prints were softer and feminine, like Toile De Jouy--
Do not know if I pronounced that right. Floral print or tapestry prints. The front lacing detail is especially cute to me, because, back in the days
of corsets in the States, working women would wear front lacing bodices, because to have a maid
lace you up from the back was a luxury and they were working. They couldn't afford that. They were the maids. And because cottagecore is definitely
romanticizing a peasant lifestyle, it's just a very happy coincidence. And, as far as regency core goes,
that aesthetic gained popularity in the past couple months,
so it's relatively new and it's mostly thanks to period
drama shows like 'Bridgerton'. According to the list report, in the same time frame that 'Bridgerton' aired, Google searches went up 123% for corsets, 49% for pearl and feather headbands, 23% for long gloves and 93% for empire line dresses. The most sought after pieces are: Head pieces by Simone Rocha
and magnetic midnight; corsets by Rosario and Dion Lee; and dresses by
Brock collection and Erdem. Similarly, on Ebay, searches
for corsets went up 39%, puff sleeve dresses went up 26% and crystal earrings went up 34%. The spike in regencycore isn't
only because of 'Bridgerton'. I think, once again,
because of the pandemic, a lot of people are fantasizing
about living a very different lifestyle. And, you know, because being a
pandemic means being stuck at home-- Well, it should mean
"being stuck at home", a lot of people didn't get
dressed up for an entire year, they just stayed in their pajamas all year. And for some people that's
great because comfort is fun, but for other people, I think,
it definitely led to a sense of longing, in a similar way with how
women in the post-war Era wanted a hyper feminine look,
like the Dior new look, because they were just sick of wearing
utilitarian garments all the time. So, I think that totally makes sense
and I think that's also why regencycore and princesscore
and royalcore, which all fall under the same umbrella,
has really taken shape lately. The corsets worn in the
Regency Era were softer and cropped to accommodate the empire line silhouette, but on Tik Tok, for instance,
the dubbed 'Bridgerton' corset, which is a corset that Tik Tokers
were buying in mass off of Amazon, actually takes more reference
from Victorian Era corsets. Am I surprised? Not really, because 'Bridgerton'
was historically inaccurate, anyway. Regencycore falls under the
larger umbrella of royalcore, which, in general, includes lots of pearls,
ribbons, lace gloves and ball gowns. So, the aesthetic here is definitely more
Disney princess/bodice ripper literature than... Jane Austen. Because it is still pretty new... No, I do not have any particular
hot takes for this one... Yet. Something else that's been
new in corset development is people's growing
interest in sustainability. I think that's why the 90s Vivienne Westwood
corsets came back in the first place. There's just been a greater
appreciation for and interest in collecting archival fashion and
wearing vintage designer pieces. We also see a lot of smaller sustainable
businesses making corsets on Instagram, on Depop, on Etsy-- I feel like Etsy is really the resource if you're
looking for more historical reproduction corsets. There's also like, stays, transitional corsets. Really, any kind of corset someone
has probably made it on Etsy, and then on Depop and Instagram, that's kind of where you can find a lot
more modern takes on the corset, where the designers put in
a bit more personal flair that's not historically accurate,
but still very cute. I also really love how a lot of these
corset makers make custom sized corsets, so, usually, if you take
your measurements properly, they are designed to fit you better
than if you had just gotten one from Shein, or something. I said in my previous video that I think corsets
are kind of at the tail end of their trendiness, just for this go around, that's not because
I don't like corsets anymore, it's just the inevitable truth of
trend cycles in the fashion industry. Unfortunately, when too many
people are wearing one thing, the "fashion elite" gravitate towards
something new and different that less people are wearing
and then everyone follows, and then they get tired of
and go to something else, so... It's kind of inevitable! But it'll come back,
the corset will come back. Thank you so much
for watching, everyone. This is the end of the video. I feel like I went on some tangents, I rambled a lot more than
I had expected for this video, but I hope you learned something. I hope you had fun. Let me know in the comments: What you think of the corset trend? Whether you hate it?
Whether you love it? Whether you could not care less? And, also, let me know if
there's anything that I got wrong, because sometimes
I do get things wrong. I'm open to dialogue and conversation. I definitely tried to condense a chunk
of history into a relatively short amount of time, so there's things that
I glossed over for sure, and things that I probably
could have phrased a lot better. But, yeah! Thank you so much for watching and I hope you have a
lovely rest of your day. Bye!
I for one am excited that corsets are coming back. What with the gendering of clothing dropping out of fashion thay makes the corset now socially acceptable for a man to wear, better still at this point it would make for a bold political statement.
And as a man in my thirties let me tell you I hope to take full advantage of this.