Chapter I: Preface

The subject which we have here treated is a sort of figurative battle-field, where fierce contests have for ages been from time to time waged; and, notwithstanding the determined assaults of the attacking hosts, the contention and its cause remain pretty much as they were at the commencement of the war. We in the matter remain strictly neutral, merely performing the part of the public's "own correspondent," making it our duty to gather together such extracts from despatches, both ancient and modern, as may prove interesting or important, to take note of the vicissitudes of war, mark its various phases, and, in fine, to do our best to lay clearly before our readers the historical facts--experiences and arguments--relating to the much-discussed "_Corset question_."

As most of our readers are aware, the leading journals especially intended for the perusal of ladies have been for many years the media for the exchange of a vast number of letters and papers touching the use of the Corset. The questions relating to the history of this apparently indispensable article of ladies' attire, its construction, application, and influence on the figure have become so numerous of late that we have thought, by embodying all that we can glean and garner relating to Corsets, their wearers, and the various costumes worn by ladies at different periods, arranging the subject-matter in its due order as to dates, and at the same time availing ourselves of careful illustration when needed, that an interesting volume would result.

No one, we apprehend, would be likely to deny that, to enable the fairer portion of the civilised human race to follow the time-honoured custom of presenting to the eye the waist in its most slender proportions, the Corset in some form must be had recourse to. Our information will show how ancient and almost universal its use has been, and there is no reason to anticipate that its aid will ever be dispensed with so long as an elegant and attractive figure is an object worth achieving.

Such being the case, it becomes a matter of considerable importance to discover by what means the desirable end can be acquired without injury to the health of those whose forms are being restrained and moulded into proportions generally accepted as graceful, by the use and influence of the Corset. It will be our duty to lay before the reader the strictures of authors, ancient and modern, on this article of dress, and it will be seen that the animadversions of former writers greatly exceed modern censures, both in number and fierceness of condemnation. This difference probably arises from the fact of Corsets of the most unyielding and stubborn character being universally made use of at the time the severest attacks were made upon them; and there can be no reasonable doubt that much which was written in their condemnation had some truth in it, although accompanied by a vast deal of fanciful exaggeration. It would also be not stating the whole of the case if we omitted here to note that modern authors, who launch sweeping anathemas on the very stays by the aid of which their wives and daughters are made presentable in society, almost invariably quote largely from scribes of ancient date, and say little or nothing, of their own knowledge. On the other hand, it will be seen that those writing in praise of the moderate use of Corsets take their facts, experiences, and grounds of argument from the everyday life and general custom of the present period.

The Crinoline is too closely associated with the Corset and with the mutable modes affected by ladies, from season to season, to be omitted from any volume which treats of Fashion. The same facts, indeed, may be stated of both the Crinoline and the Corset. Both appear to be equally indispensable to the woman of the present period. To make them serve the purposes of increased cleanliness, comfort, and grace, not only without injury to the health, but with positive and admitted advantage to the _physique_--these are the problems to be solved by those whose business it is to minister to the ever-changing taste and fashion of the day.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE CORSET:--Origin. Use amongst Savage Tribes and Ancient
People. Slenderness of Waist esteemed in the East, Ceylon,
Circassia, Crim Tartary, Hindustan, Persia, China, Egypt, Palestine
Pages 9 to 29

CHAPTER II.

The Corset according to Homer, Terentius. The Strophium of Rome,
and the Mitra of Greece. The Peplus. A Roman Toilet, Bath, and
Promenade. General Luxury. Cleopatra's Jewels. Tight-lacing on the
Tiber Pages 30 to 38

CHAPTER III.

Frankish Fashions. The Monks and the Corset. Corsets worn by
Gentlemen as well as Ladies in the Thirteenth Century. The Kirtle.
Small Waists in Scotland. Chaucer on Small Bodies. The Surcoat.
Long Trains. Skirts. Snake-toed Shoes. High-heeled Slippers
Pages 41 to 59

CHAPTER IV.

Bonnets. Headdresses. Costumes in the time of Francis I. Pins in
France and England. Masks in France. Puffed Sleeves. Bernaise
Dress. Marie Stuart. Long Slender Waists. Henry III. of France
"tight-laces." Austrian Joseph prohibits Stays. Catherine de Medici
and Elizabeth of England. Severe form of Corset. Lawn Ruffs.
Starching. Stuffed Hose. Venice Fashions. Elizabeth's False Hair.
Stubs on the Ladies. James I. affects Fashion. Garters and
Shoe-roses. Dagger and Rapier Pages 60 to 91

CHAPTER V.

Louise de Lorraine. Marie de Medici. Distended Skirts. Hair Powder.
Hair _à l'enfant_. Low Dresses. Louis XIV. High Heels. Slender
Waists. Siamese Dress. Charles I. Patches. Elaborate Costumes.
Puritan Modes. Tight-lacing and Strait-lacing under Cromwell.
Augsburg Ladies Pages 92 to 104

CHAPTER VI.

Louis XV. À la Watteau. Barbers. Fashions under Queen Anne.
Diminutive Waists and Enormous Hoop. The Farthingale. The
_Guardian_. Fashions in 1713. Low Dresses. Tight Stays. Short
Skirts. A Lady's Maid's Accomplishments. Gay and Ben Jonson on the
Bodice and Stays Pages 109 to 123

CHAPTER VII.

Stays or Corset. Louis XVI. Dress in 1776. Severe Lacing. Hogarth.
French Revolution. Short Waists. Long Trains. Buchan. Jumpers and
Garibaldis. Figure-training. Backboards and Stocks. Doctors on
Stays. George III. Gentlemen's Stays. The Changes of Fashion. The
term CRINOLINE not new. South Sea Islanders. Madame la
Sante on Crinoline. Starving and Lacing. Anecdote. Wearing the
Corset during sleep. American Belles. Illusion Waists. Medicus
favours moderate tight-lacing. Ladies' Letters on tight-lacing
Pages 124 to 164

CHAPTER VIII.

The Austrian Empress. Viennese Waists. London small-sized Corsets.
Correspondence of _The Queen_ and the _Englishwoman's
Domestic Magazine_. Lady Morton. Figure-training. Corsets for
Young Girls. Early use of well-constructed Corsets. The
Boarding-School and the Corset. Letters in praise of tight-lacing.
Defence of the Crinoline and the Corset. The Venus de Medici.
Fashionably-dressed Statue. Clumsy Figures. Letter from a
Tight-lacer. A Young Baronet. A Family Man Pages 165 to 186

CHAPTER IX.

No elegance without the Corset. Fashion of 1865. Short Waist and
Train of 1867. Tight Corset and Short Waist. A form of French
Corset. Proportions of Figure and Waist. The Point of the Waist.
Older Writers on Stays. Denunciations against Small Waists and High
Heels. Alarming Diseases through High Heels. Female Mortality.
Corset Statistics. Modern and Ancient Corset Pages 189 to 201