- [Hamish] Comfort is not a word
one might associate with the corset,
and yet, this archaic undergarment
still dominates high fashion, street style,
and even the cover of Vogue.
So just how did the corset
make its way from the waist of Marie Antoinette
for the modern cultural zeitgeist?
I'm Hamish Bowles, Vogue's global editor-at-large,
and I'm here to tell you everything you need to know
about the corset.
Legend has it that the introduction,
or rather, mandate, of corset wearing,
came from Catherine de' Medici,
who allegedly brought metal corsets from Italy to France
in the 16th century.
Though costume historians believed
corsets were initially used to support the spine,
the 17th century found women,
and some men of a certain class and distinction,
wearing them for well, fashion.
Soon, they became the status quo, and by the 1830s,
the hourglass silhouette for fashionable women,
and some dandified men,
was all the rage in Europe and America.
Way before the era of the Kardashian waist trainer,
these ladies were in search of an 18-inch waist.
With the help of whalebone stays, tight lacing, and padding,
it was a one size fits all solution
to creating the perfect figure.
Of course, the corset had its critics.
By the late 19th century,
dress reformers argued that corsets
were not only morally evil,
but dangerous to women's health.
Some doctors blame the corset's tightness
for causing damage to internal organs.
No wonder that most Victorian women
were not smiling in their portraits.
But pain wasn't enough to stop the corset on its course.
The first decade of the 20th century
championed the S-curve or health corset,
which was lightly-boned, unboned, or stiffened with chord.
In other words, slightly less painful.
It forced the torso forward
while jutting the woman's hips and bottom out behind her.
And even more shapes came into the fold
in the '10s and the 1920s.
Paris's king of fashion, Paul Poiret, for example,
rejected the era's S curve.
The invention of elastic too
allowed for a new tubular corset,
which made more sense for the loose flowing dresses
of the flapper era.
But as with every trend,
the comfortable cake of the 1920s proved temporary,
as the allure of the classic hourglass silhouette
became irresistible for designers
in the Pre- and Post-World War II era.
Mainbocher's late 1930s wasp waist design
immortalized in photographer Horst P. Horst's iconic image,
and Christian Dior's structured new look of 1947,
once again constricted and reshaped women's bodies,
and redefined the fashion silhouette.
The corset took a backseat
to modern waist-shifting practices
like diet, exercise, and surgery in the '60s and '70s.
It was from here that the use of the corset in fashion
went from practical to purely aesthetic.
Vivienne Westwood's use of the corset
was evocative of punk.
Here, the corset was used to empower women
rather than constrain them.
And Dolce & Gabbana's debut corset dress in 1989
updated the undergarment for a modern take on femininity,
which went on to define the brand for years to come.
Jean Paul Gaultier also took up the corset
in his early '80s collections,
but his most famous iteration came in 1990,
designed for Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour.
The piece ignored soft womanly curves,
and instead opted for jagged, spiky lines.
This was a clear departure and defiance
from the patriarchal demands of its forebears
and a nod to the BDSM community,
and to Jean Paul's grandmother and childhood Teddy bear.
Soon, every designer, from Christian Lacroix,
Thierry Mugler, and Alexander McQueen
wanted a corset of their own.
And they knew just the man for the job: Mr. Pearl,
the king of corsetry.
It was Mr. Pearl, after all, whose controversial corset
got Kim Kardashian in her head-turning Thierry Mugler gown
at the 2019 MET Gala.
Today, the corset is a piece
that refuses to remain backstage.
Well, under the garment.
Kendall Jenner, Dua Lipa, and Bella Hadid
have embraced their own as streetwear,
pairing them with baggy jeans and trainers,
and even over t-shirts.
They've taken this 17th century relic
and turned it into a casual jam.
The avant-garde interpretations of Tomo Koizumi,
Christopher John Rogers, and Puppets & Puppets too,
showcase that the corset of 2021
is less a stricture and more a playful addition
to the modern wardrobe,
while the ladies of Bridgerton
and the tight lacing trends that followed on TikTok
expand the humorous take on the garment.
So, where will the corset go next?
Will it regress
into an uncomfortably binding piece of history,
once meant to similarly shape all wearers?
Or will it continue to evolve?
Spanks and skims
have replaced the need for corsetry's painful practices
and favor diversified sizing.
If there's anything we've learned
throughout the corset's history,
it's that there's no need to be so uptight.
[gentle classical music]
[bell dinging]