Hello Friends,
Sarah Bendall has hand-sewn many corsets from 400-year-old
patterns and made reconstructions of historical clothing that has survived. She
wore the corsets she made and observed other women wearing them for her lessons
in the wearing. Sarah came to understand how corsets impacted women. Based on
her research, she says,
“There are very few
sources from the 16th and 17th centuries where women
themselves describe what it was like to wear corsets and hooped skirts at the
time.”
Traditional writing about corsets is missing the
lived experiences of these women and myths persist up to modern times.
Historically, it seems the people who wrote
negatively about women’s corsets were mostly not corset wearers themselves. Nor
would they have a need or a social obligation to wear a corset. But in past
centuries, some men did wear corsets, discreetly, and for the same reason as
women—fashion. Men also wore corsets for medical purposes such as a weakened
back caused by Tuberculosis. The corset has endured over the years for men as
well as women. Some modern men wear underbust corsets to flatter their
masculine shape.
Corsets were once popular among women and not just
for vanity or beauty reasons. Read more about Sarah’s corset research in the
article here.
stay well,
Photo Credit: Nancy K on Unsplash.com
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