Tyranny and beauty of the corset: history of an oppression that returns with new airs

alex jover

It looks prehistoric, something from the past. But the corset has survived all the social and industrial changes since its appearance in the 16th century. An invisible and oppressive weapon, designed by a patriarchal system that sought to shape the female body and adapt it to a canon that, in a certain way, is still valid today: reduce the waist, widen the hips, stretch, outline and insinuate. Its return this spring/summer season, the result of the success of period series such as Bridgerton, forces us to review the symbology of the piece, now visible when used as an outer body, a belt or even in dresses.

Can the quintessential garment of gender oppression be a symbol of freedom and feminism today? Silvia Ventosa, historian and curator of the exhibition The Dressed Body. Silhouettes and Fashion (1550-2015), which is permanently housed in the Museu del Disseny (Barcelona), is skeptical but optimistic. “It is more an instrument of commercial brands than a change of social concept regarding the corset, although it is true that now women can decide to wear it or not”, she affirms. Only, she adds, "creating critical thinking through historical knowledge of the garment" could it become a feminist claim.

From the 16th to the 19th century

How the corset shapes the female body to bring it closer to the ideal canon

The first gossips appeared from the 16th century but it was not until 1800 that the term for this piece changed and the word corset began to be coined. Its purpose, however, has always been the same: "to shape the figure of women to bring it closer to the canons of beauty of each era," explains the historian.

Thus, while corsets from the 16th and 17th centuries were designed with breast panels for the torso that sought to flatten the figure, those from the 18th century changed shape and were increasingly assimilated to a funnel to reduce the waist as much as possible and achieve the desired hourglass silhouette. With the arrival of the 19th century, the central part of the corsets went from being made with natural vegetable reeds to pieces of steel and can be tied at the front and at the back, a crucial detail according to the historian because it implies that for the first time women can dress themselves .

"Corsets began to be used by girls before they had menstruation", adds Ventosa and assures that only in this way was it possible to completely shape the body and prevent the waist from growing. Obviously, this oppression of the body had serious health consequences. Internal bleeding, digestion problems due to the contraction of the organs, breathing difficulties and dizziness are some of the health problems that prolonged use of the corset has been shown to cause over time.

There are many famous dressmakers who tried to free women from the rods. Chanel, Paul Peirot or Mariano Fortuny achieved it in the 1920s. But with its irrepressible return after the Second World War - due to the need to recover that idea of ​​femininity and increase the birth rate - many designers embarked on redesigning it. Andrés Sardá in Spain and Ada Massoti in Italy, with La Perla, revolutionized it in the 1960s in a first step towards turning it into a liberator.

The introduction of new elastic fabrics such as elastane and softer materials for splints changed the production and style of corsets. "Ada began to take advantage of technological advances and by combining them with her impeccable corsetry skills, she introduced new styles, colors and fabric blends. The evolution of these materials and fabrics has made today's corsets not only beautiful, but also comfortable and comfortable. support," explains Monica Evangelisti, director of global training at La Perla.

iconic garments

Jean Paul Gaultier for Madonna and Issey Miyake for Grace Jones made it an artistic element

For Evangelisti, “being a feminist also means being free to wear whatever makes you feel good. When Ada Massoti founded the brand in 1954, she saw lingerie as a vehicle of empowerment, something women could enjoy wearing.” Forty years later, Hussain Chalaiam, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen would arrive to further strip the corset of its stigma and turn it into an artistic element.

Then, in the eighties, a decade of experimentation in lingerie begins, a kind of uncovering. "Before the '80s, lingerie was primarily used as a functional tool, created primarily in neutral colors and designed to be concealed," reveals Evangelisti. It was then, adds the La Perla professional, when the line between underwear and outerwear blurred for the first time and women gave lingerie "an important role in their own empowerment and self-expression."

The clearest example is found in Paul Gaultier's iconic corset for Madonna and a few years earlier in Grace Jones's, signed by Issey Miyake. "The pioneer was Vivienne Westwood and hers was followed by her heir, Gautier. They sought to make visible how the female body was structured as a social critique and at the same time as an element of embellishment, pure and geometric lines," he says. Sucker. Because the corset will always move between two waters. Tool of oppression and femininity in equal parts. A garment in tension between seduction and motherhood. A historically patriarchal symbol that today can become feminist.

The corset of the 21st century adapts to the body

Curiosities of the time and new silhouettes

The construction of this garment has changed over the decades. The temples, formerly made with whalebones -hence the technical name with which they are known today, 'whales'- are now designed with more comfortable materials or even in many cases they disappear and their shape is recreated through simple seams on the sides. The compression to which the waist was subjected to reach the idyllic 57cm, as confirmed by the Catalan historian, caused serious medical problems at the time. Such was the frequency of fainting spells that the French nobility of the 18th century invented an armchair to recline in without removing the “corseted armor” and voluminous skirt. The town baptized it as the “fainting chair” but today it is known as the long chassis and is found in most modern living rooms.

The way of wearing them has also evolved, the invisible and oppressive garment has been renewed to be a structured body in Dior dresses or a belt to mark Loewe's characteristic fit & flare silhouette, the popular Obi belt. In this sense, La Perla also responds to the "latest era of empowerment and the growing demand from customers", in the words of Evangelisti, by launching a new capsule collection called La Perla Archive, in which it reinterprets the iconic pieces of the 80s from the firm and gives them a new space today.