Let's get back to the corsets!
I'm never done talking about corsets Corsetry is something that comes back in the round every single time
I sit in front of the camera just because it's a controversial topic people like it, I like it
Uh, let's jump into it - corsets movie corsets
Have you ever watched a movie and been like that does not look right?
Ever since I was interested in fashion history and history of fashion
I can't watch movies anymore because because anytime something inaccurate happens i'm like nahhh
And apparently corsets are something that are really hard to get right
so a lot of the time I watch a movie and
All of the costumes are stunning and then it comes to the underwear and for some reason costume designers or the directors
Are like you know what?
Let's make it what we want it to be not what the period dictates
so today I thought i'm gonna rate movie corsets on a scale of
one
to an actual victorian corset
for the record i'm going to talk about
corsetry in movies rather than tv
and for the sake of this video i'm going to refer to 18th century and earlier stays or pairs of bodies as corsets
because it just makes sense
Like i'm not going to do a separate stay video because no one's going to click the title because they won't know what it means so
I couldn't - for it for some reason I couldn't remember any movie
with a corset in it. Like I only got like two so I asked you guys on instagram some of you helped out
Most of you appointed pirates of the caribbean which was not super helpful. Uh
Some of you pointed titanic and that was 99% of the answers
So thank you for real some of you suggested some movies that I didn't think about. So thank you for that. So
Let's let's start roasting people's work
So i'm going to start off with the ultimate corset scene
Which is the the corset tightening scene in gone with the wind and there is also the scene where they're going to nap
In their corsets because apparently that's what every victorian young woman did back then
So gone with the wind corsets are kind of the reflection of what the actual costumes are, which is a modernized
1930s 1940s version of 1860s fashion at that time. They weren't really going for like historical accuracy
They were going for the look which is why a lot of the cuts pattern seams are placed the way they would be in
1940s clothing and similarly
The corsets reflect the corsetry fashion at the time while women did not wear corsets on a daily basis
They definitely they wear them for like fashion photo shoots or under
The structured gowns of the time so the corsets sort of reflect that the main
Characteristic of a corset like that is that it's kind of conical in a way
There is this hourglass type shape when you look at this size and contrary to a victorian corset
Which would be more smooth the lines would be kind of flowing instead of being like super geometrical
So this is how you can tell the corset is not super accurate because it doesn't follow the original line
so the gone with the wind corset i'm still glad they showed corsetry but
Hey
I think most of them are under bust which were not fashionable at the time 1860s corsets were mostly
Mid-bust so they would push your boobs up and they would kind of cut them in half. Whereas the gone with the wind corsets
Look like underbust to me, which is not super period appropriate they would get a six but because the tight lacing scene
Is so unknowingly inaccurate and it has stained people's memory
And perception of corsets so much i'm gonna give it a five the scene where Hattie McDaniel is tight lacing Vivian
Vivian Lee is just inaccurate like you wouldn't have to do it like that
I don't know where the trope came from because a lot of these movie scenes that i'm gonna talk about
Feature this trope where a lady is being tight laced by her mate or a friend
And they always do it the wrong way in the movies. They push it like backwards. It doesn't do anything
It doesn't tighten the corset
it just kind of pushes the person back so I have no idea why they keep doing this because it honestly,
My kitty is currently probably having a mental breakdown from the looks of it. Are you ok?
so a five. It's a five. five corsets out of ten. Ana Diaz
What in the Ana Diaz is going on?
There's this scene where where the train is coming by the window
there is this scene where we see one of the main characters undressed and
I don't know what the ever loving heck is going on, but that's not an 18th century corset
Why the hell does she have cups in in like
mid or late 18th century stays, even if it was supposed to be like transitional stays of
1780s 1790s. It would not look like that. Believe me when it comes to historical accuracy. This one is
Unarguably one of the worst. I'm gonna have to close the window. One of the worst corsets
slash stays
in movie history, and the saddest thing is that the costumes in this movie got an oscar, so :(
Titanic there is a corset lacing scene in titanic
Of course
It has to be a corset lacing scene because that's the only context that we see corsets in it's not bad
The length and the cut and the shape is okay
I'm a little hesitant about giving it higher than a seven because the cups seem off to me like they're really pretty high
And the overall shape is not what you see on photographs
which
To me means that it's been slightly modernized. But again, it's quite a good corset. It's the right length
It's right for the period which is really important as well. So
I'd give it a solid seven - seven corsets
Jane Eyre
my personal favorite i'm talking about a
2013 one whenever i'm talking about something that that has been adapted like 10 times
I'm usually talking about the newest version because the chances that you guys have seen it are higher if it's new as sad as it sounds
So Jane Eyre from 2013
one of my favorite period dramas costume wise and otherwise
There's a short snippet of corset when she gets out of her wedding dress and she's in her room
and you can see that it's sort of this transitional period between
The regency style stays and actual solid bone corsets of the 1840s 1850s
It was kind of a messy time corset wise i'd say it could be more rusty like it seems brand new
But that's just picking on stuff i'd give it a solid 8 and that's not because that's one of my favorite movies
another suggestion that a lot of you made as I mentioned was the pirates of the caribbean and the famous corset
Fainting scene. I actually forgot that there is also the scene where she's obviously being laced in a corset
And it's of course too tight for her. So the stains themselves look okay to me
They are being laced in a spiral way
Which is also period appropriate so that's good its the way they're portrayed that it worries me a little bit
but again i'm writing corsets not movies or not the context that they were placed in so corset-wise i'd say
It's a beautiful specimen. It could be too late for the period because she's wearing
pre-1770s gowns and the
Boning on the corset suggests. It's like 1770s or later. So for this minor
Misdating or like or like anachronism? I would give it an 8 out of ten. I don't know
Yeah, it seems right speaking of Kira Knightley. Um, Anna Karenina featured some nice corsets
There was a yellow corset. That is okay
The shape isn't fantastic, but it features those bust gores that seem nice and I think hip gores as well
But overall it could be better
There was also a beige corset that she was wearing while she was being dressed
And something odd is happening with the lacing like the lacing in a well-made corset fitted to your body should be parallel
If it's wider at the bottom, it means the corset is too small at the bottom
So that's what's happening here
and i'm not sure if it hasn't been laced properly or if the
actress's measurements changed or something, but something went off here, but like the overall shapes and
patterns of the corsets are nice so I would give them like
A seven out of ten perhaps because like they're well made and the design is great
But the actual shape of the corset is not what I would expect from
1870s corsetry. Phantom of the Opera there are several corset appearing in that movie and i'm sorry to say none of them
Is correct they look kind of 2000s to me which is when the film was made
So it absolutely makes sense, but they just look really modern
Most of them don't even feature a front busk which was kind of like canon
At the time the shape of the corsets has nothing to do with what women wore back
Then the fabric is kind of off and apart from the fact that they used corsets
Which I guess is a positive the movie is set in
1870
so
So I say accuracy wise it's like a
four
Because it's a corset and it fits her
Stays in Marie Antoinette are pretty much. Okay, I guess they could be more
Detailed like sometimes you see a pair of stays that are just so crispy like the boning channels are tiny
The seams are tiny. The stitches are tiny. The bias tape is tiny like everything you see
Looks like it could have been made in 18th century with
Marie Antoinette stays. I feel like I don't get that feeling for some reason
not to mention that some of the dresses seem to have this really odd silhouette where the stays are kind of longer than
They're supposed to be I don't know. There's just something a bit off. So I wouldn't say they're like perfect
But they're I guess they're like a solid seven the stays in Dangerous Liaisons
get an extra point for pushing the boobs properly because like a lot of these actresses that i've mentioned before
the stays are just like keeping stuff in place whereas dangerous Liaisons
The boobs are like they're just pushed just where they're supposed to be
Which is why they get an extra point so they would get an eight, I guess? Young Victoria happens again at this weird
transitional period between stays and
corsetry and I think it has it right like it sticks to stays which were actually popular until like
1850s so
this is right for the period the stays that were worn were not usually different colors like most of the time they were like
white off-white beige
They weren't like heavily decorated unlike corsetslately sometimes were so
I guess it's period appropriate maybe for Queen Victoria. You would expect the underwear to be more
Lavish but then I don't think we have seen queen victoria's underwear. So it fits her nicely
it gives her a nice silhouette i'd say it's an 8 mainly because
It's not super enough. That's
innovative now meet me in san luis is a
1944 I think movie that is set in edwardian era and
I must admit that corsetry is a little bit better than gone with the wind mainly because of all the fluffy decoration and
Lace and it just seems more edwardian appropriate than the supposedly victorian
Corsets of the gone with the wind, but of course
The only context that they appear in is being super tight laced and pushed back by a friend or sister
I can't remember while wearing a corset. So the shape is not super edwardian again
it's closer to what 1940s silhouette was like which is more conical in contrast to like the
more soft lines of an edwardian corsetry for example the hips edwardian corsets
Accentuated hips a lot
And they give them this soft sort of curvy appeal. Whereas the corsets in mick means and luis are just there
They're not doing anything to the hips
They're not doing anything to the to the bust they're mostly there to cinch the waist in
And they're also not doing that greatly. So I think aesthetically speaking
They're quite nice
which is why I give them like a seven but not
Anything more than that mainly because they don't serve the purpose like they're not doing much. There are several corsets in the prestige
none of them has anything to do with victorian or edwardian corsets while the costuming in the movie is
Actually, not that bad the person that wears corsets the most in that movie, which is scarlett
Johansson's character. I can remember her name. She is supposed to be like the show girl and I think it's a really
a missed opportunity of showing off the actual show girl look of like
Late 19th century because it was a look like it's just so cool. You know, you had those short skirts and
stockings
and
actual cool
Showy flashy corsets
I don't know. It's just a lot to work with and instead they decided to go for like a modernized version of that
Which is not great. So instead they had her looking kind of like your typical
Saloon girl without a chimes underneath because why would you protect your body against the boning or lacing?
and then she's not wearing skirts or anything just sort of like drapey bustle like
Material which again gives those like saloon girl vibes and she's also wearing like see-through stockings
which didn't exist at the time none of the corsets does its job none of it looks period
I think some of them feature cups for her bust which again
why I was kind of disappointed because I remember watching it going like oh
We have a showgirl actress character a lot of outfits at the time
Really rocked and looks super cool and it's a chance for some really nice underwear peek
Whereas they just went for this look and I was like wow another default sexy girl costume. I'm, sorry the prestige
that's gonna be like
a 4. An interesting example, of course, the tree is featured in the piano by jane campion again
It's kind of a transitional period like hair hair and accessories and the dress suggests
It's sort of 1850s, but then she's also wearing a cage crinoline which was only patented in
1856 so overall it gives off this like
1850s vibes which is when the corset restarted being
The thing like before that they they were there were different types of stays etc
And they were much softer
But around 1840s 1850s things started changing shifting a lot more steel and whale bones started being featured in those
Types of stay slash corsets so she is i'm not sure about other courses in the movie, but I have this picture
of her in a striped core set, which I think looks super cool because that was also the time when people started
experimenting with like different fabrics and patterns and um colors
Especially there's a lot of vibrant vibrant colored corsets in 1850s
so I think that
Kind of shows it off a little bit
like the corset doesn't always have to be white to pass as an authentic victorian corset and
It fits with the overall like goth appeal of the movie, which is mostly like she's always wearing black
It's all gloomy and wet, even though the shape of it is not super great. Like the bust is super flat
I don't know why but still it kind of like a lot of the photographs from the era feature
Ladies busts being completely like flattened down to fit the dress
So I guess that's the look that we're going for and in that case it is historically accurate. So i'm gonna give it like
An eight and a half. So the last movie I wanted to address is the picnic at hanging rock
Which is a cool movie
It's a great movie and I don't think any remake is gonna get the atmosphere right as as it did in 1970s
But again, imagine what kind of scene are we getting in a movie about girls girls in corset lacing girls in corsets?
So again, we have this like super tight and you can't breathe in corset retro and all of the corsets are white
Which I think is
Accurate but is it that likely that a group of girls have?
Corsets in the very same shade of white some of them would obviously be like off-white. Some of them would probably be less
new looking than the others and here we just
I feel like we have a set of identical corsets and also the shape is not doing much. It's it's an
S6. So there's a lot of other films that feature corsets that I can't remember right now or I won't talk about because they're not
Um movies, they're just tv shows or something
Mainly my problem with all of the corsetry in the movies is that it's not shaping the body enough
and i'm not saying like oh
So we have to like literally cinch the waist of the actress so much that she can't breathe and make her look good. No
i'm
just saying if modern corset makers can make you a core set that gives you the silhouette than the shade and
It fits you and it's not super tight. That means you can do it as well
There is a lot of things you can do there is padding
There is specific cuts
that actually shape your body and I feel like the corsets made in the movies are not actually made by corset makers they
Are made by costumers and maybe that's why they're not like super
Curvy most of the time the actresses just look like they're wearing sort of tubes and that's not what corsets did,
they actually
Gave you that shade that silhouette we're all looking for when when we're watching period dramas
Like we don't want people to look modern. We just want to see you know, something that we can't see in our day-to-day lives
So if costume designers could do that, that would be great
I think none of the examples I mentioned today actually gave the actresses the right silhouette
Even the ones that were like eight and a half or nine
Most of them looked good were well made, but they didn't
Achieve what they were supposed to achieve and I think that tells you something about how fast the film industry works
and how little time there is for actual fittings and stuff because
You can't spend months on altering the corset to fit your actress
So she looks like a victorian godess like I get that that being said I would watch the hell out of that
If you know any examples of corsetry and movies done, right?
Please let me know because I I can't think of anything from the top of my head
But i'm pretty sure at least a couple of times in my life. I watched something and I was like she looks like
A fashion plate. She looks exactly like she's supposed to look. So let me know and see you