Friday, January 20, 2012

The Truth About Corsets

Anyone remotely interested in historical costume has heard horror stories about corsets. Constricting, painful, dangerous... right? 


Maybe not quite so much as we think. Lisa Hix at Collector's Weekly is setting the record straight.


The corset has a bad reputation. And unfairly so, according to Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, who says this undergarment of centuries past is not nearly as evil or confining as modern folks have come to believe.

(Read more)

Corsets may not be quite all that bad, but they're still constricting and uncomfortable. Trust me, we're way better off with our modern day undergarments. In fact, one of my pet peeves about costume fashion is the corset that Emma Frost wears. No way would a woman of that shape wear a corset on a regular basis, and certainly not into battle. It would be entirely too uncomfortable and restricting because it would have to be laced fairly tight to even stay on. On the other hand, it may help explain her constant sarcasm...

1 comment:

Magdalen Aithne Arkright said...

I've long that that the common distrust of corsets was misfounded, and I don't think I'd mind wearing one myself - though perhaps not all the time.